Steel or Aluminum, this brand or that?

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kmarks

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How do/did you choose? I know I'll get some very passionate responses.

I'm not actually shopping to buy at the moment as I'm just getting back into diving after a few years off and I want to make sure it's going to stick this time around, but even still I'm completely overwhelmed. I just recently did a scuba skills update and the rental BCDs were jackets. I didn't even bother to look at the brand because they reminded me why I didn't like jacket BCDs so much: I can't fill the waist/cummerbund on one that fits my shoulders, so there is nothing I can do to make it comfortable and not ride up at the surface. Maybe it's not just me, maybe all jackets are like that for everyone.

Looking back at my notes and some emails I sent to a friend who dove professionally, I see that I had the same feelings about a jacket BC when I first started out and I had tried a Halcyon BP/W rented from the LDS for one dive. I had a lot of trouble getting it adjusted at first, but after the adjustments, I apparently liked it much better than the jackets I had used the weekend before or the weekend after. So now I'm just looking at what options are out there to put together a sort of wish list and I'm not even sure where to start. If I buy gear instead of rent it, I don't like to do starter gear, then move up to something, then move up to something else and end paying for a bunch of junk I'm not going to use for long, so I would want to get it right the first time.

Here's where I am: Aluminum is lighter than steel, which is great for travel, especially if I want to keep checked bag weight down. There are different grades of steel: I commonly see 304, 306, 316 - seems 316 is best for saltwater because the other two will pit if not rinsed well, but a lot of them don't seem to list what grade they are. Advantage of steel, it seems for most people, is that you can move weight off of your belt because it is the weight. I dive with 6 lbs in saltwater and when I rented that Halcyon, I was heavy with no additional weight. When practicing a buoyant ascent in the pool during my SSI Skills Update last month, I dropped my 4 lbs and stuck to the bottom anyway. Other than weight, what's the advantage of steel? Longer lifetime? Less flexibility? Feeling more manly?

Are "soft" back plates even worth considering? Are they just floppy and the only support comes from having a tank strapped to them?

Then there is the question of branding. Maybe it comes down to grade and machining, but why does a DGX plate cost $75, a DiveRite $135, a Mares XR Al is nearly $200 (SS is $290)?

One more thing: I can't ask about this or try things on at the LDS because the one that rented my the Halcyon several years ago closed when the owners retired and the new one for some reason doesn't do BP/Ws. The closest they get is a couple of back inflates (and I'm not opposed to those, so long as they don't have a cummerbund).

I'll stop asking questions now because there are already too many and half of you stopped reading.
 
I can't fill the waist/cummerbund on one that fits my shoulders, so there is nothing I can do to make it comfortable and not ride up at the surface. Maybe it's not just me, maybe all jackets are like that for everyone.

There's option #3: "the skimpy". Where shoulder holes are big enough so you can go size smaller, but it's not long enough. So the cummerbund is around the ribcage. :wink:

I went with Alu for travel, and a cheapest one because I'm cheap. "Soft" ones were actually few and more expensive at the time, or I would have likely bought one. Now I'm in line for a Freedom Contour: travel's annoying anyway, a couple more pounds are not going to change that. How it feels underwater is more important. I do dive with 8 lbs in salt and expect to need a 2-3 lb trim weight with the freedom plate, without being overweighed much.

PS. could've bought an outlaw if they were around back then, too.
 
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If you only need 6 lbs you may as well go with aluminum.
 
steel is a bit more durable other than just the extra ballast. aluminum is fine though. soft backplate is an option for a single tank travel rig. dgx plates are the best bang for the buck, but are imported from asia afaik. the DR is still made in the US iirc. i like the shape of the oms backplates a little better than the dgx/DR. i travel with a DR Al plate and use an oms SS plate locally. sold my DGX SS plate to a friend but I wouldn't mind buying it back.
 
Some YouTube goodness:




I like this one for setup:

 
@kmarks I posted some YouTube links if you haven't seen them already.

Backplates may all look the same but their are some subtle differences. The main thing you need to look out for is if the slots on the plate match up with the slots on the wing. Some wings have longer slots that allow the use of almost any plate, some examples are Dive Rite, DGX, Deep6, Zeagle. For these wings you can use any plate as long as it has slots for the cam bands to pass through. Some plates such as Halcyon, Dive Monkey, and some older plates do not have slots and must be used with a single tank adaptor. So always check, especially if buying used.

If you are looking for a light weight plate then you have a few choices. The first is aluminum and there is nothing wrong with it except they do oxidize if the coating chips off. Tbone reports that with doubles the holes can get deformed. The next is plastic plates, Dive Rite used to make one and they sometimes turn up in the classifieds or on eBay. The only current one is the DSS Kydex plate that has metal reinforcing. Finally there are steel plates that have the non-essential plats cut away these fall into two varieties: Dogbone and Skeleton.

When diving in a pool you are less buoyant in freshwater and remember that the proper weighting should be done with a near empty tank. You should always be weighted to properly hold a safety stop with 500 psi in the tank, consequently you will be overweighted by 5-6 pounds at the start of the dive. When switching from a BC to a BP/W you may need less weight because the BP/W has less inherent buoyancy than a jacket bc. Also Halcyon requires the use of a STA and uses metal buckles which all add weight.

Soft plates by their nature will not be as stable as a metal plate. They are good for travel.

I hope this helps.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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