Whites Thermal Fusion + Santi heated vest vs. full-body heated BZ400.

[kr2y5]

I'm currently diving a Whites Thermal Fusion undergarment (sandwiched between my Fusion Sport and Icebreaker merino base layer), always with a 55W Santi heated vest. I usually leave the vest powered at 30% throughout most of the dive, and I crank it up to 100% towards the end. Works great for me, but so far, I haven't done a dive longer than 90 min. in this setup, and all my dives right now are in 50F water year-round, and I don't know how well it scales beyond that (planning to eventually progress to 2+ hour dives, and colder temps).

I have an opportunity to get Santi full-body heated BZ400 at a steep discount, and willing to spend $$$ if it's going to buy me any extra comfort/protection, but I wonder if I can expect any difference over the Thermal Fusion + vest, and how much price I'm going to pay for it in terms of joint mobility (at least mobility-wise, Thermal Fusion is very awesome, and the Santi vest is unnoticeable). The full-body BZ400 delivers 110W of power, twice that of the vest. In terms of thickness, in the torso area it looks less bulky than TF + vest combined, but has more padding elsewhere.

 

[buddhasummer]

I own the heated suit and did own the heated vest. No real comparison of course as the BZ400 is significantly warmer due to bulk. It certainly has affected my mobility but that's more likely due to my suit being cut a little on the tight side. I cannot control power so it's either full on or full off. I'm a little disappointed with it to be honest. If I turn it on early in the dive it seems to lose warmth about 20 minutes in although battery is still holding charge. I now use it the last 15 mins of the dive only. If I were to do it again I'd probably just buy a non heated BZ400 as its "almost" warm enough without the power. YMMV.

 

[kr2y5]

I own the heated suit and did own the heated vest. No real comparison of course as the BZ400 is significantly warmer due to bulk. It certainly has affected my mobility but that's more likely due to my suit being cut a little on the tight side. I cannot control power so it's either full on or full off. I'm a little disappointed with it to be honest. If I turn it on early in the dive it seems to lose warmth about 20 minutes in although battery is still holding charge. I now use it the last 15 mins of the dive only. If I were to do it again I'd probably just buy a non heated BZ400 as its "almost" warm enough without the power. YMMV.

Thanks, brother. With respect to losing heat while the battery is still holding charge, do you think this could be due simply to sweating from excessive heat, and the undergarment getting a little damp from your sweat? If not, I wonder what else could be causing such symptoms?

 

[buddhasummer]

Thanks, brother. With respect to losing heat while the battery is still holding charge, do you think this could be due simply to sweating from excessive heat, and the undergarment getting a little damp from your sweat? If not, I wonder what else could be causing such symptoms?

Yes, I believe that is the probable cause. I recently bought some, hopefully better, wicking undergarments that fingers crossed will solve that issue. To be honest though in water of around 12c I'm warm enough without the battery, I weigh around 50kgs almost pure skeleton so do tend to feel the cold more than most.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba.]

Yes, the heated 400 will be warmer than your current setup. How cold are you getting though?

With heat, you might want to only turn it on when you need it. You might not want to start the dive with it because you can get too hot. Also, having a way to change low/md/high is always the best method. You don't want to get too hot and have to turn it off. You also don't want to run out of batter while doing a deco dive. The end of a deco dive, when you are primarily hanging out and not doing enough exercise to stay warm, is when you really want that warmth.