tips for buying BCD

[ScubaJoy65]

Greetings all -
I have been given money as a Christmas present to buy a BCD. I have up to $300 to spend. I want a weight-integrated BCD. Any tips, advice or insights on how to determine the best one to buy?

Thank you,
Joy

 

[Web Monkey]

Greetings all -
I have been given money as a Christmas present to buy a BCD. I have up to $300 to spend. I want a weight-integrated BCD. Any tips, advice or insights on how to determine the best one to buy?

Whatever holds the pockets in needs to be more than velcro. The only thing you can't share with your buddy is weight, so if you lose a weight, you're going up.

Fastex buckles or nylon "weed eater" cord threaded through loops are both good.

Also, it needs to fit you. Try it on in the pool before you buy it.

Terry

 

[LowVizWiz]

What have you used in the past? And what did you like or didn't like about them? Avoid useless "features" that attempt to reinvent the wheel. A Zeagle Scout it's probably right within your budget.

Merry Christmas to you btw!

 

[acqua_girl]

It's all about personal preferences...

I like the Mares (Kaila, Vector), Cressi (Back Jac) and Scubapro models. They are easy to use, easy to assemble, of good quality and reasonable prices.
But, as already (well) said, buckles seem to be better than velcro.

Good luck with your choice!

 

[rstofer]

Boy, $300 doesn't buy much in the way of a BC or BP/W these days (except, see below). Everyone is going to try to talk you into a BP/W and you MIGHT be able to get one for $300 if you don't need a stainless steel backplate but could settle for aluminum HOG Custom BC Package You can change the plate later.

Could I ask why you want weight integration? More to the point, do you know why you want it? If so, skip this part.

In cold water where you need a significant amount of ballast (say 20# or more), carrying that much lead in the BC makes the unit, complete with tank, just too heavy to be any fun. Sure, you can wait to the very end to insert the weight pockets but sooner or later you're going to wonder if weight integration is such a good idea.

Perhaps a better idea is to use a weight belt or (better) a weight harness. Like DUI Weight & Trim "Classic" Weight Harness System There are two interrelated goals: you can float on the surface in your wetsuit while wearing your weight system with no BC and, second, your BC can float on the surface with a full tank and any integrated weights without you and your wetsuit. You may decide that a good solution is partial weight integration. Perhaps split that 20# or so between the BC and the harness. Best of both worlds.

In the case of the BP/W and cold water diving, a stainless steel backplate makes up about 6# of your ballast. Perhaps the rest belongs in a harness. I don't have hips so a weightbelt is out of the question.

Now, for warm water diving where you only need a very few pounds of ballast, weight integration makes a lot of sense. I did a lot of diving where I only used 6# of weight and that was to account for the weight of the air in the tank.

You CAN get a back inflate, weight integrated, BC for < $300 Edge Stealth 2 BC I bought one of the obsolete, pre mod 2, versions for my grandson ($150, I think). It works pretty well and will serve his needs for a while but the more costly Stealth 2 is a lot better BC. Eventually, I will buy him a Deep Sea Supply BP/W to match the ones I bought for myself and my son-in-law. Maybe this summer...

If you haven't used a back-inflate BC or a BP/W and have only used a jacket style BC, you are in for a surprise. First, the front of your gear will be much more streamlined. Second, if you overinflate the bladder to get high out of the water like you could do with the jacket style, the excess flotation in the rear will tend to push you over. The trick is to inflate just enough to get comfortable. Of course, a lot of this will depend on the weight and buoyancy characteristics of the tank.

I would be remiss in not pointing out that you will be money ahead (eventually) to just get the BP/W now. Save up a little more money and do it once. Personally, I like the Deep Sea Supply products https://www.deepseasupply.com/ but I would consider that HOG setup. The DSS with stainless backplate is only $470. So many choices...

Good luck!

Richard

 

[Coldwater_Canuck]

rstofer, having dove with both all weight on a belt and a mixture of belt and integrated, having integrated made a huge difference to me. In the BCD I barely noticed it, but that extra weight on the weight belt was very annoying. I'm not sure how it would be sticking all your weight in the BCD (the BCD I just bought allows up to 50 pounds), but having it split was great for me.

To the OP (and for perspective, I am not an expert, only someone who recently purchased my first BCD), the first decision should probably be type of BCD: jacket, back-inflate, or BP/W. I started looking at jackets (what I've used in training) but moved to back-inflate since reading reviews it sounded like these were much nicer to use. BP/W will be recommended by some, not sure if this is a good recommendation or not, but most new divers do not have this sort of setup.

Also, know what sort of features matter to you. To me, I wanted some sort of integrated weight system, I wanted buckles on the straps, I wanted plenty of D-rings, a couple pockets, and overall quality.

Another thing to consider is long term cost. I was also looking for a BCD in the $200 - $300 range, but then started thinking "if in a couple of years I want to try double tanks or try a technical dive or whatever and need to buy a new BCD: then I've just wasted money on this first BCD that is less pleasant to dive with in the meantime". Eventually I spent $440 for a Ranger 2008 LTD. I figured the extra couple hundred could get me a top of the line model that could adapt to any type of diving I may do in the future. It is not BP/W, but fully modular, so individual pieces can be updated. If you don't have the money, then $300 will still get you very nice BCD. But if there's any way you can swing it, and you think you'll be diving plenty, then a little extra now may be worth it in the long run (that's the gamble I took at least).

Oh, and in that price range, as someone above mentioned, the Scout is definitely one to take a look at. The number of Zeagle fans and their reviews was a major reason for me going for the Ranger, and I'm sure the Scout is still a quality BCD.

 

[Web Monkey]

r
Another thing to consider is long term cost. I was also looking for a BCD in the $200 - $300 range, but then started thinking "if in a couple of years I want to try double tanks or try a technical dive or whatever and need to buy a new BCD: then I've just wasted money on this first BCD that is less pleasant to dive with in the meantime".

The ability to handle doubles is not a huge decision point when determining what BC to get now. If at some point you get into technical diving, the $300 spent on the BC will be just about irrelevant after buying two or three more high-performance regulators, a bunch of tanks, a manifold or two, new valves and some expensive training.

Terry

 

[Miller64]

Just my 2 cents,,,I started out with a jacket style and then used a back inflate...Since my jacket was new,,I traded for a back inflate,,,try both first and I think you will like the back inflate better,much more easier to use and its not to difficult to learn not to get pushed forward.You just dont get big pockets,,.Another thread about what you wished you had not bought,,,that was mine,,,glad my jacket was new enough not to cost me more to switch to back inflate.But,as I see it,a good back inflate,and most all are good,,Oceanic fits true size for me,,,gonna cost you around 4-5 hundred..I have the Islander and its great.light,easy to travel with,some nice features,and in my budget..A few others I have seen on here have it,and they like it.

 

[Coldwater_Canuck]

The ability to handle doubles is not a huge decision point when determining what BC to get now. If at some point you get into technical diving, the $300 spent on the BC will be just about irrelevant after buying two or three more high-performance regulators, a bunch of tanks, a manifold or two, new valves and some expensive training.

Terry

True, I suppose my point was there's always that balance between saving money in the short term and the money spent in the long term. And the reasoning I gave to myself to spend a little more was that if for whatever reason I end up having/wanting to buy the more expensive BCD, then it would have been better to just purchase this in the first place.

Of course, this type of thinking needs to be limited (you could just keep justifying more and more expensive gear), and I was lucky that I had the money available (I put off a couple other small purchases), and it could backfire if I don't dive as much as I hope to at this point.

But that was my mindset that made me move up to the Ranger. Maybe I'm an idiot, maybe I'm a genious, but probably somewhere in between

 

[Coldwater_Canuck]

Just my 2 cents,,,I started out with a jacket style and then used a back inflate...Since my jacket was new,,I traded for a back inflate,,,try both first and I think you will like the back inflate better,much more easier to use and its not to difficult to learn not to get pushed forward.You just dont get big pockets,,.Another thread about what you wished you had not bought,,,that was mine,,,glad my jacket was new enough not to cost me more to switch to back inflate.But,as I see it,a good back inflate,and most all are good,,Oceanic fits true size for me,,,gonna cost you around 4-5 hundred..I have the Islander and its great.light,easy to travel with,some nice features,and in my budget..A few others I have seen on here have it,and they like it.

Everyone says "try both", but I'm curious, exactly how do you do this? I guess if you're lucky enough to know someone with a back-inflate that fits you and is willing to let you dive with it, it's not a problem. But all rentals I've seen have been jackets and I'm not sure how many dive shops have "demo" units they'll allow in the water.

After reading all the posts on here and other various reviews, it seemed that for people who had tried both (like yourself), almost all preferred the back inflate, so I just went with it. I'm really looking forward to trying it out.