Venture heated vest...any experience?

[Marie13]

Marie13 wrote "The motorcycle and other similar vests are not engineered to withstand the pressure at depth " What is your source of this statement? As far a pressure goes wouldn't equalizing the drysuit mostly eliminate pressure?
I have been using a heated vest for around 10yrs or so. Its a UDT branded vest, but the inner liner has "tourmaster" I purchased from DRIS. Tourmaster makes and sells motorcycle vest. I do use a external battery.
Al

I’ve seen it other places online multiple times. Your external battery seems to be the difference. The instances I’ve heard of people getting burned with a motorcycle vest was when the battery was inside the drysuit.

if you look at the Thermolution website, they note what depth (pressure) a vest is rated for.

 

[a878bob]

I run a tourmaster vest as well, it's been perfect > 200', been burnt by my thermalution, been shocked by my exo 2. I'll stick with what works,

 

[ScubaAl]

if you look at the Thermolution website, they note what depth (pressure) a vest is rated for
That may be more related to wearing the vest with a wetsuit.
Al

 

[Degenerate]

As far a pressure goes wouldn't equalizing the drysuit mostly eliminate pressure?
Al

No, it wouldn't.

 

[BlueTrin]

Marie13 wrote "The motorcycle and other similar vests are not engineered to withstand the pressure at depth " What is your source of this statement? As far a pressure goes wouldn't equalizing the drysuit mostly eliminate pressure?
I have been using a heated vest for around 10yrs or so. Its a UDT branded vest, but the inner liner has "tourmaster" I purchased from DRIS. Tourmaster makes and sells motorcycle vest. I do use a external battery.

Al

to complete @Degenerate ‘s answer: you don’t eliminate pressure when you equalise you are just injecting air to make the volume bigger.

the pressure is the same on both sides of the drysuit in equilibrium. So if you inject air, it expands the drysuit volume so that the pressure stays the same inside and outside the suit.

 

[tbone1004]

my area in this realm is only on the fabrics and how they're used to generate heat. The batteries/controllers are not my thing.

On the subject of motorcycle vests. The motorcycle vests are fine, they have been used for decades and the fabric itself is the same as what's used from some of the "dive" manufacturers. Same technology, same fabric. The comments about pressure are incorrect, none of this stuff is compressible, practically speaking, and certainly not at the pressures that scuba would see. The issue with the motorcycle vests are that the buss bars used are often not designed to deal with the moisture/humidity in a drysuit, or with flooding and that can cause them to degrade over time. The other one is the technology used for a lot of these vests are very fragile and the wires themselves can break. When they break, they can short and arc which can cause spot burns. Vest manufacturers like Santi use this same technology, but they use a bit better buss system to deal with the humidity.

 

[Jonn]

I know someone who had severe burns during a tech dive in Lake Crescent.

Educate us! What happened? Did something short out due to water ingress? Thermostat failure? Was the battery inside the suit? Scaremongering is useful, the hazards are real, but more detail would be better.

The motorcycle and other similar vests are not engineered to withstand the pressure at depth.

No, they’re not, but does it matter? These are simple resistive heating elements, just a not-very-conductive core surrounded by a heat resistant plastic sheath, right? Should be unaffected by modest hydrostatic pressure. What features do specifically designed scuba vests have that the regular sort lack? Assumed it was just a matter of branding, but very willing to be corrected here.

 

[Marie13]

If I remember correctly, it has something to do with the switch. I’ll have to go searching later as there was a discussion on this very topic recently on a Midwestern diving FB group.

EDIT - the switch is the issue

 

[tbone1004]

@Jonn these do not use thermostats to monitor or control temperature. Most of the designs are naturally current limiting which prevents them from getting much beyond say 110-140F, but when burns occur it is usually due to a broken filament in the heating matrix that causes a short to the body, or an arc which creates significantly more heat *it's baby lightning*.
Most of these fibers are not enclosed in any plastic sheath, they are woven into a fabric layer that is then placed inside of a pouch on the garment.

@Marie13 based on that screen shot, the failure has nothing to do with it being a motorcycle vest, but a non-waterproofed battery pack and control from someone who wasn't using it properly. That same vest can be driven off of a canister battery pack with a thru-port on the drysuit and the vest itself will function fine.

 

[Marie13]

@tbone1004

That screen shot has nothing to do with a failure. It was someone explaining why not to use a motorcycle vest underwater.