Question Drysuit Heating. Which valves should I get?

[ChrisMBC]

I highly recommend the Ammonite connector, FWIW. There's a couple Canadian stores that stock Ammonite (Benithic does?), but you can also order from Shop4Divers and shipping to Canada isn't an issue. I bought the Ammonite valve after my Santi connector died and I got frustrated trying to replace the E/O cord. It's been solid for a few hundred dives now without the cable ever becoming flaky.

 

[Wibble]

Ya I've read that about the Santi cables.

If both ends have the requisite connections, then I'm better off saving more than a hundred bucks and getting this, no? (Haven't seen any discussion of how good the cables are.)

I quite like the "layer" adapter type which fits between the suit and the inflator valve.

Please note that there's two types of inflators: Sci-tec and Apeks. The Sci-tec has a hole diameter of 34mm; the Apeks is 38mm. You CAN fit a Sci-Tec valve into an Apeks hole but NOT vice versa. Measure across the threads.

And again, I highly recommend the coaxial type E/O cable. I've only recently fitted it to replace yet another Santi cable that broke, and it seems to be much better.

I tested it by hanging the BZ400 heated undersuit up next to the (Santi) drysuit next to the 18AH battery and plugged them all together. The new E/O coaxial cable was cold; the connector from the battery to the suit was warm to touch after 2 hours. The same test with the Santi cable is warm to the touch, i.e. it must be dropping voltage == loosing power compared with the superior coaxial cable -- which has a thicker conductor wire.

Had a couple of hours in a quarry last weekend and had to turn the battery off as it was too warm with the new cable.

If I was buying a new Thermovalve it would be the Ammonite one over the Santi one as they use the coaxial E/O cable.

Other Thermovalves are available: SF, LightMonkey...

 

[Sol]

I quite like the "layer" adapter type which fits between the suit and the inflator valve.

Please note that there's two types of inflators: Sci-tec and Apeks. The Sci-tec has a hole diameter of 34mm; the Apeks is 38mm. You CAN fit a Sci-Tec valve into an Apeks hole but NOT vice versa. Measure across the threads.

And again, I highly recommend the coaxial type E/O cable. I've only recently fitted it to replace yet another Santi cable that broke, and it seems to be much better.

I tested it by hanging the BZ400 heated undersuit up next to the (Santi) drysuit next to the 18AH battery and plugged them all together. The new E/O coaxial cable was cold; the connector from the battery to the suit was warm to touch after 2 hours. The same test with the Santi cable is warm to the touch, i.e. it must be dropping voltage == loosing power compared with the superior coaxial cable -- which has a thicker conductor wire.

Had a couple of hours in a quarry last weekend and had to turn the battery off as it was too warm with the new cable.

If I was buying a new Thermovalve it would be the Ammonite one over the Santi one as they use the coaxial E/O cable.

Other Thermovalves are available: SF, LightMonkey...

Thank you for all this detail, Wibble. I've got an Apeks valve in my drysuit. I was in a quarry last weekend as well, but no heating system. Fun part was, I didn't really start feeling the cold until after the dive when I couldn't get my gloves or my drysuit off without sitting the car for twenty minutes.

I've fastened on the Northern Light heater bulkhead for the moment because unless I'm missing something, it's more or less the same "layer" adapter type as the Santi -- but for like $140 less. That's why my initial reaction upon seeing it was that it seemed too good to be true. I've reached out to the supplier but haven't had a response yet. Do you know anything about it? Does it use the coaxial cable? What about the Light Monkey? Is it relatively easy to reverse-engineer the coaxial cable onto it or the Northern Light? The Ammonite looks like the Cadillac of Thermovalves, but it's priced accordingly and not easy to get.

 

[Bald Wookie]

Thank you for all this detail, Wibble. I've got an Apeks valve in my drysuit. I was in a quarry last weekend as well, but no heating system. Fun part was, I didn't really start feeling the cold until after the dive when I couldn't get my gloves or my drysuit off without sitting the car for twenty minutes.

I've fastened on the Northern Light heater bulkhead for the moment because unless I'm missing something, it's more or less the same "layer" adapter type as the Santi -- but for like $140 less. That's why my initial reaction upon seeing it was that it seemed too good to be true. I've reached out to the supplier but haven't had a response yet. Do you know anything about it? Does it use the coaxial cable? What about the Light Monkey? Is it relatively easy to reverse-engineer the coaxial cable onto it or the Northern Light? The Ammonite looks like the Cadillac of Thermovalves, but it's priced accordingly and not easy to get.

Sorry for the delayed reply.

The Northern Light guy is quite busy at the moment from what I've heard, it also took me some time to get hold of him. Did you email or facebook message him? I got no FB response but eventually got him over email.

I have Apeks valves in my suit so I ordered that bulkhead adaptor and the pushlocks. It shipped with a good E/O cord, and the pushlock connectors, with one of them pre-attached to the bulkhead / E/O cord. It was a simple matter of cutting the old-style Santi connector off my vest and soldering on this new connector (took all of 5 minutes with cutting, trimming back the wires, and soldering). There is no directional current to be careful of so I didn't worry what side I soldered to. If you have a newer style Santi vest it should only require the one side on the E/O cord and no soldering at all.

My setup is an Ammonite battery/canister light setup, bulkhead connector, and older-style santi heated vest. The nice thing with the ammonite battery is being able to switch the light cord for sidemount vs. backmount. So I use the same Can for everything. Plus the heat switch has two settings so I can be warm or boiling. Often I find just having the vest on without any head adds enough warmth for me if I'm just doing a single dive. For deco or multiple dives I will throw it on at the end of each dive. I don't think I've really ever turned it on for more than 15 - 20 minutes. Just enough to ascend, do deco, and get on the boat.

 

[Sol]

Sorry for the delayed reply.

The Northern Light guy is quite busy at the moment from what I've heard, it also took me some time to get hold of him. Did you email or facebook message him? I got no FB response but eventually got him over email.

I have Apeks valves in my suit so I ordered that bulkhead adaptor and the pushlocks. It shipped with a good E/O cord, and the pushlock connectors, with one of them pre-attached to the bulkhead / E/O cord. It was a simple matter of cutting the old-style Santi connector off my vest and soldering on this new connector (took all of 5 minutes with cutting, trimming back the wires, and soldering). There is no directional current to be careful of so I didn't worry what side I soldered to. If you have a newer style Santi vest it should only require the one side on the E/O cord and no soldering at all.

My setup is an Ammonite battery/canister light setup, bulkhead connector, and older-style santi heated vest. The nice thing with the ammonite battery is being able to switch the light cord for sidemount vs. backmount. So I use the same Can for everything. Plus the heat switch has two settings so I can be warm or boiling. Often I find just having the vest on without any head adds enough warmth for me if I'm just doing a single dive. For deco or multiple dives I will throw it on at the end of each dive. I don't think I've really ever turned it on for more than 15 - 20 minutes. Just enough to ascend, do deco, and get on the boat.

Email. Haven't heard back yet. Was told he's one guy in B.C. so it makes sense that he'd be quite busy.

So if I'm reading right, you're using a Santi vest and you just had to switch the pushlock connector on that? And am I right in reading that you got the Ammonite heater bulkhead and that it came with a robust coaxial E/O cable to attach to your external battery? Or are you using a Northern Light bulkhead connector?

 

[Bald Wookie]

Email. Haven't heard back yet. Was told he's one guy in B.C. so it makes sense that he'd be quite busy.

So if I'm reading right, you're using a Santi vest and you just had to switch the pushlock connector on that? And am I right in reading that you got the Ammonite heater bulkhead and that it came with a robust coaxial E/O cable to attach to your external battery? Or are you using a Northern Light bulkhead connector?

Correct on the Santi vest. Just cut off the old connector (it was a v1 vest) and soldered the new one on.

Have the NL bulkhead. Came with E/O cord and the guy pre-soldered on the connector to the vest for me.

I have the ammonite canister. It’s great I like it.

Can take photos if you’d like

 

[Sol]

Correct on the Santi vest. Just cut off the old connector (it was a v1 vest) and soldered the new one on.

Have the NL bulkhead. Came with E/O cord and the guy pre-soldered on the connector to the vest for me.

I have the ammonite canister. It’s great I like it.

Can take photos if you’d like

Please.

 

[Bald Wookie]

Please.

Looks something like this. This was when I first got it, before in the suit. So no valve, battery etc.

 

[Bald Wookie]

And here it is on the suit. I normally have it in a sidemount setup so the E/O cord comes out on the left for me (I route the light cord up over my left shoulder, the E/O cord from the battery under my waist belt on the left). Have to rotate it slightly (about 90*) for backmount. I did not on this dive

 

[Whitrzac]

I know someone that put the pass through near their pocket rather than valve.
When they didn't use heat the pigtail went into the pocket.