How much weight do you drop when using a BPW?

[DrSteve]

Lots of Questions on this one. Where do you do most of your diving? Is it cold water or warm water? Drysuit or Wetsuit. Single tank or Doubles? My general recommendation is if your diving warm water go aluminum and use some ditchable weight on either a belt or pockets. If you're diving single tank you can add a STA which goes up to 5lbs. If you're diving dry I recommend Stainless. I have one of each so I can keep them both rigged and then just swap the wings around. The aluminum is great for travel and warm water.

I dive with a single Al80 or St95 and I dive wet. I tend to log about 50:50 dives in warm versus cold water. At first I was leaning to wards an Al plate, then I figured that an extra 4lb wouldn't make any difference to my carry on and would be perfect for local conditions. But perhaps too much for carribean conditions.

 

[Rick Murchison]

So I am curious how much weight people drop when switching from a conventional BC to a BPW?

All of it.
But then that has more to do with the double steels than the BP/W.
Rick

 

[DrSteve]

All of it.
But then that has more to do with the double steels than the BP/W.
Rick

So the DIR guys are advocates of not carrying ditchable weight. I'm not a DIR guy. That means as we discussed in another forum that at depth I have lost buoyancy due to wet suit compression. This means I need some ditchable weight to make it possible for me to recover from a catastophe at depth. So...it doesn't seem to me that not carrying ditchable weight is particularly safe for non DIR divers.

 

[Daryl Morse]

Plan for the weight of the backplate and hardware, plus a couple of pounds of positive buoyancy from your Ranger.

Having just tried this, I can verify what jonnythan says to be pretty much the case, but it depends on what BCD you are currently using.

I've been wearing 32 lbs of lead with a BCD and used 24 (belt) + 6 (bp) = 30 lbs. I found it to be very close to what I need. Like Tobin says, try sinking the BCD to determine how positive it is.

 

[herman]

All my education and I didn't think of doing that! I'll try it tonight in the bath! It'll give me some idea.

I'll save you the trouble, the Ranger is +4lbs in fresh water. I checked mine last summer with it wet after a dive and totally stipped of any air intthe bladder.

 

[mverick160]

So the DIR guys are advocates of not carrying ditchable weight. I'm not a DIR guy. That means as we discussed in another forum that at depth I have lost buoyancy due to wet suit compression. This means I need some ditchable weight to make it possible for me to recover from a catastophe at depth. So...it doesn't seem to me that not carrying ditchable weight is particularly safe for non DIR divers.

DIR says no steels with a wet suit. For just that reason. Unless they're mp 72's. With dual AL80's you'll need weight.

Personally, I only have around 4 lbs ditchable. Ditch 24 and rocket to the surface. Hmm... Doesn't sound like a way to survive a 150ft or so dive. Depending on length of time at depth..

So, Wetsuit means no heavy steel duals.

 

[Mandy3206]

Seems to me that Tobin has the better answer, I used to dive a cressi aquapro 4 BC and used 12# with my 3mm, when I switched to BP/W, I thought that I would drop 8# due to the 6# SS Plate and 2# SS STA.
Turned out that I had problems at 15' Safety Stop with only 4# of ditchable weight, so I added 2# and the problems are gone.

Seems to me that the Harness and empty 45# lift bladder are 2# more bouyant than the empty 37# lift aquapro 4.

So actually I gained 2# of weight in my whole setup.

 

[Rick Murchison]

So the DIR guys are advocates of not carrying ditchable weight. I'm not a DIR guy. That means as we discussed in another forum that at depth I have lost buoyancy due to wet suit compression. This means I need some ditchable weight to make it possible for me to recover from a catastophe at depth. So...it doesn't seem to me that not carrying ditchable weight is particularly safe for non DIR divers.

No, no, no... the DIR guys will be *very* upset indeed if I'm mistaken for one of 'em. I just don't use a BP/W for anything but steel doubles and a dry suit. For all singles and AL doubles (well, sometimes I'll use my FredT heavy with AL doubles) I use a Transpac - and ditchable weight.
But, now that you mention it, if your rig doesn't allow for ditchable weight, you should have redundant buoyancy - which is, after all, the point in having ditchable weight in the first place.
Redundant buoyancy can be ditchable weight & BC, or BC & dry suit, or BC & lift bag. So if for some reason I chose to dive steels with a wetsuit (not recommended) then I'd need to have a lift bag along.
Rick

 

[willardj]

All my education and I didn't think of doing that! I'll try it tonight in the bath! It'll give me some idea.

I was thinking of switching to a bpw to. I would like to know your total weight loss. I've been diving with a seaquest predator for the last ten years. Now i'm looking for something to dive doubles and single. I can't deside between the transpack or bpw.

willardj

 

[HammerNoMore]

As some of you know I am switching to a BPW. I am trying to decide what weight of backplate to get...
With my 2mm in a pool using a SS wing and a steel tank (I don't recall which but it was shorter than an Al80) I was perfectly weighted. Of course if I dived like this in the tropics I would have a lighter Al tank and be in salt water)
In the tropics and my Ranger I carry about 16lbs
Locally I carry about 20-22lbs

So I am curious how much weight people drop when switching from a conventional BC to a BPW? Basically I'm trying to decide whether I should get the SS or Al backplate.

Cheers!

I dropped 10lbs switching to a 6lb plate ...