Love my heated vest!

[AngloFish]

I joke with my spouse that she got me a $700 bill for my b-day as being a non-diver she didn't get me a batter pack with everything
So the battery pack was about 700 but it's 11.5 mah and will run the whole system for 2hrs or so. The vest, gloves and wet connector/port is about 1200.
The vest fit is really sweet, it's 200g thinsulate so it's actually pretty warm even when off. It has a crotch strap so it stays put. Don't find it bulky at all and when it's on it provides a lot of heat.
Routing the cable for the vest is really simple.
As for the gloves, they are far less bulky than I imagined but I did have to go back to proper blue dry gloves (as opposed to the Canadian tire cheapies I like but are a size or two smaller).
Running the cables for the gloves is a pain in the butt though, will take some getting used to but I definitely feel like electro from the running man when all is said and done. Having all those wires next to the p-valve also made me a little nervous but I like to live dangerously. I think I'd save the gloves for serious stuff and primarily use the vest as it's very quick and simple to rig up.
As for the battery pack, it's an external canister that I clip to my rig (side mount so I just have secured to the small of my back). Cable routes from behind up to the connector on the drysuit inflator.
Hope that helps!

How was the price, fit. Gloves easy to use with your gear. Is it bulky hows the warmth? Batteries recharegable and whats in the package
Always good to hear a report from users

 

[MAGELLAN]

Can you wear the vest just under a rashguard? As I'm getting older I'm getting more and more uncomfortable wearing stiff/heavy wetsuits, due to weight gain, pinched nerves in the neck, etc. I want to know (understanding it would be less effective) if it would still function without being under a 3mil to 7mil wetsuit. If the heat is generated at the back I'd have the vest, and rashguard, then the back of the BCD to hold the heat against my back.

 

[Superlyte27]

Wait until it malfunctions in your drysuit causing second degree burns, because you have no way to shut it down via external remote. You can't disconnect battery or shut if off because everything is inside your drysuit.

That's not a situation I want.

 

[manni-yunk]

Wait until it malfunctions in your drysuit causing second degree burns, because you have no way to shut it down via external remote. You can't disconnect battery or shut if off because everything is inside your drysuit.

That's not a situation I want.

Agreed - thats not a situation that I want or anyone else wants - but is this being afraid of a ghost, or a real thing?? When I first looked at this unit I thought.."what if" - but now that its been out for a while, been market proven as reliable (with a few tweaks to the wireless connections to the controller) - has there been a single issue what battery's leaking or causing second degree burns? Leaking at all? Problems with the batteries at all?

Tested and certified to CE standards makes me feel a little better also.

So my question - is there a single reported issue with these batteries and injury?

 

[Superlyte27]

I'm not sure if it happened with this vest. But when I was doing my research on which one to buy, there was an issue where the diver was unable to shut down his heat, and sustained pretty bad burns because his power source was inside and unreachable.

As with anything man-made, it's not an issue of "if" but "when" it will fail. This is not something I can risk.

There's LOTS of good vests out there. Make sure your power supply is on the outside of your suit, so WHEN it breaks, you can keep from torturing yourself.

 

[kwinter]

So my question - is there a single reported issue with these batteries and injury?

My question would be what advantage this one provides over others that don't have the controller and/or battery pack inside the suit. Like Peter said, it is probably just a matter of time. I have 2 different heated garments, and both use external battery. I have every confidence that if they fail, it won't be in a way that causes a serious burn.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[manni-yunk]

I'm not sure if it happened with this vest. But when I was doing my research on which one to buy, there was an issue where the diver was unable to shut down his heat, and sustained pretty bad burns because his power source was inside and unreachable.

As with anything man-made, it's not an issue of "if" but "when" it will fail. This is not something I can risk.

There's LOTS of good vests out there. Make sure your power supply is on the outside of your suit, so WHEN it breaks, you can keep from torturing yourself.

You do realize that there are reports, at least on that I personally know, of people being burned by power cord going to a bulkhead being cut underwater and hurting the diver? Its not a matter of "when" it breaks....its more about what is the failure mode of it breaking.

Ive seen no evidence other than pure speculation that the failure mode of this vest is unsafe. Ive been looking for it, watching for it, but no actual evidence or real life accounts.

---------- Post added October 9th, 2015 at 06:11 PM ----------

My question would be what advantage this one provides over others that don't have the controller and/or battery pack inside the suit. Like Peter said, it is probably just a matter of time. I have 2 different heated garments, and both use external battery. I have every confidence that if they fail, it won't be in a way that causes a serious burn.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

Advantage - less cords, tangle points outside the suite. Less things to be cut causing a shock/burn hazzard. No additional leakpoints in a different bulkhead. No additional weight due to the extra cannister. COST


Look - Im not saying this thing is perfect - but that it seems like a viable option to me.

As to every confidence in failure modes?? - Ill point you to a NJ diver that has burns from a cannister driven heated vest. Burns are exterior of the suit - NOT interior.

 

[Superlyte27]

The HUGE difference is....

Failure on yours, no way to stop it.
Failure on mine, I simply unplug the E/O Cord, takes literally less than 2 seconds.
The real tech divers know which one to use.

*EDIT*
I re-read your post and me thinks you don't know what you're talking about.
There is a battery canister, from that canister is an E/O Cord. In that E/O Cord is one positive wire 12v and one negative wire. If either wire gets cut, the heater doesn't work. No power is getting inside the suit. Cut the ground wire, no power to suit. Cut the positive wire, no power to the suit, so how exactly did a wire get cut and burn a diver? Even if the wires shorted out.... The suit runs on Carbon Fiber heat tape,
which in and of itself is essentially resistive heat. i.e. positive and negative shorting themselves out through carbon fiber.

Give it time, this brand new product is sure to have an issue.... No way I'm putting a battery inside a drysuit with me.

Here's your scenario...
I've got 6 hours of deco in 70 degree water. On/Off button fails on and I can't regulate heat.... I get burned. Or, battery fails and ignites (which happens, there are a dozen examples). My choices are, continue to burn, or cut myself out of my drysuit to extinguish the burning.... only now, I have no exposure protection and hours and hours of deco left. So, freeze, burn or get bent.

Choice is pretty simple, buy a big boy product and get away from the expensive gimmicks.

 

[manni-yunk]

The HUGE difference is....

Failure on yours, no way to stop it.
Failure on mine, I simply unplug the E/O Cord, takes literally less than 2 seconds.
The real tech divers know which one to use.

*EDIT*
I re-read your post and me thinks you don't know what you're talking about.
There is a battery canister, from that canister is an E/O Cord. In that E/O Cord is one positive wire 12v and one negative wire. If either wire gets cut, the heater doesn't work. No power is getting inside the suit. Cut the ground wire, no power to suit. Cut the positive wire, no power to the suit, so how exactly did a wire get cut and burn a diver? Even if the wires shorted out.... The suit runs on Carbon Fiber heat tape,
which in and of itself is essentially resistive heat. i.e. positive and negative shorting themselves out through carbon fiber.

Give it time, this brand new product is sure to have an issue.... No way I'm putting a battery inside a drysuit with me.

Here's your scenario...
I've got 6 hours of deco in 70 degree water. On/Off button fails on and I can't regulate heat.... I get burned. Or, battery fails and ignites (which happens, there are a dozen examples). My choices are, continue to burn, or cut myself out of my drysuit to extinguish the burning.... only now, I have no exposure protection and hours and hours of deco left. So, freeze, burn or get bent.

Choice is pretty simple, buy a big boy product and get away from the expensive gimmicks.

Sorry Im not a "real" tech diver....whatever the heck that means. Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to be considerer a "real tech diver...........wow, you have to be kidding me with the elitist attitude that gear makes you "Real"


Now - back to the comment of knowing what Im talking about - You are making a whole slew of assumptions and misinterpreting what I stated. I understand 100% the mechanisam of action of how heated vests work.......along with the path of electric power.

Either way - I wont go into any more detail of what I meant because Im not a "Real tech diver" and quite frankly I dont care.

I was simply asking for feedback, advice and real life experience. Its interesting how he only negative feedback is coming from people that have never used it, know knowone that used it, and have never heard of an actual problem other than a theory......


Im simply trying to investigate ways of having less cannisters, less cables, and less clutter. Ive never said that this was the only or best way - but I like to question and understand things completely.

But then again - maybe some day as a "real" tech diver I will be able to.......


BTW - is the OP of this thread a "Real" tech diver? I dont know her but I thought she was pretty well respected in the tech community......I wonder if she knows her choice of heated vest limits her status as a real tech diver....

 

[Superlyte27]

sigh, you either get it or you don't.