Heated Wear

[in too deep]

For the heated shirt, how was sizing and mobility once you had the Artics on?

I typically wear large for t shirts - I'm 6' @ 205 - 210 lbs depending on how many beers....and the w&s large fits excellent. It's snug but not tight, however I'm happy to have the zippered collar, it is too tight when zipped up so I leave it unzipped slightly, not sure if i can stretch the collar, I'll reach out to w&s.
No issues with mobility with the Arctic overtop, I can still reach my valves if that's what you're thinking.

 

[ericfine50]

Thank you. That is what I was thinking of.
I currently have the Santi Thermovalve, I am thinking all that is needed is a pigtail from Santi to the W and S shirt. their glove liners also look interesting.
I am wondering if I am over or under thinking what would be needed to use it with the 20AH/12V system I have.

 

[in too deep]

Thank you. That is what I was thinking of.
I currently have the Santi Thermovalve, I am thinking all that is needed is a pigtail from Santi to the W and S shirt. their glove liners also look interesting.
I am wondering if I am over or under thinking what would be needed to use it with the 20AH/12V system I have.

I originally used a Yellow Diving heated shirt with their interface, I simply opened up the controller and soldered the w&s barrel connectors. 1 for the shirt and 1 for glove liners.
Re: glove liners, I'm using SF Tech, they offer 18 watts per glove and they keep my hands warm but never hot. The w&s are 11 watts. I think I would notice the drop in temperature. That said the w&s are less expensive.
I really like the fact that the gloves plug into the shirt's sleeve cuffs for a clean hook up. Prior, I had wire running from the gloves up the arms and down the chest to the connection point, PITA.
My canister 24.8Ah with 2 piezo switches - light and heat are working well.

 

[ericfine50]

For the glove liners, I think warm vs hot is what you would want, right?

 

[in too deep]

For the glove liners, I think warm vs hot is what you would want, right?

I agree. That said, we dive in our local quarry and at the bottom it's about 6c year round, the liners take the bite off. If I were to use the w&s I think I'd need an extra layer.
Maybe @stuartv has some input, I got the w&s tip from him. Not sure if he's tried the liners while motorcycling.

 

[stuartv]

Yes, I have the glove liners for riding. But, I don't know that that experience has any real way to compare to diving. I've worn them while riding for 14 hours straight, in temps that started around 35F, got to a high of maybe 55, and then back down again. Under my summer riding gloves, on a bike with heated grips.

I have not burned my hands with them (like I have done my feet with the W&S socks).

All that I feel like I can really say is that if I were going to use them under dry gloves I would probably plan to wear a thin insulating liner over the heated glove liners. They are very thin.

Also, I think Mike (owner of W&S) will tell you - it may even say on the page for the glove liners - that if you get them wet, you CAN potentially feel some electric shocks.

It is well known in motorcycling circles that keeping your torso warmer will keep your hands warmer. When your body gets cold, it restricts blood flow to the extremities to keep the core warm. So, keeping the core warm keeps your nice, warm blood circulating more to your fingers and toes.

My experience with riding is that it is hard to balance the heat between different items. Having seperate controllers is almost a requirement. That is how I burned my feet. I had the socks and heated leggings on one controller. If I turned it up enough to feel the warmth on my legs, it was burning my feet.

For diving, I would kind of expect that turning up a shirt/jacket enough to be warm would mean that glove liners on the same controller are barely felt. And if you turn it all up enough to really feel the gloves, the shirt would be roasting you.

I don't think I am very likely to ever bother with heated gloves for diving. Given the need to have enough passive insulation to keep you alive in the case that your heated gear fails, I think heat to the torso and good, basic glove liners are all I would ever bother with.

 

[jridg]

I received the Delspring Pro today - unboxing was easy and the fit is great. Right on from the sizing guide.

I will be diving it next week in San Diego and then in Monterey the following weekend. I will write up a full review with photos and the overall experience

 

[jridg]

Delspring Pro 40W heated dive vest review:

Dive #1 - La Jolla Cove - 7/30/2020 - Dive duration - 63 minutes

Surface temp - 63F

Bottom Temp - 57F

Wetsuit - Elios zipperless two-piece with integrated hood - 3mm suit (6mm over core)

Gloves - 3mm Camaro

Boots - 5mm standard dive booties



This was my first dive in the new wetsuit and the Delspring pro

The suit was custom fit to me - and the bulk of the batteries with the vest on was a bit odd - the batteries are definitely not small - I don’t think there is a better way to place them or make them smaller - it just is what it is. They were not painful or terribly uncomfortable - however I knew they were there the whole time. I am fairly fit and they dug into my ribs a bit - This may cause some discomfort if you dive a jacket BCD - I dive a BP/Wing so it was not bad.



Entering the water at 63F - I turned on the vest with the remote - I immediately felt the heat come on (I wore the vest next to my skin for this first dive) - I left it on low for a couple of minutes - as we descended, I turned it up to high - the haptic feedback buzzer makes it VERY obvious when you change the settings. The wrist remote worked perfectly.



During the entire dive I was moving very slowly - no hard swimming or kicking - very low effort. The vest kept me pretty comfortable for the entire 63 minute dive. I could feel the warmth for the entire dive and it was very nice to have this extra heat generation. I did feel the chill a bit as we got to around 40 minutes - however the vest generating the heat made this very much a non-issue for me (Your mileage may vary). I think the fact that the vest was generating heat that my body did not have to was helping a great deal for my overall comfort.



Initial impression is that down to 57F - no issues - I would dive this setup again easy. Much less weight, easier don and doff of gear in a 3mil than my drysuit.



I will be attempting a dive in Monterey in a couple of days and we’ll see how that goes - I expect it will be 5 degrees or so cooler so it may make a difference....

 

[stuartv]

I finally got to dive with heat this past weekend.

Setup:

Seaskin Ultra 3mm compressed neoprene drysuit (neoprene seals for neck and wrists)
Seaskin Tech Base layer (like Under Armour)
Merino wool leggings
Thin wool ankle socks
Warm & Safe 12V heated shirt
Seaskin 150gsm socks
UWLD Heat Controller
UWLD 160 W-Hr battery canister
Si Tech Vega valve installed in drysuit
Power cable spliced together by me from an E/O cable with bare wires on one and and a Warm & Safe Coax Jack cable with bare wires on one end

Bare 7/5mm Ultrawarmth drysuit hood
Bare 3mm Ultrawarmth wet gloves

I originally bought the W&S 7.4V shirt, thinking I would be able to use it with the UWLD HC (heat controller). That didn't work out. I talked to W&S and returned the 7.4V shirt for a refund and bought the 12V shirt. The 12V shirt consumes about 42W of power at max and sells for $190.

The W&S 12V shirt has 6 or 7 heating panels in it. Biceps, neck, chest, and 2 in the back. Not sure if there is a 7th panel or where it is.

The water was 52F, at 145 feet in Lake Jocassee.

I would splash on each dive with the heat off. Once I got to depth, I waited until I started to feel cold before I turned on the heat. That generally did not take very long. With the heat on 5 (of 5 - i.e. the highest setting), I did not feel warm. But, I also was not cold. I could not feel any hot spots against my skin, but nor could I feel any cold spots.

In other words, the shirt gave very even heating, all over.

Once we started to ascend, when I would get up above 100 feet somewhere, then I would start to actually really feel the heat against my skin. From there, I would turn it from 5 down to 1 and still feel actually warm.

These dives were all part of an AN/DP/Helitrox class that I was assisting the instructor to teach. Bottom times at >140 feet were all planned to be about 15 minutes, with a total run time of around 35 minutes or so. So, not long dives and not all that long at the depths where it was really cold. The solution definitely still needs some longer, colder dives before I consider it to be "proven".

That said, I was using thin wet gloves and no insulating layer over the heated shirt, other than the 3mm neoprene of the drysuit itself. Given all that, I think this heated solution performed very well. The shirt adds some bulk, but it's pretty minimal - and it does provide some insulation value on its own. I did 2 dives in shallower water with the heated shirt being worn but not turned on and I was still warm. My gut feeling is that I could wear my 150gsm Thinsulate bunny suit over the heated shirt and be comfortable for a very long time, even in 40F water. Maybe even still with the 3mm wet gloves.

Also, since this shirt is from Warm & Safe, from whom I have previously purchased a complete 6-piece heated undersuit setup for riding my motorcycle, I have realized that I can use this shirt with the heated leggings, heated socks, and heated glove liners that I already have. They all plug together using the coax connectors that are built into it all.

It looks like I'm going back for some more deep diving in Jocassee over Labor Day. I think I will take my heated leggings and heated glove liners and maybe try all that out under my trilam suit with dry gloves and a thin insulating layer over it.

 

[in too deep]

Hey stuartv, you may recall I picked up a 12v long sleeve from W&S.
Honestly I found it wasn’t helpful at all at temps below 12c, even against bare skin with It fitting snug.
I purchased a Yellow Diving heated shirt, which replaced an earlier version I bought in 2012, this is definitely is warmer. For glove liners I use SF Tech. As you pointed out, I don’t think heated wear regardless of brand will ever be too warm/hot, it simply takes the edge off.
I had to wire things as well. E/O to waterproof connectors I got off of Amazon. Works perfect.
I’m very happy with my liners and shirt and look forward to many less chilled dives.