Thermalution Battery Powered, Heated Undershirt: A Product Review

[RCB1882]

Thanks for the feedback on the distributor. We were on a boat with someone who had one and sang its praises, so I'm looking at getting one, but I have zero patience for bad service!

 

[Hatul]

I bought a "yellow" vest from Heated Wetsuits/Thermulation on the east coast. First the product: like many other folks, I really like it and found it is comfortable, makes a big difference in chilly water (I find 70-75F chilly in my 5mm sealed wetsuit) and I like that it's thin enough to still wear my lava core hooded vest over and my wetsuit.. and was fantastic when I hit thermoclines in the 60's! The battery life has been solid and easily can do 3 ~60 min dives on single charge (provided I keep it on low)... will be wearing again in the Galapagos next week! As someone who gets chilled easily diving, the vest has been worth the investment for me and inspired me to do some extra night dives on trips as know will be warm enough.

But I do feel the need to provide a warning on buying from the east coast distributor.. I had ordered a size too small and while the Heated Wetsuits team was fairly responsive and were quick to exchange my vest for a larger size prior to my trip, they went AWOL on me returning some spare batteries I purchased. Despite multiple email exchanges and confirmation that upon return receipt that I would be credited back the $180 purchase.. they have completely stopped responding to my emails and requests. I had been warned by a few DM's across the country that they had heard of issues with the US East Coast distributor.. so my fault for not heeding their warnings. It's been a frustrating experience and dissuaded my boyfriend from purchasing from them.

Again, I really like the product and even though an expensive investment, it's made my diving more enjoyable. But just a warning on the customer service side if purchasing from heated wetsuits in NC.. better to go through your local dive shop or the west coast/OUS distributor if necessary..

They can also be ordered from the Thermalution website directly, but they list no address nor phone number. Is that the same as buying from Heatedwetsuits.com ?

 

[pennylane]

I bought a "yellow" vest from Heated Wetsuits/Thermulation on the east coast. First the product: like many other folks, I really like it and found it is comfortable, makes a big difference in chilly water (I find 70-75F chilly in my 5mm sealed wetsuit) and I like that it's thin enough to still wear my lava core hooded vest over and my wetsuit.. and was fantastic when I hit thermoclines in the 60's! The battery life has been solid and easily can do 3 ~60 min dives on single charge (provided I keep it on low)... will be wearing again in the Galapagos next week! As someone who gets chilled easily diving, the vest has been worth the investment for me and inspired me to do some extra night dives on trips as know will be warm enough.

But I do feel the need to provide a warning on buying from the east coast distributor.. I had ordered a size too small and while the Heated Wetsuits team was fairly responsive and were quick to exchange my vest for a larger size prior to my trip, they went AWOL on me returning some spare batteries I purchased. Despite multiple email exchanges and confirmation that upon return receipt that I would be credited back the $180 purchase.. they have completely stopped responding to my emails and requests. I had been warned by a few DM's across the country that they had heard of issues with the US East Coast distributor.. so my fault for not heeding their warnings. It's been a frustrating experience and dissuaded my boyfriend from purchasing from them.

Again, I really like the product and even though an expensive investment, it's made my diving more enjoyable. But just a warning on the customer service side if purchasing from heated wetsuits in NC.. better to go through your local dive shop or the west coast/OUS distributor if necessary..

 

[pennylane]

Wanted to provide a quick update that we were finally able to resolve the refund due to me-- the distributor attributed it to a transition a new credit card processing vendor/system. Appreciate that we were able to resolve the issue. I remain cautious on buying from them based on being sent a passive aggressive email by their owner about me posting a "hostile" and "nasty" review on Scubaboard-- which is incredibly unprofessional and inappropriate to bully or harass your customer when the issue is on their end. Am just happy to have resolved the outstanding refund at this point.