Thinsulate Questions

[FishDiver]

I have read that Thinsulate dry suit undergarments compress less than fleece. I am interested in buying a Thinsulate vest as a core warmer.

Questions:

1-Does Thinsulate actually compress less and retain more warmth than comparable fleece?

2-What is the thickest or warmest or whatever rated Thinsulate for vest and jackets? Is there any way to compare Thinsulate ratings to fleece ratings? I am looking at general outdoor gear here not necessarily specialized diving gear.

 

[Doc Harry]

The main advantage of Thinsulate is that it retains more heat when wet than other synthetics. I don't think of fleece as being "compressible," but Thinsulate is certainly not very compressible either.

I think the heaviest Thinsulate I have seen is 400gm.

There are ratings called "clo."

The clo unit is defined as the amount of clothing required by a resting subject to be comfortable at a room temperature of 70°F (21°C). Clo-value is analogous to R-value for rating house insulation. For example, 1 R-value = 1.137 clo-value.

The hard part is finding the clo ratings of the different garments.

I found this link:

TPS Page 2

 

[dave4868]

Before shooting my mouth off, I decided to do a little research in the Rubicon Foundation's Rubicon Research Repository, a great resource for dive-related studies and info.

The Rubicon Foundation: Home

Rubicon's collection included the report, "Proceedings of the International Polar Diving Workshop", Lang, M.A. and M.D.J. Sayer (eds.) 2007.

It contains an excellent section entitled: "A Review of Diver Passive Thermal Protection Stratgies for Polar Diving: Present and Future", by Robert T. Stinton (of DUI, Inc).

On p. 22 of the paper (p. 30 of the entire .pdf) is a graph showing relative insulating performance of several materials when compressed and uncompressed.

8MB .pdf:

http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/dspace/bitstream/123456789/5002/1/SI_IntPolar.pdf

Although they performed similarly, it should be noted that the Powerstretch 300 is a fleece with a fabric weight of 560gm/m2 and the UltraThinsulate 400 is 400gm/m2, but the relative thickness is not listed.

So, back to shooting my mouth off....

I'm familiar with both materials (and the Weezle Extreme Plus, for that matter). My unscientific observation is that the fleece will compress more easily and the material is a less efficient insulator ounce for ounce than Thinsulate.

I've also seen another Stinton report where the insulating value of Thinsulate was measured to be twice that of a fleece of equal weight.

That doesn't surprise me.

Comparing ratings for recommended temperature ranges of fleece and Thinsulate is a little difficult, for a number of reasons, but generally, I'd say the ranges listed for Thinsulate tend to be more accurate and the ranges for fleece are a bit inflated.

Can't help you with info on Thinsulate vests, but Cabelas carries some, but they appear pretty light weight. (I got my fleece garments from Cabelas, by the way.)

Don't forget that the diving version is Thinsulate B which reportedly is "hydrophobic" and retains about half its insulating ability when wet, unlike the outdoorwear Thinsulate.

Dave C

 

[FishDiver]

Thank you Doc and Dave for the comprehensive background info.

I just found a killer deal on a 400g suit at Scubatoys. No more mix and match!