New wetsuit=how much more weight?

[Kevster]

I am thinking about buying a new wetsuit online(Sizing risk!!!!)

I currently have a 3mm scubapro XL size(Done approx 120 dives in this suit).

I would like some additional thermal protection.
I am either going to buy a vest (Fourth element), near neutral buoyancy)) or a full Mares tri-wetsuit (5/4/3 mm). 5mm at body,4mm legs/arms/3mm neck,wrists

I currently use 4kg which I like as 2x 1kg go in my BCD trim pockets and then I have 1kg on weightbelt at each side of my hip.

If I buy a vest it is likely I will not have to carry extra weight.

How much additional weight do you think I will need for a new 5/4/3 wetsuit.

Most of my diving is in tropics , I currently get coldish at 26/27 C!!!
I am about to visit Komodo.
Any thoughts?

 

[Ted S]

If you're looking at going from a 3mm to a 4mm you may not need to add a whole lot to compensate although since you're already taking little weight and probably have compressed your suit, a kg or so isn't unreasonable, but you may get away with just adding a half to each side. Going to 5mm and a new suit will obviously require a larger change but still shouldn't be a ton of weight.

That said, it's difficult to know how you'll react and given the compression factor to your suite (120 isn't a ton of dives on a suit but based on wear who knows) you really would want to do a 500-psi test and play with the weighting not just to figure out if you need to add 2 or 3 kg for your suit but also where you want to put the extra weight in relation to your trim.

 

[spectrum]

I can tell you that the Bare 3mm Thermal skin hooded vest with the 5mm hood is 3.5 buoyant. I would expect the 2.5 vest to add close to 2 pounds of buoyancy to your rig.

Think about it... The insulation value of the vest comes from trapped air. If you don't need to add any weight then why wear it?

Now it's entirely possible that your finesse has improved since your last weight check and you are already carrying what you need. In any event it's not a huge delta.

Pete

 

[drl]

I carry similar amounts of lead (8#) with a well-used 3mm suit, and when I got a new 5mm I needed 6 kg in salt water. Everyone is different, so there's no substitute for a weight check, but that might give you a starting point.

Deborah

 

[don Francisco]

You've touched a nerve here. I use a variety of wetsuits since I dive in anything from 45-83 degrees, and make sure to note the perfect weighting with each in my log. Whenever I buy a new wetsuit I have to go through a period of trial and error until I have the correct weight dialed in. Even different brands of the same thickness wetsuit vary somewhat.

I wish that manufacturers would put a "floatation factor" on the label. This could be measured
near the surface, or be a "compressed" value calculaded at say 2ata (30ft). I've done this at home occasionally by putting the suit into a mesh bag with some weight and tossing it into the pool, and adjusting the weighting until it's close to neutral, but that isn't always convenient.

Whatever you guess for the extra weights needed based on the thickness, add 1kg for the first dive or two as a new suit compensation factor. dF