Love my heated vest!

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Fake tech diver here!

I've use the thermulation once on a wetsuit dive and have a fair number of drysuit dives with an externally powered vest.

Thermulation is neato for dives when its 'nice to have'. Like a longer wetsuit dive, no deco. I would NOT sign up for a drysuit dive or any dive where I'm dependent on it for warmth.

For deco dives, its drysuit and an externally powered vest. I've seen dudes get burnt with those, and its just a matter of unplugging it or turning off the switch. I'm not interested in signing up to be in a situation where I might not be able to turn the contraption off, and that's exactly what can happen with the thermulation.

Neat trinket, limited application.
 
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....

Claudia is a real tech diver. No doubt about it. But she also is connected with Add Helium, which sells the Thermalution stuff. Now do they sell it because it's good and that's why she uses it? Or does she promote it because they sell it? I'm not even going to consider that quandary. I will just reiterate that the Thermalution sounds great for wetsuit diving where you have access to the power in case of a problem, but there is no way I would want it in my drysuit. And a combination bulkhead/inflator takes care of the problem you mentioned about a second leak point.

Fake tech diver here!

I've use the thermulation once on a wetsuit dive and have a fair number of drysuit dives with an externally powered vest.

Thermulation is neato for dives when its 'nice to have'. Like a longer wetsuit dive, no deco. I would NOT sign up for a drysuit dive or any dive where I'm dependent on it for warmth.

For deco dives, its drysuit and an externally powered vest. I've seen dudes get burnt with those, and its just a matter of unplugging it or turning off the switch. I'm not interested in signing up to be in a situation where I might not be able to turn the contraption off, and that's exactly what can happen with the thermulation.

Neat trinket, limited application.

You know it gets really bad when AJ and I are on the same side of an issue.
 
I thought it was a little strange that she linked to the website of the dive shop she is associated with, yet doesn't advertise that fact.

I'd still prefer an external supply that at the very least I could yank the EO cord if something were to go wrong.
 
Well, having owned and used one of these for two years of which I've only gotten about 20 dives out of it as it didn't work. The first I couldn't turn it on with the remote, second the batteries died after 3 dives. Right now it seems to be working. Out of a big group of divers I know here, there maybe two that haven't had issues with the vest.

I know of one diver here whom got a pretty bad burn on her back from it, blister/etc from faulty wires in the vest. How do I know this was for sure, well I was in a relationship with her at the time and saw the blistered burn.

Another friends basically melted while being charged. Thankfully he wasn't wearing it. Turns out the wires shorted in the vest. This is one of my good friends.

Most issues have been batteries not working or charging. This is quite common. This was pretty much everyone I know with one of these

Granted, all were taken care of by the distributor/manufacture and usually there is lots of issues with newish type products

With regards to heat, the heat from the suit is on the back of the vest. They use some sort of wiring that gives of a far infrared heat? Think that's the name, anyways the wiring used is quite large and pronounced, putting it on the front of the vest will result in pushing the wires into your skin from the drysuit compressing. This can facilitate getting a Burn. So to compensate for this they put it on the back so it is not being compressed. Sadly with the heating pad being in the back I tend to not be as warm and my chest/kidneys get cold.

What I do is flip it around to the front and only use it if I get chilled. Otherwise I risk getting a burn. I've warn it on for two hours and I had red marks in my chest from the battery for hours on low heat and turning it off and on . I still wear it this way as the heat in the front is a lot nicer and keeps me warmer on deco if I need it., I just tend to wear a thicker undershirt now to give me a bit more protection.

Now would I buy another one of these?

Nope, the only reason I did was it got the gf and me into one for less then the price of a santi system and battery pack. If I only bought one I'd have never seen it as we all know. It would have mysteriously made its way into the her basket under its own power obviously :wink:.

The reasons to choose an external battery over the thermulation system are as follows:

1. if there is an issue with the batteries/not being able to shut the power off to the system can result in some serious burns. With a external
Pack you just unplug, the thermalutions your screwed. I've had a remote that wouldn't communicate with my vest to turn it off our on, that was a very hot dive when I got the best in but it wouldn't turn off.

2. If the batteries begin to short out/etc one can easily jettison and external battery supply off their person underwater, try doing that with the batteries in your drysuit. Granted the batteries are sealed and meant to be submerged but that doesn't guarantee anything these days as qc with a lot of companies is horrible.

3. There have been way to many issues with these vests. Even from the new generations. I know a lot of people whom have these none are overly happy with them. I know a few dealers outside of my area that refuse to sell the yellow grade vests due to all the issues and returns.

4. The remote is depth limited to 300 feet. Or was that 200? Anyone doing serious dives or dives deeper then this when your going to likely incur more then 15-20mjns of deco has lost the ability to turn the vest on, thereby making the vest useless. What's that you say, clip it off on the up line? Sure but what if I can't make it back to the up line.

5. Inability to plug the heated vest into an off board source, scooter, extra battery pack, etc. many use the scooter or battery packs from camera lights to power these vests.

The thermulation vests provide good heat and are a great starting point to get into heated gear. That being said, they are an entry to low-mid level product that covers a certain area of diving. Keep in mind these were/are designed for wetsuit diving. They have been adopted for drysuits, which is not their intended use.

The santi or other systems mitigate/relieve a lot of the issues I mentioned above and with tech diving one has to be able to handle issues under the water., we cannot just go to the surface as we may have long decompression obligations. That being said those vests have their own issues and I know people whom have been burnt by them as well. Also they don't allow one to control the heat level without putting in more controls/wiring (drawing a blank on the name). The heating elements in the others seem to be a lot less prone to digging into the skin(tape/fabric) when worn with the heating elements on the front, and they provide the heating in the vital areas (chest and kidneys). That alone is a major selling point.

One thing to keep in mind Is if planning your dives around heated gear, stop and rethink what your doing. I'd suggest buying better undergarments prior to buying heated gear. The heated gear should only be used to augment your diving not keep you warm in the entire dive. Most of use just use it during deco to help with the off gassing. If your using heated gear in temperatures above 50f or 12c, you really need to look at better undergarments and more layers.

That's my two cents on it and I'm busy putting together a system here for the winter months and colder/longer dives.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you look at the pros and cons for both and chose what will suit your needs as a diver and budget. Either option will provide you with heat, however they are completely systems., meant for completely different diving.

Happy dives!



Regards

Steve
 
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One thing to keep in mind Is if planning your dives around heated gear, stop and rethink what your doing. I'd suggest buying better undergarments prior to buying heated gear. The heated gear should only be used to augment your diving not keep you warm in the entire dive. Most of use just use it during deco to help with the off gassing. If your using heated gear in temperatures above 50f or 12c, you really need to look at better undergarments and more layers.
Good advice. Never rely on heating solely to get back, it's about added comfort.

That's my two cents on it and I'm busy putting together a system here for the winter months and colder/longer dives.
I'am putting together a system too. Right now I am contemplating about buying a vest or gloves or both from Santi. It's a lot of of money (again), but after a 69 min. dive today in 11 degrees celcius water I know I want some added comfort for the winter :eyebrow:. Strange enough today I started getting cold after the dive, not during. I have a Santi BZ400 suit, but it does not keep me warm enhough for 2 1 hour+ dives in 4-6 degrees celcius water. With two of those dives planned almost every sunday during winter I won't cut it I am afraid :no:.

What capacity of battery are you thinking off? Just curious.
 
Santi has on their website or was it light monkey a formula to figure out your power needs. And the expected duration times from the battery pack sizes. Just input the battery pack specs and power draw from the heated gear. It's actually easy to do by hand calcs. as well. Just need to look up some electrical formula for power consumption/draw.

I'm looking at plugging into a bulkhead on my scooter, I've got a battery capable of 6hrs + runtime. Which I'll never use on a single dive (well I should never say never), I bought it to be able to get 2 2hr dives a day and have some reserve in the tank. The reserve which I intend to eventually use for heated gear. Fingers crossed.

If I was going to do ext battery, I'd probably say 13ah minimum and go up from there, I think that was about a 2hrs run time for most heat gear systems (ball park) can't remember at the moment, too early and I'm about to head out the door to go dive some shipwrecks and kick off a week of diving here in the PNW. I also debated modifying the thermulation vest to except an external power source as well. But I shot down that idea as I didn't want to get into rewiring and hurting the resale value although I'd probably just let my buddies use it anyways or put it into my ever growing pile of dive gear.




Regards

Steve
 
First of all: have fun!!!

I'am thinking about a 20/25 Ah battery. Should last longer than the air in my tank I can take with me :D
 
AJ:
I'am putting together a system too. Right now I am contemplating about buying a vest or gloves or both from Santi. It's a lot of of money (again), .

Just food for thought. Shirt and glove system that I'm pretty sure is lots less than Santi.
Diving Drysuit Heating Vest and Shirts



iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.
 
Hey Guys and Gals!

Just wanting make the following statement:

I am now (as of 9/22) Peter Sotis' wife who is owner of Add Helium. When I personally post, I do so to communicate my personal experience and opinion. I DO NOT work for Add Helium nor do I get paid otherwise for it.

This post as well as the one on the LX 20 was put up by me because I love both products. I bought my vest at DEMA last year before Peter became a dealer. I got the LX 20 for Christmas last year and loved it so much that I bought anogther one. Yes, I bought it.

This will be my last product review on this board - obviously people are less interested in an honest personal experience than wagging their tongues. People may not agree with mine or (even better) have different experiences with it. But that is why it is useful to post it - I learn from it, too.

Again, even as Peter's wife, I have my business and income separate from his.

Safe Diving

Claudia Sotis MD
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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