Hotsuits or Aqua Heat

[rjenbody]

Has anybody tried either the hotsuits chemical wetsuit heaters or the Padco Aqua Heat battery powered wetsuit heaters? They both look intriguing to me. Sounds like they would work. With the padco one it is battery powered and you could use the battery pack for weight and lights when you don't need the heat.

 

[Cheekymonkey]

I have heard of battery powered ones being used in drysuits never in a wetsuit though, the same for the chemical ones as all the chemical ones I know of need seperation between them and the skin as well as air to operate. If you have a link to these wetsuit ones though I would love to see them.

 

[rjenbody]

Try these links.
http://patcoinc.com/aquaheatwet/aquaheatwet.html
http://www.hotsuits.com.au/

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Well I don't see anywhere that says the hotsuits are appropriate for diving, they show mostly surface watersports...

The patco ones look more promising but the electrics inside your wetsuit still scare me a little bit, but maybe thats just me...

 

[rjenbody]

If you read the reviews and look at the shops that sell them they are sold by and reviewed by scuba shops and scuba intructors.

 

[OH-JJ]

save yourself some money.

goto your drug store and get a neoprene lower back strap, mine was made by icy-hot, they come with the 8-hour hand warmers... DO NOT use these when diving. You only want the strap.

next get some Sodium acetate hand warmers like the ones I bought here http://www.hotsnapz.com/

use these in the back strap.

I have maybe $25 in the setup. heck if you shop around you could even spend less.

 

[mark99]

I recently tried the hotsuits. I found it hard to reliably activate in the water under the wetsuit and in the pouch, so I ended up activating it on the boat before entering the water. I'm sure it was less effective that way. It seemed to help, and it certainly generates quite a bit of heat. For my diving (50-60F/10-15C) I'd use 2-3 at a time if I had them.

The hotsnapz product looks to be identical to the hotsuits product, so it comes down to volume for price.

 

[redacted]

I use a small chemical heater (quantum heat) sold in LDS for about $13 for the 3 x 6 size. Greatly extended the range of my 5mm wetsuit. With a 5mm hooded vest, and 1 heater I was comfortable in 50 degree water at 40 ft.