I use a Thermolution in the PNW's 45-55F water year round. Most of the time I turn it on about half way into a dive as I start to get a bit chilled. If I'm doing a Third dive of the day I tend to turn it on as soon as I splash. 90% of the time it stays on the low setting, but for those extra cold 45F dives it gets bumped up on the last dive for sure. It think it does a very good job of taking the edge of any discomfort. The batteries are easily good for 3+ hours on a low setting. I've never exhausted the batteries so I don't really know how long it will go.
Venture Heated Vest - on sale; any good?
- Thread starter tursiops
- Start date
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I dive in a dry suit, in colder lakes with longer dives planned, i usually add a couple lbs, so i can add a bit more air into my dry suit, i also only us my dry suit for buoyancy as well. My wing is back up and my counter lungs are kept to minimum loop volume on my CCR unit. i done usually turn my heater on until some time into the dive, and before i really need it.
For Great Lakes shipwreck diving where bottom temperatures during the summer are around 40 degrees I use a Light Monkey heated vest with a set of heated motorcycle glove liners. During the winter months I add a pair of heated motorcycle sock liners all powered via an external battery. This arrangement keeps me comfortable and the fingers are still flexible even under thick dry gloves. I always wear undergarments appropriate to the expected temperatures so when I completed several dives recently and my fingers were getting colder than normal, I found that a wire had broken on the power coming into the suit. I was still able to complete all my dives, heating just makes diving cold water more comfortable.
Hatul
Contributor
I use the wireless Thermalution vest in a wetsuit and it makes a small difference. It would probably make a bigger difference inside a drysuit as the heat is trapped better. I tried putting the heating
element in the front and overall it's more comfortable to have it in the back as it was designed. I'm
thinking of getting the Venture Vest for the double element front and back.
element in the front and overall it's more comfortable to have it in the back as it was designed. I'm
thinking of getting the Venture Vest for the double element front and back.
Make sure you get the right one. They have a model with two elements for wetsuit or drysuit and one that is for drysuits only. The wetsuit version is $100 cheaper.
40W PRO - Waterproof Heated Diving Undersuit
40W PRO - Waterproof Heated Diving Undersuit
Flying-Fish
The Scuba Mike
I have exhausted the batteries on my venture heat heated vest so low they wouldn't charge with the charger, by a faulty charger splitter. Used a voltmeter to check polarity and voltage of the batteries..only 1.8v. in each one. Found out in the end, my splitter had malfunctioned and was only charging on 1 side. Coincidence probably that several charges each battery ended up with no charge when I thought they did and used in vest, and repeat until both batteries were really low. One battery stopped being recognized by suit and chsrger then soon after the other.
Solution HERE!!
USED A REGULAR OLD manual STYLE CAR CHARGER TO BOOST BATTERIES voltage (not sure if an automatic newer style smart charger would work in this low voltage instance..my experience in the past is they won't until the voltage is much closer to 8-10v min)
Anyway... old style manual charger 12V @ 2amps for about 15 -20 min. And they were now recognized by the venture heat charger and I put them on the only working leg of the charger splitter verified with a volt meter, and walla...now have working vest again with 2 good batteries.
Disclaimer: Di this st your own risk..not liable for injury or death.lol.
since these are lithium batteries and I in this instance am using a lead acid style charger .. kept a close eye on these... Testing voltage often and making sure not to start a fire. Remember... just doing a quick jump start on these to get the voltage up high enough to use OEM charger again .
To make the long story longer....Ordered new charger for old style batteries , and 2 more spare v.2? Or whatever ,Venture heat batteries from venture heat.. their email support sent verification after contact thru support on their website, they still have a few old style batteries and charger connectors in stock. Since they changed the connectors on the battery and vest with v3 figured I better future proof a little... Granted those batteries aren't cheap. Hoping it will pay off in the long run. The Ohio Quarries aren't exactly warm, like at all...ever. Mad props to venture heat support though, I didn't expect to get any help on this old version
...email was quite slow until first contact, then responses were within a day if not hr quick... no phone order or support option I could find.
Kinda sucks they changed the compatibility of the suit and batteries from 1_2 to v3 but I am glad they still had some chargerz and batteries around . Even a couple years after v3 came out. I wish They would continue down the road to source these old batteries , but don't count on it my friends.
Flying-Fish
The Scuba Mike
One more thing to add these old version batteries and chargers are not advertised on the webpages or online catalog at ventureheat.com... They must be requested via support email only as far as I know. Link here:
Contact Us | Venture Heat USA
Have a question about your Venture Heat gear? We're here to help. Call, email, or visit our headquarters during our business hours M-F 8AM-5PM PST. Proudly based in California, USA.
www.ventureheat.com
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