Heated vests for moderately cool water?

[stuartv]

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.

My Nova has just about all the options they offer. Plus, I got their base layer, and some other made-to-measure Thinsulate undergarments. All that, with shipping was around $1500. I think just the fully-optioned suit was about $1100.

I got the Seaskin Ultra last year. I got a few options, but nothing like what I did on the Nova. It was about $900, delivered.

Keep in mind that the prices on the Seaskin website include VAT. They don't actually charge VAT for a suit shipped to the USA. So, knock approximately 20% off the price shown before you convert it from GBP to USD. Or, you can pick out what you want, add it to your Cart, go to Checkout, and see what the exact total would be - without VAT included - and then convert that from GBP to USD.

 

[stuartv]

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.

You do have choices to make on those things. But, the base suit includes their "standard" valves and seals. You don't have to spend any extra on valves or seals unless you want something different to their standard.

I just noticed you're in Israel. I apologize for the Stupid American (really, Ignorant American) comment, but is Israel part of the EU or not? I would guess it is, but I feel very ignorant when I say I don't actually KNOW. If it is in the EU, then I guess Seaskin would charge the price with VAT.

Shipping might not be as bad as you think. They get some kind of pretty good discounted rate from the shipping companies. I think my suits were only about USD$80 or 90 to ship from England to the US.

 

[stuartv]

My apologies. I just went back and read the thread from the beginning.

For 20C water, I personally would dive all week in a 5mm wetsuit, with a hood and 3mm wet gloves, and be perfectly fine. Others are, umm, less cold tolerant (i.e. fat) than I am. Just a 3mm would not cut it, though. I definitely would not risk a trip to Galapagos on the reliability of a wetsuit electric heater.

If I decided I needed more than just a 5mm wetsuit/hood/gloves on a trip to Galapagos, I would go with a trilam drysuit. If the drysuit simply was not an option, I would go with the 5mm wetsuit and a hooded vest to wear over it. I have a Bare Ultrawarmth hooded vest for those occasions and it is warm and very comfortable.

You could look for an inexpensive off-the-rack drysuit, or a used one, so you can get it soon. Or, if you can find a place that does the training, you could possibly rent a drysuit to build proficiency while you wait on an order to come from Seaskin?

Drysuit buoyancy is harder than diving wet. But, it is not as hard as "have to learn buoyancy al over again". Changing to a CCR is that. Diving dry is just a little bit harder than diving wet. If you do a few dives dry and then don't try to do other stuff (like take pictures), diving dry on your trip should not be a real problem for you. But, if you try to dive dry and do real photography, you really want to have some pretty solid experience and skill diving dry first. It would be pretty easy for that camera to distract you into a runaway ascent....

 

[Marie13]

I just noticed you're in Israel. I apologize for the Stupid American (really, Ignorant American) comment, but is Israel part of the EU or not? I would guess it is, but I feel very ignorant when I say I don't actually KNOW. If it is in the EU, then I guess Seaskin would charge the price with .

Israel is most definitely NOT in the EU. Why would a country in the Middle East be part of the European Union?

 

[stuartv]

Israel is most definitely NOT in the EU. Why would a country in the Middle East be part of the European Union?

Thank you for setting me straight.

 

[Hatul]

I'm considering a Galapagos trip in September, but I don't like wearing lots of neoprene, and I'm not qualified for drysuits. Would it be reasonable to dive in 20-22C water in a full-length 3mm plus this thing or something similar?

A heated vest with front and back element is a reasonable option under a wetsuit, but I would go with a 5 mm with hooded vest. You can also get an extra set of batteries so you don't run out.
A drysuit is more complicated and more difficult and you won't get much need in Israel.
The Thermalution Blue Plus or Venture Heat 40 W Dive Vest (when it becomes available again) are good options.

I use a Thermalution Yellow Plus under a 7 mm wetsuit with a hooded vest here in Southern California where water temp runs 15C. The heated vest provides extra comfort. I have a drysuit but prefer not to use it for shore diving.

 

[Barmaglot]

I just noticed you're in Israel. I apologize for the Stupid American (really, Ignorant American) comment, but is Israel part of the EU or not? I would guess it is, but I feel very ignorant when I say I don't actually KNOW. If it is in the EU, then I guess Seaskin would charge the price with VAT.

We aren't part of the EU, but we've got our own 17% VAT, and I expect there would be additional import charges as well.

But, if you try to dive dry and do real photography, you really want to have some pretty solid experience and skill diving dry first. It would be pretty easy for that camera to distract you into a runaway ascent....

As it happens, I do dive with a Sony A6300 and a pair of Retra Pros, so yeah...

For 20C water, I personally would dive all week in a 5mm wetsuit, with a hood and 3mm wet gloves, and be perfectly fine. Others are, umm, less cold tolerant (i.e. fat) than I am. Just a 3mm would not cut it, though. I definitely would not risk a trip to Galapagos on the reliability of a wetsuit electric heater.

I do own a 5mm two-piece (farmer john and a hooded jacket), but I took it on one liveaboard to the Red Sea, did a few dives with it, hated the buoyancy swings and just dived a 3mm shorty for the rest of the trip. On the other hand, I've done ~150 more dives since then, so maybe I'll manage it better now.

Looking at drysuits available locally, the least expensive option is a Scubapro Everdry 4.0 at approximately $1500 equivalent, ugh.

 

[stuartv]

As it happens, I do dive with a Sony A6300 and a pair of Retra Pros, so yeah...

I know. That's why I mentioned that.

 

[Hatul]

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.

You can just get another set of batteries if that's an issue.