Thermalution Yellow Grade

[manni-yunk]

I am very intrigued by the Thermalution Yellow grade. I have 75% convinced myself to order one.

My question is about one of the better features - I like the fact that there is no external battery pack. Less wires, etc. That being said - is there any concern about lithium batteries INSIDE of the drysuit on a planned deco dive? Could there be a battery concern or are the LI-Ion battery problems only on the charging side of the equation and not on the discharge side?


I would hate to have a fire in my drysuit, literally, with 45 more minutes of deco.


Im guessing it would happen during charging and not so much on discharge, but I wanted to see if anyone else is concerned about this at all?

 

[rwkosh]

I'm not an expert on lithium batteries, but I will say that your concerns echoed my own when I was trying to decide whether or not to buy one of these. My own research suggested that most batteries catch fire during the charging cycle when they are being incorrectly charged,or have been previously damaged physically. During normal usage, the odds of a fire are extremely small (think about how many people carry cell phones in their pockets each day without incident).

I did end up buying one of these vests and really enjoy the extra warmth on cold dives. I always have it on, even when I don't choose to actually turn on the power. I have been using it for almost a year without incident. I always figured that in the remote chance that a battery did have a problem while on a dive, I could always unzip the drysuit and flood it with water, but then, I am not doing 45 minutes worth of deco stops. I don't charge any lithium battery and then just ignore it while it charges and I am always careful to make sure that I do not drop the batteries (though they are really well protected).

Hope this helps you some in your decision.

 

[tursiops]

I wouldn't worry about it. It is probably considerably more dangerous to drive to the dive site than it is to wear one of these.

 

[aaen]

Well these are an interesting product and one that I can say I am interested to see where they will grow. Personally have gone through two of the yellow grade vests, the first would not turn on at all with a rebreather on my back, even if i held the remote up against the receiver. This was replaced by the manufacture and I have dove my current vest maybe 4-5 times and it has also stopped working,as far as I can tell the batteries are now no longer working, on the charger only one shows receiving a charge, the other doesn't even get recognized anymore. Will need to try someone else to see if they work.

Of the many people (ten or so)whom I know have bought these in hopes of getting a cheap fix for heated gear, pretty much everyone of them has had an issue. Most seem to be with the batteries failing (no longer taking charge or the connections have failed and will not stay connected), one had a rather sever burn (2nd degree from the looks of it) on her back, this was handled very quickly from the manufacture and was a result due to faulty wiring, the other guy his wiring in the vest failed, he didn't get burnt but this was also sorted out as well. Most of these have been repaired or dealt with by the manufacture, s the customer service seems to be quite good. Sadly I don't think any of us want to experience the customer service that quickly.

I'm glad to see the manufacture standing behind their product but out of my group of friends/buddies there are too many that are having failures, some multiple on units that have been barely used (myself included). I'm still up in the air about them, but when it does work it feels wonderful, mind you I would prefer the heat to be on the front/sides then on the back, but that is personal opinion on it.

So if your diving with a rebreather/twinset, the remote will have to be held directly to the receiver to turn it on or off, the websites have been now changed to reflect this and state the remote should be held close to the receiver to avoid any chance of a loss connection with the remote. Granted not all were having this issue.

Hope this doesn't sway you one way or the other, just some further information to help you make an informed decision. Like i said when mine worked it was fantastic, I think they are still in the early/mid phases of prototyping this product and it was rushed to the market to quickly. Or perhaps they do what they do in the IT world and with cars and allow the users to be the beta testers to save some money and they then sort it out from there? No idea.

Anyways, everyone mileage will vary on this. I have since hung the vest back up and have contacted my dealer to have this issue sorted and dealt with. Hopefully this will be taken care of here in a relatively short amount of time.

regards

Steve

 

[dreamdive]

Well these are an interesting product and one that I can say I am interested to see where they will grow. Personally have gone through two of the yellow grade vests, the first would not turn on at all with a rebreather on my back, even if i held the remote up against the receiver. This was replaced by the manufacture and I have dove my current vest maybe 4-5 times and it has also stopped working,as far as I can tell the batteries are now no longer working, on the charger only one shows receiving a charge, the other doesn't even get recognized anymore. Will need to try someone else to see if they work.

Of the many people (ten or so)whom I know have bought these in hopes of getting a cheap fix for heated gear, pretty much everyone of them has had an issue. Most seem to be with the batteries failing (no longer taking charge or the connections have failed and will not stay connected), one had a rather sever burn (2nd degree from the looks of it) on her back, this was handled very quickly from the manufacture and was a result due to faulty wiring, the other guy his wiring in the vest failed, he didn't get burnt but this was also sorted out as well. Most of these have been repaired or dealt with by the manufacture, s the customer service seems to be quite good. Sadly I don't think any of us want to experience the customer service that quickly.

I'm glad to see the manufacture standing behind their product but out of my group of friends/buddies there are too many that are having failures, some multiple on units that have been barely used (myself included). I'm still up in the air about them, but when it does work it feels wonderful, mind you I would prefer the heat to be on the front/sides then on the back, but that is personal opinion on it.

So if your diving with a rebreather/twinset, the remote will have to be held directly to the receiver to turn it on or off, the websites have been now changed to reflect this and state the remote should be held close to the receiver to avoid any chance of a loss connection with the remote. Granted not all were having this issue.

Hope this doesn't sway you one way or the other, just some further information to help you make an informed decision. Like i said when mine worked it was fantastic, I think they are still in the early/mid phases of prototyping this product and it was rushed to the market to quickly. Or perhaps they do what they do in the IT world and with cars and allow the users to be the beta testers to save some money and they then sort it out from there? No idea.

Anyways, everyone mileage will vary on this. I have since hung the vest back up and have contacted my dealer to have this issue sorted and dealt with. Hopefully this will be taken care of here in a relatively short amount of time.

regards

Steve

Hello Steve,

I happy to report that so far I had none of any of the issues you encountered.

Peter and I just dived our vests to 400 ft in Cayman without any issues. We both dive CCR and the remote has been working flawlessly. I usually keep it with my spare mask in a pocket on my waist band and it activates the heater on the first click.

Since DEMA, we have been diving the vests non-stop wet or dry. (We are both "wusses" - spelling??) and I don't want to go without it. They are not cheap but so very well worth it!

I hope the manufacturer is able to expand the technology to a heated glove system with a small battery.
Anyway, I am very impressed with them and have stated so on my on post on this forum. Sorry Steve that you issues. Perhaps our vest are a newer version (DEMA 2014) and the 'bugs' have been ironed out.

For my experience, I can highly recommend them.

Claudia

 

[afdgf]

I just got a blue version of the thermalution vest. My question is how to take care of it going into and out of my mesh dive bag. I am going to try to use an otterbox for the electronics, but I am not sure about the vest itself. How do you pack it in the bag when dry before diving and what do you do with it after diving and it is wet and you need to put everything in your bag so that you can get back to your hotel or car etc.? It should not be just wadded up and thrown in the bag. How do you deal with it if the shop is going to store your equipment and rinse everything for you? Thanks for any advice.

 

[aaen]

Turns out it was my batteries that went bad. They replaced for me under warranty. Hopefully these last longer then 10 dives. A good friend of mine is now having the same issue. .

Hope the new ones continue to work great.




Steve

 

[rwkosh]

After a dive, I suggest NOT immediately recharging your batteries. Leave them depleted for storage. Charge them again the day before your next dive. Lithium ion batteries tend to last longer if you do this. Just a suggestion. My batteries are having no issues at all and this is how I've been storing them.

 

[aaen]

Thanks for the advice, hopefully that will help others out., sadly it is not the case with mine, they just went dead. The distributor tested them and sent me new ones as the batteries went caput after a few dives.

What I want to build is a battery bank where it discharges the batteries before recharging them. A good friend of mine had one for his hid lights and boy was it impressive, really made a difference with nimh batteries. Not sure on lithium. After 2 years he was still gettibg 80% of his battery packs rated capacity with over 400 dives on the light.





Steve

 

[danvolker]

My wife Sandra has been using a thermolution vest for over a year now, and the most amazing thing to me, is why this product has not been heralded as the next best way to dive by the diving masses yet!
Suddenly, we have it in our reach, to use an exposure suit with no bouyancy or bouyancy shift with depth, with one of these under it, and be completely warm for the dive, and the time on the boat during surface interval..
As an evolutionary direction, this is light years beyond dry suits or wetuits.
Now if someone can develop a tank with little or no bouyancy shift from full to 500 psi, there would no longer be any need at all to use a stinking BC or wing.

This would mean twice the speed at half the effort.