Heated vests for moderately cool water?

[beldridg]

I haven't been to the Galapagos (yet) but I do wear a heated vest on every dive here in Southern California. I tend to do longer dives with a decent amount of deco and so I generally keep the vest off during descent and bottom time and then turn it on at my first deco stop.

I had a Thermolution and liked it but I've known a couple people who have had issues with them. I dived mine both wet and dry and never had a problem. It was an older one and didn't have a wireless controller and so it wasn't very practical with a drysuit.

I ended up buying a Venture Heat system and sold my Thermolution to a friend. I really like the Venture Heat system that I have and have no regrets switching to it.

My friend that bought my Thermolution has dived in a wetsuit in Northern California and said it makes a big difference. But, the waters in NorCal are a lot colder than Galapagos.

- brett

 

[beldridg]

PS - If/When I go to the Galapagos, I'll likely take a drysuit with light undergarments and not mess with heated vests, batteries, wetsuits, etc. But, that is just me.

 

[lermontov]

PS - If/When I go to the Galapagos, I'll likely take a drysuit with light undergarments and not mess with heated vests, batteries, wetsuits, etc. But, that is just me.

agree with this - a dry suit allows you to layer up or down. I have a Mares vest with internal battery and a santi full heated with external battery - i wouldn't take either if the water was 20º as you mentioned. there is evidence of increased DCS risk with dives that start warm and end dive cold scenarios

 

[Barmaglot]

It's not even so much the expense of a dry suit that is giving me pause, it's more the part where I will need to learn buoyancy control all over again. I've read way too many horror stories along the lines of people getting a big air bubble in their legs, which gets them inverted and they can't flip back to dump it out, etc. Even if I decide to order a drysuit from somewhere like Seaskin right now, it'll take a good few weeks for them to make it and ship it, which does not leave me a lot of time to get practiced on it before the autumn holidays. Oh well, maybe next year.

 

[lexvil]

It's not even so much the expense of a dry suit that is giving me pause, it's more the part where I will need to learn buoyancy control all over again. I've read way too many horror stories along the lines of people getting a big air bubble in their legs, which gets them inverted and they can't flip back to dump it out, etc. Even if I decide to order a drysuit from somewhere like Seaskin right now, it'll take a good few weeks for them to make it and ship it, which does not leave me a lot of time to get practiced on it before the autumn holidays. Oh well, maybe next year.

The inverted thing can happen but you can roll out of it and if worse comes to worse cut it, better to flood than to drown bobbing on the surface. You are already aware and that alone will make it unlikely to happen. You don’t have to relearn buoyancy as much as you need to concentrate on trim, take a course in drysuit, hopefully with a shop that will provide a suit to jump ahead of the game while you wait for the suit from Seaskin, or find one on the rack but Seaskin will cost less than the vest.

 

[Barmaglot]

Seaskin will cost less than the vest

That sounds kind of dubious; a Thermalution Blue Grade Plus costs $600 + $50 shipping to Israel, a spare battery kit (charge one one the boat while diving with the other) is another $180. The price of a Seaskin Nova is harder to quantify, as the options are many and varied, but @stuartv posted some time ago that his cost him $1500 shipped to USA, which is a good deal more, plus I will have to pay for a drysuit course.

 

[lexvil]

That sounds kind of dubious; a Thermalution Blue Grade Plus costs $600 + $50 shipping to Israel, a spare battery kit (charge one one the boat while diving with the other) is another $180. The price of a Seaskin Nova is harder to quantify, as the options are many and varied, but @stuartv posted some time ago that his cost him $1500 shipped to USA, which is a good deal more, plus I will have to pay for a drysuit course.

Seaskin comes ready to dive with no options, base price and shipping is all you need, options make it better but are options.

 

[Barmaglot]

Seaskin comes ready to dive with no options, base price and shipping is all you need, options make it better but are options.

Don't you have to choose, at the very least, valves and neck/wrist seals? Sorry about the newbie questions; I have seen a drysuit, in person, maybe once or twice in my life, and never actually touched one. Even still, a base Seaskin Nova is £549, which is almost US$800 - not much more expensive than a Thermalution vest, but still considerably so; shipping something as large as a drysuit is probably another $100 or so.

 

[lexvil]

Don't you have to choose, at the very least, valves and neck/wrist seals? Sorry about the newbie questions; I have seen a drysuit, in person, maybe once or twice in my life, and never actually touched one. Even still, a base Seaskin Nova is £549, which is almost US$800 - not much more expensive than a Thermalution vest, but still considerably so; shipping something as large as a drysuit is probably another $100 or so.

There are no additional cost choices for each, the price in USD is 20% less (no vat) so a little over $600.

 

[kelemvor]

Part of the problem with this plan is running out of battery on a multidive day is going to put you into a "dive warm - deco cold" scenario which is very bad.

This. I was surprised it took so long for someone to mention the problem. I didn't mention it myself because I lack a detailed understanding to sufficiently explain it.

When I first saw the post, my first thought was that it sounded a little dangerous.