Reviving this thread as I did my first dive in a Venture Heat Pro V3 vest today. This was in Laguna Beach, CA, and water temp today was 55 F / 13 C.
Full context: I wore the vest under my 7mm wetsuit, over a 2mm vest so it wouldn’t be directly on my skin, and 8mm hood (lost my 7mm hood so wore a 3mm hood under a 5mm hood). I’m am 5’8”, 160lbs and if age is a factor for cold tolerance I’m 55yo.
Does it work? Absolutely. Ordinarily I’d use a 7mm hooded vest but I shed that for the 2mm vest, ran it on high the whole dive and was fine. The big payoff was actually at the end when we got out and and it was warming me up nicely.
A couple of notes to help set your expectations:
(1) It’s kind of a weird feeling to have these warm areas and cold areas on your body. On entry, with the vest on high, my chest was warm but my butt was cold! Not that cold but it was a notably strong contrast, like there was a draft. Later in the dive I noticed my upper back was cool and my legs and arms were getting chilled.
(2) If you think warm water will spread like when peeing in your wetsuit, it won’t. It’s just warm in the torso where the heating elements are.
(3) Charging takes a while. Out of the box there was some charge but took about 6 hours to fully charge the batteries. Wrist controller charges quick, maybe a couple hours.
(4). The batteries add a few inches to your waistline so had to adjust the BC a bit, but not a major issue.
I think I read a post where someone dove it here in Southern California under a 3mm suit in water temps in the high 50’s. That post sold me on getting one, but for me personally there’s no way I could tolerate high 50’s in this vest in a 3mm wetsuit. Lots of people dive it dry rather than wet with great success. For these temps I think diving the vest dry will be my next thing to try.
