Santi Heated BZ400 + FE Artic one piece base?

[ThePimp]

Hi,

Did anyone try the combination of heated BZ400 + Fourth element Arctic as a base layer?

I'm worried will the **heat** from the suit be lost instead of coming to my body? With regular merino base layer it comes great, but this is much thicker.

I'm talking about extremely cold dives where even Heated BZ400 is borderline good enough?



Also does anyone know a WARMER undersuit (electric or otherwise) than BZ400?


Thnx!

 

[grantctobin]

How cold are you talking and for what duration? Is this in an overhead environment? 110W is a LOT of heat. If you need to run it that hot, a battery or wire or E/O failure, let alone a drysuit rip, means hypothermia, bent, or dead with any deco obligation.

 

[ThePimp]

3-4 degrees C, 4 hours dive is what I'm after.

I know the risks.

 

[grantctobin]

Habitat.

How much of the dives you’re already doing are you running the suit on full power? Heated gloves and socks? I don’t think adding an Arctic is going to do that much but will decrease mobility further. A Weezle with a vest underneath is warm but I worry in event of a suit flood. @rjack321 is the other one doing dives similar to yours in nature.

 

[bobmaggi]

I’ve been diving with a heated vest, gloves (and socks in the winter) for several years now. I use a base layer of UnderArmor cold gear, followed by the heated vest. The heated gloves go directly on my hands and the heated socks are also worn directly against my skin. Over the heated vest goes the 4th Element Artic top. I wear the thin merino wool gloves over the heated gloves and a thick merino wool sock over the heated socks. This is powered via a external 20Ahr battery canister via a EO connector. I cycle the switch on the canister as needed for thermal comfort.
On planned deco dives I typically don’t turn the heat on until I’m on my way up. During the winter I don’t do deco diving so the heat is turned on just as soon as I put my gear on. The gloves lose heat the fastest so my hands have never gotten hot, the hands just stay warm enough to be comfortable. The feet are about the same, rarely actually feel the heat but my toes don’t get uncomfortably cold either (I only use the heated socks during winter diving, summer diving the heated socks are just replaced with a thin sock with the same outer layer).
The vest is a Light Monkey vest with 2 heating pads, front and back. This vest I can really feel the heat especially the pad on my back. At the height of summer I will turn it off and on as needed for comfort. I mainly dive Great Lakes shipwrecks, deco typically less than 30-45 minutes. I always assume the heat will fail so I always wear the same basic setup (I use silk glove liners under the merino wool gloves if not diving with the heated glove liners, they are about the same thickness as the heated gloves and have the same thermal properties as the heated gloves when de-energized).

 

[ginti]

I’ve been diving with a heated vest, gloves (and socks in the winter) for several years now.

May I ask you which socks? I am seriously interested in buying some

Also does anyone know a WARMER undersuit (electric or otherwise) than BZ400?

On the paper, tecline 480g is a bit warmer.

In practice, I have both, they are basically the same in terms of performance, but the tecline is very fluffy out of the water, and the quality of materials is lower. My Santi is more constraining in terms of movements, but I believe it is a wrong size (MLL, I think the L would fit better), so I cannot say whether the problem is typical of the BZ400 or if it comes from the size...

Bear in mind, I don't dive heated vest yet, so take care when reading my advises. Water temperature form me is usually 6°C, dive time about 1h in these conditions; here I go with bz400 + artic + x-core, and very annoying big under-gloves + several socks (usually two merino pairs and the fourth element ones)

 

[irycio]

[QUOTE="ginti, post: 9286280, member: 512781"
Bear in mind, I don't dive heated vest yet, so take care when reading my advises. Water temperature form me is usually 6°C, dive time about 1h in these conditions; here I go with bz400 + artic + x-core, and very annoying big under-gloves [/QUOTE]

And are you comfortable in that set for that period of time in these temperatures? ;-) Apologies for hijacking the thread, just got curious, as the conditions are what I have for winter diving and I'm freezing my ass (and everything else) off.

 

[ginti]

Bear in mind, I don't dive heated vest yet, so take care when reading my advises. Water temperature form me is usually 6°C, dive time about 1h in these conditions; here I go with bz400 + artic + x-core, and very annoying big under-gloves

And are you comfortable in that set for that period of time in these temperatures? ;-) Apologies for hijacking the thread, just got curious, as the conditions are what I have for winter diving and I'm freezing my ass (and everything else) off.

Comfortable is a very big word; I can manage it, let's say.

Usually, after 30/40m, I start feeling cold in my hands; but my ability to manipulate things (e.g. take a smb out of the pocket and launch it) is still ok. After 45/50m, I start feeling cold everywhere, but I can maintain focus.

After 1h, I start having problems. For instance, I can take the smb out of my pocket, but I have serious issues in opening it (I find it difficult to put my fingers under the bungees); also, I really feel cold. I never arrive at this point, except in case of serious issues.

EDIT: 6°C is the lowest I find; it can be 7, or even 8 in summer... this is the range

 

[bobmaggi]

The heated glove liners and sock liners were purchased from a motorcycle warehouse store. I need to get new socks, the last few times I used them I don’t think they work anymore. Feet were getting a bit chillier than I like. I’m looking for something that uses carbon fiber tape vs wire, I would expect that to last longer.

 

[ThePimp]

Habitat.

How much of the dives you’re already doing are you running the suit on full power? Heated gloves and socks? I don’t think adding an Arctic is going to do that much but will decrease mobility further. A Weezle with a vest underneath is warm but I worry in event of a suit flood. @rjack321 is the other one doing dives similar to yours in nature.

Yes it makes sense about mobility.

I don't have gloves yet. I dive always the deco on full power (don't have any kind of controller)...but usualy dives 7-8 degrees up to a couple of hours...and I am not without cold...not maybe cold, but not hot either.

@rjack what do you use please?


Thnx!