Is it time to go electric?

[Marie13]

I use a Thermolution vest. Nice to take the chill off. I’m diving 40-50F water this winter.

 

[Bald Wookie]

Hi!

So with the winter around, the air temperature is dropping below 0*C and water stabilizes at 4*C (<40F). I dive a trilaminate drysuit with merino thermal underwear followed by a powerstretch undersuit (see Kwark Navy Fleece Undersuit - Man for English desc) with an additional vest (Kwark Navy Tech Vest). Hestra glove liners and whichever thick socks I find.

First 20 minutes are actually fine, but beyond that - or maybe half an hour tops - it really stops being fun, not to mention safe.

Thus the question - is there anything else to try, e.g. would the Thinsulate akin to Santi's BZ400 be considerably warmer contrary to the description that producer of my garments provides, or is it time to start considering electric heating?

Thanks in advance!

We get down to 0*C and -1*C in the winter here. Pretty much the only way to dive year-round consistently is neoprene suits. 4mm compressed is very common here. A few people have the heated undergarments but it is rare to see anyone in a tri-lam come January. Even with the heated undergarments the bulk underneath a tri-lam is much more restrictive than switching to a neoprene suit. The only major restriction then is valve drills, but seeing anyone diving back-mounted doubles in the winter is even more uncommon - most are sidemount.

 

[bobmaggi]

I dive a rebreather and noticed that I was calling dives earlier as my sensitivity to cold has increased as I’ve gotten older. So I put together a heating system with an external battery pack. That made a world of difference in my diving, now the dive limit is based on how much deco I want to do vs temperature. Since I dive shipwrecks in the Great Lakes even summer time temperatures are 40-42F, cold is always a factor. I always dive assuming that the heat will fail so I have a UnderArmor cold gear base layer, followed by a Light Monkey heated vest, and a 4th Element Artic top. I also use heated gloves year-round, these are motorcycle glove heated liners with merino wool over them. During the winter months I add in heated sock liners with merino wool socks over them. The power for this is a 20Ahr external Light Monkey canister. Temperature is controlled by cycling the on-off switch on the battery canister.
This is one of those upgrades that once I dove it a few times I wondered why I waited so long! It’s not cheap but if you regularly dive in cold water it’s worth it.