Help on Canister for Heater/Light

[rjack321]

Makes sense, I was debating between the 20 and 30, sounds like the 20 should be plenty then.

What does "Don't stop it fully charged" mean?

Thanks!

Yeah you don't need a giant 30ah canister on your butt.

Sorry typo...
Don't store it fully charged. As long as you don't completely drain it on a dive just put it on the shelf in the 10.8-11.5V range. Li-ion don't like to be stored fully charged (12.6V in this case). Shortens their life almost as much as running it to zero. Recharge it a day or maybe 2 before you go diving again. I wouldn't get bent out of shape about storing it a week fully charged, but would probably just run the suit heater in air for an hour if I wasn't going to use suit heat all summer for instance.

 

[InWay2Deep]

Yeah you don't need a giant 30ah canister on your butt.

Sorry typo...
Don't store it fully charged. As long as you don't completely drain it on a dive just put it on the shelf in the 10.8-11.5V range. Li-ion don't like to be stored fully charged (12.6V in this case). Shortens their life almost as much as running it to zero. Recharge it a day or maybe 2 before you go diving again. I wouldn't get bent out of shape about storing it a week fully charged, but would probably just run the suit heater in air for an hour if I wasn't going to use suit heat all summer for instance.

Ah gottcha, Yea, I have a lot of LiPo/LiFePO4 type batteries so I know the importance of a 'storage' charge, thanks!

You think 20ah is to big? I'd like to use it for both Light and heater down the road in the event I don't need as much runtime to take 2 canisters or as a backup power source.

 

[rddvet]

Makes sense, I was debating between the 20 and 30, sounds like the 20 should be plenty then.

What does "Don't stop it fully charged" mean?

Thanks!

My wife is 5'3 102lbs. She went with the dual output 30ah. The can is much bigger. Big enough that we thought it may be annoying, but not at all. It's bigger, but has better buoyancy characteristics than the smaller can. If you can afford it, I recommend going as big as you can. They 30ah is a ton of power, but she also did a 6 hour ccr dive with the vest on low at the start of the dive, medium through most of the dive, and then high for the last 15 minutes of deco. All while running her light full blast. Definitely couldn't have done that on 20ah.
It's a pricey can, but if you can afford it I would go for it.

 

[rjack321]

My wife is 5'3 102lbs. She went with the dual output 30ah. The can is much bigger. Big enough that we thought it may be annoying, but not at all. It's bigger, but has better buoyancy characteristics than the smaller can. If you can afford it, I recommend going as big as you can. They 30ah is a ton of power, but she also did a 6 hour ccr dive with the vest on low at the start of the dive, medium through most of the dive, and then high for the last 15 minutes of deco. All while running her light full blast. Definitely couldn't have done that on 20ah.
It's a pricey can, but if you can afford it I would go for it.

Not really a fan of the dual output myself. I assumed this was going to be a stand-alone heat only canister and the 20ah is pretty reasonable for that in cold water. Remember we have to be able to survive without the heat and a 6hr cave dive in cold water is not really survivable without heat. I've done 3.5hrs in 4C water without a habitat (would never have fit a habitat even if I could get it there). Even a minor suit leak would have been life threatening.

Maybe the Finns can survive those kinds of temps/durations, but the rest of us mortals have to dial our goals back.

 

[tbone1004]

I'm planning on getting the LM Heater Base, would like 2-3 hrs of heating ability maybe at 50%. By the time I get UWLD it will be to late to be useful.

Have you called @Bobby to find out what the lead time is? It may be shorter than you may think. Give him a call tomorrow, I suspect it’s less than 2 weeks

 

[Bobby]

Unless you use the UWLD canister and controller - that has a remote switch.

How much heat power / duration do you need? What vest are you using? or god forbid the santi full suit lol.

You can get the UWLD stuff it's just going to be a few months. I have a 2nd canister coming that I ordered in September

Rjack,
Who did you order the canister from? I was caught up on all orders before I left for our T-give dive trip. I've only had two orders for canister only, both came in November, and they shipped the next week. I have been back ordered since the end of 2020 and have not been able to build inventory, however the longest wait was 6 weeks and normally it is 2 weeks. I'd like to know the dealer to ensure they didn't sit on your order for while before ordering with me.

 

[Bobby]

I'm planning on getting the LM Heater Base, would like 2-3 hrs of heating ability maybe at 50%. By the time I get UWLD it will be to late to be useful.

Before I left for our T-give diving I had all orders shipped. I didn't get to build inventory however. Present orders that came in over the T-give holiday should ship this week. An order that came in today should ship next week. Yes, I've been back ordered for the entire year however the wait has not been more than 6 weeks and is usually 2 weeks.

 

[Bobby]

Also, our dealers have stock. If you need something now just call a dealer and see if they have it.

 

[rddvet]

Not really a fan of the dual output myself.

Any reason why? It was a trade off for her. We were originally considering two separate cans but she realistically couldn’t put both on her waist due to lack of room. Other option was leave one can with the deco bottles but neither of us were a fan of that. So dual output made sense. For me I would just strap two cans on.

 

[rjack321]

Any reason why? It was a trade off for her. We were originally considering two separate cans but she realistically couldn’t put both on her waist due to lack of room. Other option was leave one can with the deco bottles but neither of us were a fan of that. So dual output made sense. For me I would just strap two cans on.

The 2.75" diameter is fine while hip mounted under a SM bottle. The 3.5" not so much.

The other issue is it's hard to keep tabs on how much battery you have left when you have 2 variable devices drawing juice from the one battery.

In 8C water I will usually run my LM shirt on 40% to start and kick it up to 80% at the end of a 3hr dive. In 4C water I'm starting at 60%, and at 100% by the end of 2.5-3hrs. That's with a 20ah 11.1V battery (200wh usable). If I ran a light at full power I would have that much more voltage drop and a 4 hour dive with even a 30ah battery would start to be iffy. Yes it would still have 20-25% capacity left but that isnt useful for suit heat even if it runs a light at that voltage. If 200wh isn't enough (and its iffy in 4C water for a 3+hr dive), I would rather drop an extra 18-20ah battery than carry that capacity with me than have it be "low voltage leftover capacity,

Lastly, my butt is already full, my scrubber heater battery alone is giant (21 * 5000mah, 21700 cells)

That's why I normally use a 160wh UWLD for my light (5+hrs on high), and a separate 20ah (~180-200wh usable) suit heater battery down to about 7-8C (3+hrs on high). For serious dives in 4C I drop the 2nd 200wh battery with my deco gas.