Dry Gloves

[beeger]

Fantasea - thanks for the follow-up. I'll try and drop by in a couple weeks and check these out again.

[Punky]

I looked at a pair of the blue gloves yesterday. Was told they are warm and comfortable and you don't need the rings if you don't want them. The latex seals are supposed to work well.
The down side as was already said is drying time if they do get wet.
The tire kicking continues.

[fantasea]

Punky,
You do need the rings. Those gloves without rings have a latex seal that does work well, but you can't equalize the air space upon descent and you get a bad hand squeeze. Those gloves are inexpensive from Nordic Blue, but kind of useless for deep diving, or really anything past 25 feet or so.

Every diver who had the DC dry gloves with rings on their drysuits this weekend while ice diving, just raved with joy upon surfacing! These style dry gloves have really been a great plus to local diving.

[FMT]

It has been my experience through many dives with these gloves that you do not absolutely need the rings. I have taken them below 100ft many times and I do not have rings. You do have to have just the right ammount of "air puff" inside the gloves before you go in the water to prevent the hand squeeze. Now for deep trimix dives I would absolutely agree that rings are needed because, even having the air puff in the gloves, the hand squeeze gets to the point that it is hard to use your hands. I have said many times that these gloves are one of my favorite purchases.
T

[JoelW]

On a side note, I believe the company below is the manufacturer of the DC glove system and they are the 84mm rings.



JoelW

[JNitrox]

This is a very useful local diving topic. It is fun to see that a simple thing like dry gloves can generate so much interest. There are many types available. Your "local dive store" is probably the best source of information. Ask the staff what they dive locally and what feedback they have received from divers that have purchased various gloves.

The Nordic Blue gloves with the wrist seal are simple and work well. The same string or sponge trick can be used to equalize them as with any ring seal combo. If you keep this in mind, they work well at any depth. There are several types of rings out there as well.

With the Viking ring system the gloves stretch over the sleeve ring.

OS Systems has rings that lock together well and work with many gloves (including their own and Nordic Blue).

The ring / glove combo from SI TECH is pretty interesting as well. It works like most other systems until you are ready to take them off. To remove these gloves you simply twist the threaded ring to disengage.

I hope this helps...
Safe Diving

[JoelW]

Can I put a vote of no confidence in for the SI Tech twist ringset. For that matter, I have a set that I would be willing to let go for a decent price. By the way, SI Tech makes that set for others as well. The ones I have were sold by Bare.

This year I went to a different ringset and have been much happier.

JoelW

[ScubaCenter]

We stock several types of dry glove systems (some with rings and some without). Everyone on staff seems to have a personal favorite. On the drysuit section of our website () we have links to the websites for the different styles we have. I hope this information helps.
Scuba Center

[ScubaCenter]

I should clarify my earlier post. We generally have a larger stock of drygloves at our Eagan location than at the Minneapolis store. We can always send something between the two stores if that is more convenient for you. Sorry for any confusion.
Scuba Center

[wtdrm]

Another thought about how to equalize Dry gloves. One of the reasons I bought them in the 1st place as a matter of fact. 3 summers ago I was tough on seals. I had to replace 1 three times. I would rip the seals as I was putting on drysuit. I know, I know, Duuumb So I went to drygloves. I put my liners on before I put my sleeves on the suit just slips over the gloves. I don't pull the gloves wrists out from the seal. Works great. I'm still on the same set of seals. no talc needed either.