Hotsuits suit warmer?

[Brandon]

Hey all,

Anyone have experience with these?
Hotsuits heated wetsuits, the world's first heated wetsuit

It's a reusable, chemically reactive heating pad designed to be worn underneath a wetsuit. When activated, the pad warms up and provides heat for a little over an hour.

They were designed for surfers, but there's some chat on their website that divers use them too. I was thinking about ordering one to wear under my drysuit, but was curious if anyone else has experience with these. If it works... I could see getting longer dive times as the cold would be less of a limiting factor.

Thanks!

-Brandon.

 

[TSandM]

They're sodium acetate "pillows". There are two problems with them -- One, they're only good for 20 to 30 minutes, really. And the second is that they become inflexible as they heat, so they are not good to place in any area where you are going to need movement.

If you are interested in something to go under your drysuit, consider the Cozy Winters heated vest. Although I'm having some wiring problems with mine, so my recommendation is with some reservations at present.

 

[botewind]

PLEASE beware, hotsuits isn´t a serious company.

My name is Nuno and i live in portugal, i bought the belt to surf because here the water is very cold. I bought the first one to my girlfriend just to test. I bought the second one that didn´t worked.

I talked to the owner by email, Chris Cook and he never answered. Now i have the belt that don´t work and the money is in chris cook pocket.

He isn´t a serious person. Beware.

 

[Hatul]

I have several of these, and the big problem is how to activate it in a 7mm suit.

My latest solution is to back the activating metal with a stiff disc, but I've not tried it yet on a dive.

Adam

 

[Brandon]

Holy almost three year old thread Batman =)

I ended up grabbing the Cozy Winters vest back in 2007, and that worked pretty good for a while. Eventually ended up just buying real undergarments (Whites MK1 + MK3), which seemed to have an even greater effect. Added Argon this year, and that seems to be helping too. Haven't tried the vest + undergarments + argon combo yet... that might work even better. My Fusion tends to leak a little bit from the neck seal, can't say that I really want to be wearing an electric vest underneath it =)

The biggest plus I noticed with the vest isn't so much how it feels underwater - it doesn't seem like it throws out enough heat to really make much headway when the temps are in the mid 30s. Once out of the water though, it starts heating up the suit nicely and I've noticed that it appears to speed my recovery time up quite a bit.

I did play with the sodium acetate packs too... they don't so much get stiff as rock hard once they finish the reaction. Couldn't think of many places I'd want to put them where it'd be comfy - back isn't going to work because of the plate... front undergarment pockets seemed like the only real decent option. Even then - the vest supplies more heat, for longer.

Still looking for a solution that will let me pull off 3x 45 minute dives in 35F water in a day, comfortably, with 1 hour - 1.5 hour surface intervals in between, not necessarily in a heated area, but at least in a sheltered or warmed one. I can do it now, but I wouldn't call it comfortable by any means...

-B