Integrated Weights

[BostonDiverMA]

How do integrated weights work? What are the advantages/disadvantages to have a integrated weight BC? Is buying a weight integrated BC worth the extra money, especially when I will be doing a lot of cold water diving.

Thanks for any advice given,

Russ

 

[Quarrior]

How do integrated weights work? What are the advantages/disadvantages to have a integrated weight BC? Is buying a weight integrated BC worth the extra money, especially when I will be doing a lot of cold water diving.

Thanks for any advice given,

Russ

Russ, some good questions. I'll try to give my limited knowledge a bit at a time.

First, integrated weights generally go into a special pocket on the BC which enables them to be quickly dropped or removed if needed.

Advantages, most men that I have met have limited if any hips. Basically, it's a royal PITA to try and dive with a weight belt. I count myself as one of those individuals. As you descend, your wet suit compresses, therefore you have to keep tightening the weight belt. Problem is, you have to do the opposite when ascending. If you have a hip issue like me, your weight belt ends up around your butt making you swim way out of trim and therefore work much harder. The other advantage is it puts the weight up in your center mass helping to keep your trim in better control.

Yes, weight integrated is worth the extra money. I dive in cold water myself.

Brian

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

How do integrated weights work? What are the advantages/disadvantages to have a integrated weight BC? Is buying a weight integrated BC worth the extra money, especially when I will be doing a lot of cold water diving.

Thanks for any advice given,

Russ

How they work is simple, they move some or all of the weight off your weight belt and into your BC. I like my WI BC because I'm short waisted (not enough room for belt and BC cumberbund) and have no butt (belts slide off). But that's an individual decision.

A search of this site will show you that there are many considerations when looking at a WI BC. Here are a few off the top of my head, and in no particular order:

Lifting weight and BC at the same time can be a pain. If you go integrated, consider a system where you can hand your weights into the boat seperately from your BC.

Velcro wears out, especially in a sand environment. Make sure that there is more than just velcro holding the weights in place. It would be a real bummer to lose half or all your weight in the middle of a dive.

In cold water (especially with a heavy wetsuit) make sure you can remove your gear to resolve issues (let's say you get tangled in kelp) without becoming so bouyant that you have an uncontrolled ascent. One answer is to split the weight between belt and BC. Other divers say, "Just hold on."

Depending on the type, WI BC may have more or less trim options than a belt.

Divers debate whether or not you should ever dump your weights. Since at least some of the agencies teach that you should know how, I'll mention that if you have a WI BC you should always make sure that your buddy knows how to dump the weights .

Depending on the type, WI BCs may or may not have enough weight capacity for diving with heavy wetsuits.

IMHO, if you decide to go WI, check out the Zeagle Ranger. I love mine, and they have a pretty good following.

Disclaimer: I have no connection or interest in Zeagle, I am not an advice professional, these are some of the considerations I used in shopping for my BC, individual tastes may vary, professional driver on a closed course, children should always wear their seatbelts, WI BCs may make you drowsy, you should not operate heavy equipment while considering WI BCs,...

 

[seabat]

3dent mentioned velcro intergrated weights. It is a bummer losing a weight pouch. I got complacent and did not check to see that the weight was secure. Doing a decent in about 12 feet of water on a shore dive I got to about 8 ft, went to a horizontal position and started rising. Couldn't figure out what was wrong until I was on the surface and floating at a list to port. Right weight was 12 feet below me on the bottom. Had to send the spouse down for retrieval. The effect of losing a pouch on a boat dive or in deeper water is left to your imagination. I again double check my weights now. A bayonet type of securing device or something other than velcro will be on my list of wants when looking for a new BC.

Another potential issue with intergrated weights is the BC arrangement can lead to a face down attitude on the surface.

Last bit of experience. When buying a weight intergrated BC make sure you see how much effort it takes to place the pouch in the BC weight pocket with the amount and type of weights YOU intend to use. My weights fill the pouches to just about their maximum capacity and though not a problem it sometimes is an annoyance stuffing the pouch in the pocket. On a shore dive when the BC & tank is laying flat in the truck bed no problem. When on a boat and trying to insert the pouches while the BC and tank is upright in the boats tank holder and limited space, the annoyance level goes up.

I have done equipment adjustments (tank strap adjustment) on the surface and had no problems with bouyancy but I have a dry suit so I can adjust my suit air to give me the amount of positive / negative bouyancy I need while I work on the BC.

Another option to a standard belt or intergrated BC is a harness. It takes the weight off your hips, is not part of the BC, and from what I have seen has an easy dump method. Never used a harness so I'm just guessing as to the benefits of using one if any.

Others have expressed the same advantages / dis-advantages that I see for intergrated BC's.

 

[mccabejc]

Being a new guy, take what I say with a grain of salt. But I prefer the weight integrated for a couple of reasons:

It gives you the option of dropping only a portion of your weight, not all of it. And it seems to me that if you're down deep and need to drop some weight to ascend, then you probably want to drop just enough to allow you ascend quickly, not all of it so that you shoot like a missle. And it also gets rid of the "falling off the boat with only your weights on" scenario. Well, I guess you could fall off with only your BC on....

Also, it just feels more comfortable. And I never really trusted those buckles on the weight belts. All that weight hanging on a belt that's just looped thru a buckle.

The downside, as previously mentioned, is that it limits your ability to adjust your trim by moving your weights between the front and back.

 

[TwoTanks]

3dent pretty much summed it up.

I dive weight integrated but in the colder water in boston I usually keep about half my weight on a belt, that way the BC is not too heavy itself and I can pass up my belt first when climbing onto recreational boats. This also lets me take off my BC without becoming positively buoyant.
there are several different types of WI BCs. you should look at several types before you get one. You may have problems with sand in the velcro if you do shore diving, or a zeagle might be too much BC for you.

I dive a zeagle and it works great for me, but that doesn't mean it will for you.

Also be aware that some BCs recommend hard blocks and some recommend soft weight, so you may need to get new weight too.

Good Luck

 

[marcurts]

I had a similar experience as Seabat, I lost a weight pocket, it was velcro attached. I switched to the DUI weight harness, it gets the weight off your hips and your bc pockets are alot more useful without the weight taking up all the space.