Integrated weights versus weight belt

[NudeDiver]

I want gear I can trust a whole lot more than 99% of the time.

Maybe it's user error. I've got a 0% failure rate on cold water dives. The one time I lost a pocket on a warm water dive, it was user error.

 

[Thalassamania]

Your profiles lists 20 cold water dives. Do you think that is a sufficient sample to make a judgment?

 

[NudeDiver]

Your profiles lists 20 cold water dives. Do you think that is a sufficient sample to make a judgment?

Profile is a little lagged - but nevertheless, it's the only sample I have

Scientifically speaking of course - no, it's not. However, it's the only sample for which I know the variables that may contribute to weight pocket loss.

 

[Thalassamania]

Fair enough.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Maybe it's user error. I've got a 0% failure rate on cold water dives. The one time I lost a pocket on a warm water dive, it was user error.

User error was my thought originally also.

The first 2 unexpected releases were on my youngest son (16) and I figured he screwed up and did not make sure the pouch was fully inserted and clicked in place. We definitly had a serious discussion about the importance of checking your gear 100% before each dive. It was direct and not full of love and sweetness if you catch my drift. Of couse, 6 months later, I dropped a pouch on a dive with him and boy did he remind me of our little chat, word for word, all the way home.

 

[BDSC]

User error was my thought originally also.

The first 2 unexpected releases were on my youngest son (16) and I figured he screwed up and did not make sure the pouch was fully inserted and clicked in place. We definitly had a serious discussion about the importance of checking your gear 100% before each dive. It was direct and not full of love and sweetness if you catch my drift. Of couse, 6 months later, I dropped a pouch on a dive with him and boy did he remind me of our little chat, word for word, all the way home.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the windshield and listening to that conversation!

 

[Winterpeg]

I have read through this whole thread and not seen anyone describe a problem with IW's that I experienced, so I am curious if anyone else has ever had this happen.
I used IW's for my OW test dives. The reason was that I had major difficulty managing the weight belt wearing a 7mm farmer john with hood and gloves in cold water and needing 24 pounds of lead. I could hardly manage even to hold on to that much weight, never mind demonstrate the required skills of donning and doffing the belt in the water. My instructor suggested the IW's as an alternative, so I could put most of the weight in the BCD and just use a small weight belt to demonstrate the skills.
That worked fine, but then on exiting the water I was unable to remove one of the integrated weights from the BCD. I fought with it for a while, then finally just removed the BCD (it was a shore dive) and the instructor tried. He couldn't get it out either initially and worked on it for quite a while. Sorry I cannot remember the brand or type of BCD but the weight was held in by a "pinch" mechanism. Finally the instuctor got out his knife and pried the thing apart. The pinch mechanism had become jammed with sand/debris. We were doing the dives in a murky local lake but I had not actually sat on the bottom or anything so whatever got into the weight mechanism and jammed it was just what was floating in the water.
That kind of scared me. Up until then I had thought the IW's were great, but then I thought what if I ever had to dump weight and couldn't? Anyone comment on this? Since then I have just used an ordinary weight belt and had no problems, but then again, I have only dived in warm water and not needed so much weight - I have no trouble handling 12-16 pounds.

 

[Web Monkey]

That kind of scared me. Up until then I had thought the IW's were great, but then I thought what if I ever had to dump weight and couldn't? Anyone comment on this? Since then I have just used an ordinary weight belt and had no problems, but then again, I have only dived in warm water and not needed so much weight - I have no trouble handling 12-16 pounds.

That's what buddies and cutting tools are for.

Terry

 

[rstofer]

That kind of scared me. Up until then I had thought the IW's were great, but then I thought what if I ever had to dump weight and couldn't? Anyone comment on this? Since then I have just used an ordinary weight belt and had no problems, but then again, I have only dived in warm water and not needed so much weight - I have no trouble handling 12-16 pounds.

In almost every rescue scenario, the victim is brought to the surface, buoyancy is established and, generally, the weights are ditched. Given certain equipment configurations, there might not be a lot of buoyancy at the start of a dive (steel backplate, higher capacity steel tank, overweighted, etc) and weight ditching would actually be required before continuing the rescue process.

One of the biggest advantages of having your own equipment is that it will be well maintained.

Warm water with 12-16# seems like a lot. Are you wearing a thin wetsuit? When I was diving in South East Asia, I wore about 6# with an aluminum 80 tank while diving in a thin Lycra suit.

Richard

 

[Web Monkey]

Sorry for the short answer before; I was in the middle of something else.

Back on the topic of "stuck weights", while your integrated weights stuck, the other weight systems aren't perfect either.

• Weightbelts tend to get hung up on fins while ditching if you don't hold the belt far enough out and away from your body.
• Pull-cord systems (weight harnesses and some WI BCs) work very well, but are sometimes very hard to release when they contain a lot of weight
• Velcro systems get weaker as they get older and release on their own even whe you don't want them to.

You need to be absolutely certain how to ditch your weights and your buddy's weights, how to verify that you've successfully ditched your weights, and what do if ditching doesn't work.

Terry