Does anyone know of a commercially available, electrically heated vest for use under a drysuit? Just want to stay warm on those long, cold Lake Superior deco stops!
I looked into making one myself, but it gets expensive really fast. Appreciate any input . . .
Yeah, I don't know about that electric heated stuff. I saw a guy (Jon probably knows who I'm talking about) on the Lender Charter last fall in Lake Michigan that had a heated undersuit. The damn battery canister was like an aluminum 80 strapped to your hip...LOL! OK, I'm exaggerating a little but man that thing was pretty unwieldy. Anyway I remember hearing the guy say he was still a little cold even with that crazy contraption. What kinda undersuit are you using now Mark?
I've had good luck with Weezel Wear extreme plus undersuit, and I add a lightweight REI fleece long sleeve shirt under that. If you get the Weezel Wear, make sure you (1) try it on before paying for it because their sizing chart is way off and (2) they will probably try to tell you that you don't need the extreme plus, that the extreme will be plenty warm enough. Don't listen to that nonsense, go for the extreme plus, and don't let them tell you otherwise.
My partner and I have a pretty good electrtic heat system figured out. I can run a heated jacket, including heat in the arms, plus heated socks and gloves if I want to. Can run all this stuff solid for 1.5 hours with a battery pack smaller than a 13ft3 argon bottle. I usually don't run the socks and gloves which gives me more burn time because there is less draw from the battery. Usually, my jacket alone is good enough.
The first place you should look is
I suggest the 18 amp-hour battery pack with dual outputs. The second output will cost extra, but you can use it for a nice backup light if you want to. This is going to cost about $800 for the battery pack alone. Then you need the drysuit bulkhead fitting and the on-off switch plus the heating pads and cables. You can get all of this from Patco, but they are not cheap. If you get heat pads, don't get the 50 watt ones becasue they will burn you. Get a couple of 35 watt pads, put one on your chest and one on your lower back and you will be in good shape. You could even start out with one 35 watt pad and add another one later on. The 18 Ahr pack will run the two 35 watt pads for 2.25 hours solid. For all this stuff you are probably gonna need to spend something around $1500, but it's well worth it. We're doing 2-4 hour dives in 40 degree water and without supplemental heat, I can honestly say I couldn't handle it. Avoid the DUI system. It's expensive as hell ($2500 I think) and I think they totally missed the mark on that one. All that stupid computer control crap and the battery is a lousy lead-acid type. Maybe they have a better system out now, but last time I saw it, it was terrible. You should try to get something simple, reliable and compact. A on/off switch if fine with me. I don't think you need computer control and temperature sensors and all that crap. It just adds cost, makes it more difficult to deal with and less reliable.
Lonnie,
I think you mean Howard. From what I understand, he used to weigh a few hundered pounds more and went on a massive diet a few years back. He hasn't been able to stay warm since- at least that's the story I heard. He also needs some more time with his gear to make it seem less unwieldly underwater. A very nice guy though.
I had one of the early electric heating systems for my drysuit (Repetative Diver) and it never did much for me. I was better off spending the money on a new set of C4 Thinsulate and an argon bottle.
The system that John uses is much newer than mine and he seems to have had pretty good luck with his- which might be why the company that I bought mine from went out of buisness and I was stuck with a $400, at the time, paper weight. :'(
I've also owned the Weezle Wear and the DUI Thinsulate and liked the DUI stuff better.
As far as the battery case, I'm sure you could rig it like a stage and clip it off to you side, or mount it to the back of your tank some way. I know that John is diving a rebreather, but he must have worked out some slick way to mount it. The system I had used a slim battery pack that looked a lot like those OMS light packs. It mounted up against my tank without a problem.
Jon
I've seen John_J use his system and I must say that it is pretty slick. I looked into them last fall but couldn't put together the funds for it. It's much higher on the list for this year. I've spent way too many hours on deco shivering.
I go 'commando' . . . ;D
I use a very thick, one-piece DUI fleece undergarment, and under that, silk long-underware. I do utilize argon for dry-suit inflation. It has worked great in the past but I'm looking at doing much longer Lk. Superior dives very soon.
I'll check out the Weezel Wear extreme plus (know anyone locally who carries it?) - and I've thought about following your model John J, but what comes first??? I also need a helium anaylizer . . . another set of Inspiration bottles . . . another VR3 . . .
Thanks for the helpful input, if you do find or hear about a commercial available, battery heated vest or whatever, let me know. Perhap I WILL build my own . . .
Mark,
I know GUDC started carrying Weezel wear. Sounds like you have made quite a wish list for yourself this year.
Check out this link, not cheap, but sounds like it works well.
Thanks - I checked out the link. The warming vest runs about $900.00 USD, you can get it wet and it still works, rechargable battery . . . very interesting . . .
Manufactured by Typhoon International, .
Now I just need to find that magic lamp . . .
Here is a company that makes an electrically heated vest that would work great. I have one of their jackets that I use under my drysuit.
They are reasonably priced, the vest is about $140. They run off of 12 volts so you can use them in your car in winter, etc. These were originally designed for motorcyclists. They also make pants, jackets and gloves which all plug together. For example, at the bottom of the pants, there are connectors for their heated socks to plug into, or you can still run the socks without the pants by using their extension cable (that's what I do).
There are a couple of local motorcycle shops that are delears for this stuff. You want the thin jacket "liner" or vest-not the full thickness jacket. The "liners" are just lightweight material with heating wires inside and there is no insulation value without the heater energized. You still wear your normal drysuit underwear over top of this stuff. That's why you want to get the "liner" type jacket or vest becasue it is very thin-not bulky.