Let's talk cold water gloves. What are your recommendations.

[00wabbit]

I'm looking for some new gloves. I have 3mm deep see gloves right now. They are my first gloves that I got for Ow at Dutch Springs (the local quarry). They have been fine warmth wise but they are starting to come apart on me. The threads are pulling out and there is a hole in between the fingers. I am not sure if this is normal, but when the gloves are wet they are extremely hard to put on.

I plan to dive as far into the winter as possible. I have a dry suit now and I will be diving in the Midwest in quarries. Once the early spring season starts back up I will dive he great lakes. I want to find some good warm, durable gloves. the need to fit over latex seals on the drysuit. Not looking for dry gloves right now.

 

[elan]

Just save your money and buy dry gloves if you have your dry suit already. For me wet gloves are viable at 60+. Dry gloves are below that temp. And that never happens in great lakes only close to the surface. We only use wet gloves in the river from june to late october/early november.

 

[gcarter]

I use these in 5mm Aleutian Kevlar Glove No idea how they would work with a drysuit.

I find them quite comfortable down to 6C - 7C (43F - 44F), usually do 2 tanks every outing, time from 45 - 60 minutes each.

I found them inadequate at 3C - 4C - called a dive after 20 minutes. I was really surprised how much difference a couple of degrees made. Depends on your personal limits.

Someone recommended these to me 5mm Dry Five Gloves They seal better, but are harder to get on and I honestly did not find them any warmer.

If I had a dry suit I would probably just go with the dry gloves anyway.

 

[Lemna]

I use 5mm gloves (Fourth Element) to about 45 degrees. These are quite short and fit easily over drysuit seals. When it gets colder I switch to 7mm mitts: you lose surprisingly little dexterity, only signaling numbers is a bit challenging.

 

[00wabbit]

Teach me more about dry gloves. My drysuit has latex wrist seals. Does the dry glove seal go over it or under it?

 

[Lemna]

Teach me more about dry gloves. My drysuit has latex wrist seals. Does the dry glove seal go over it or under it?

I dove with a guy last week who used dry gloves with wrist seals (over the drysuit seals, if I remember correctly) - it didn't take longer to don them than wet gloves. Have a look at this thread though, some people are less happy.

 

[Peter_C]

Dry gloves have better dexterity than 5mm wet gloves. Plus they are warmer, if you equalize them. Link with video below.
Si Tech Quick Clamp Dry Glove System | Dive Right In Scuba - Plainfield, IL

 

[eelnoraa]

I have seen Sitech quick clamp setup that Peter mentioned just the past weekend. It seems like a very good setup. What drysuit do you have currently? Keep in mind that, depend on the suit, adding wrist ring can extend the length of the sleeve, making them too long. But yeah, if I were to get a new dry gloves setup today, the Sitech will be my choice.

 

[g1138]

Aqualung Aleutian Kevlar Gloves in 3mm (NOT 5mm). Get a good tight fitting glove so it fits like a glove and you'll be able to wear 3mm comfortably to about 48F for 50min dives.

My go to choice right now is the O'Neil Psycho 3mm gloves. No velcro to mess with so it eliminates all water flush in the glove. They're a big pain to put on though.
Keep in mind they're surf gloves and will compress at depth. So if you want 3mm in the end, you should get a 5mm pair and take it down deep. They're also not very durable and aren't compatible with plastic tool dip (if you want to reinforce the fingers).
If you want durability (say you're touching the environment a lot) get the Aleutian Kevlars.

 

[oldflounder]

My first pair of gloves were Deep Sea and they fell apart w/in a year. The wet 7mm 3 finger mittens are very warm but hard to get on by myself. The same problem with the 5mm dry five gloves I purchased. They have a very tight wrist. I eventually got the dry glove ring system installed but the thick latex gloves are not warm enough for a long dive and you lose a lot of manual dexterity. It is hard to put the mask and fins on because of the thickness. What I ended up doing last winter was installing the blue chemical gloves you can buy at Lowe's/Home Depot/etc. onto the rings. When I gear up I put on a pair of latex surgical/examination gloves [they keep a lot of heat in.] Then I pull on the sleeves and my hands go into the chemical gloves which have a lot of dexterity and will keep your hands warm and dry for a short while when you first go in [35* water]. I get my fins on and mask adjusted and test it for leakage and adjust my bc straps again. Then I put on my overgloves. These are a pair of oversize [in my case XLs] Waterproof 3 mm zip ups that fit easily over the chemical gloves. I have to leave the zipper unzipped because they won't fit over the drysuit wrist rings. I can get 45 minutes out of these before my fingers get chilled in which case I shoot a little air into the gloves.

This system works for me because I usually dive alone mid-winter [due to lack of others crazy like me]. If you have a buddy that can help you get those tight gloves on then you have a bigger selection to choose from. The wet gloves mentioned earlier are warm enough once on, esp. the mittens - but you lose the dexterity bigtime.

Just my 2 cents worth.