Question Heated Vest - Santi Flex 2.0 vs. Light Monkey DTEK

[BFRedrocks]

All of the Santi literature says to use 12V DC. Isn’t UWLD higher than that?

Funny, as I asked Bobby (UWLD) the same question when I was considering his batteries. He explained it to me, so I'll just copy his response as it explains it way better than I could.

============================================
On Sep 18, 2019, at 3:06 PM, Bobby Franklin <bobby@uwlightdude.com> wrote:

Bob,
Thanks for the inquiry and I'll do my best to answer your questions. Our system works well with Santi and all other heated systems, the reason is that our battery design and heat controller are more efficient. Our batteries are 18.5v nominal compared to other manufacturers systems that are 11.5v nominal, this gives us a huge advantage in efficiency. We start out turning our system down to mimic a 12v system where the others are starting at only 90% of 12v and quickly drop off from there. We use Pulse Width Modulation, PWM, to maintain a constant heat output until the battery runs out of power on each heat level setting. We can do this because our shut off voltage point with our batteries is above 12v which is the Santi voltage requirement.

On Wed, Sep 18, 2019, 6:22 PM Bob Frank wrote:

Thanks for the response, Bobby. So just to be clear, even though your batteries are 18.5v nominal, the heat controller limits the output to 12v nominal so that they’re still within the rated voltage for the suit (12v) and not overpowering it?

Thanks!
Bob

On Sep 18, 2019, at 3:39 PM, Bobby Franklin <bobby@uwlightdude.com> wrote:

Correct and that makes them very efficient.

 

[Superlyte27]

The whole external vs internal batt is purely a theoretical argument, because its a non issue.
If your external batt floods and catches fire youre not getting it off before it melts a hole in your suit, and gives you 3rd degree burns. Most people have issues reaching the switch, much less unbuckleing and sliding a d ring, triglide and canister off, while its on fire.

Two big carabeaners hold my ext batt to my scooter. If I wanted to save the scooter, I could unclip in less than 20 seconds. Simply put, there’s just better ways to do things. Some of us do them. Some of us are hard headed. I have enough risk in my life. This one is too easy to mitigate.

 

[michael-fisch]

MrBlenny, maybe a heated shirt would be a better option then a bulky heated vest (in Europe Heizteufel, Yellow Diving or Smart-Tex would be good examples).

@Michael, still happy with your Heizteufel shirt? Still without heated gloves?

Not much need for heated gloves in the 21°C water in my Florida caves, but the heated vests are great when I'm burning time doing deco. The 3 step controllers that I use to manage the heat output are great since I use 4S battery packs instead of the cheaper 3S packs.
I'm really happy with the 2 Heizteufel shirts that I've got.

Michael

 

[Canajan]

The Santi vest and gloves are amazing, I’d go so far as to say game changer when diving in 2 C water. We do hour or so dives and the hands really appreciate the heated gloves.

 

[Stoo]

On the topic of runaway batteries that others have mentioned, we dive with EAN32, no separate Argon for inflation, so not only is a runaway batter bad news in and of itself, the suit is filled with plenty of O2 to sustain combustion.

You beat me to it... But I agree. Dealing with a runaway battery on the outside of a suit wouldn't be fun, but dealing with a runaway battery inside the suit in an oxygen rich environment would be nasty af. Seems like a no-brainer.

 

[Superlyte27]

You beat me to it... But I agree. Dealing with a runaway battery on the outside of a suit wouldn't be fun, but dealing with a runaway battery inside the suit in an oxygen rich environment seems like a no-brainer.

Lol, except for those without a brain, apparently.

 

[JohnN]

Lol, except for those without a brain, apparently.

Oooooohhh. Passive agressive. Bring it B...ch

 

[Superlyte27]

Oooooohhh. Passive agressive. Bring it B...ch

Lol. No one has ever accused me of being passive aggressive. Aggressive Aggressive on the other hand, I have mastered.

 

[treasurehunter]

The whole external vs internal batt is purely a theoretical argument, because its a non issue.
If your external batt floods and catches fire youre not getting it off before it melts a hole in your suit, and gives you 3rd degree burns. Most people have issues reaching the switch, much less unbuckleing and sliding a d ring, triglide and canister off, while its on fire.

I garantie you ,if you have a runaway battery you will wish it was not in your pants.
If you can’t reach your switch you need to adjust your setup so you can.
I was trained by my tech instructor to make sure I was in full control of every piece of my dive gear ,and it is now a permanent part of my mindset.
Most exterior batteries are attached with an e/o plug which only needs to be yanked to disconnect, so there is two shut down options. The point of being able to shut power down is only if electronics go haywire and you are getting shocked or roasted. There is nothing you can do to stop a thermal runaway once started.
At least with battery on the outside I have a ten fold better chance to be unscathed.

 

[Superlyte27]

I garantie you ,if you have a runaway battery you will wish it was not in your pants.
If you can’t reach your switch you need to adjust your setup so you can.
I was trained by my tech instructor to make sure I was in full control of every piece of my dive gear ,and it is now a permanent part of my mindset.
Most exterior batteries are attached with an e/o plug which only needs to be yanked to disconnect, so there is two shut down options. The point of being able to shut power down is only if electronics go haywire and you are getting shocked or roasted. There is nothing you can do to stop a thermal runaway once started.
At least with battery on the outside I have a ten fold better chance to be unscathed.

Casting pearls to the swine my man.