Dry Suit Gloves.....

[sevans0579]

Hi

Advice needed regarding drysuit gloves?! water temp is cold! and i find using gloves takes the enjoyment factor away when you cant feel your fingers! Also i find mitts great but a pain in the arse getting on especially on a second dive. Now i needed to ask myself, do i need to man up or possibly look down the dry lock glove system?

I enjoy underwater photography and was wondering does dry lock gloves degrade your dexterity a lot? anything must be better than 7mm mitts!

I have been looking at SiTech or the Northern diver. Northern diver seem easier to get hold of, but reading forums the sitech seem to get a lot of praise.

Also do these gloves actually keep your hands warmer?

One more question..for someone who generally dives no deeper than 40m do i need to equalise the gloves or would the squeeze be still comfortable?

Any advice would be great

[colinicky]

I have the ND system on my O3 suit (neoprene cuffs) & it is fine i went for it because on the Rollock system I could not get my hands through the rings ! ND rings are massive though . In answer to warmer/ equalising etc If you do not equalise the gloves then as you decend they will squeeze wich will also compress the inner glove so reducing the insulation thickness , ergo reduced warmth .
Hopefully if I go diving later in a 5 degree puddle I am going to try the XS Scuba Dry 5 glove which is 5mm neoprene with a wrist seal . will let you know how I get on .

I changed the blue Showa gloves for a set of Deep Ideas latex gloves which are a lot thinner & allow a lot more dexterity .

[Morag]

Yes, dry gloves keep your hands warmer. At the temperatures we've been having - 4-6 degrees, wearing 'wet gloves' I can do about 25-30 mins, get out with hands that are so cold I can hardly do anything with them. They are incredibly painful as they warm up and I rarely feel like doing a second dive.

With dry gloves, I cad do about 45-50 mins - they are then cold, but still functioning. Once I'm out the water, I can easily do everything I need to do without any difficulty at all. I have a DUI suit, which means that I have the lovely flexible zip seal. The downside of those is that they are on your hands all the time you ahve your suit on however, they work for me and provided someone else puts the sauce on, I can even eat a pasty

[Goldigger]

I'm still looking for a new pair of gloves, I wish there wasn't so much choice. Anway I came accross these Miflex XS Dry Five Gloves, does anybody know if they are a dry glove?
There is not much info on there website..
XS Scuba products available

Miflex XS Scuba Dry Five Gloves -- Gloves -- Diverswarehouse
miflexgloves..jpg

[colinicky]

No they are not totally dry .

[Goldigger]

No they are not totally dry .

Have you tried them??

[Paul Bailey]

I use ro-loc's on one suit and have just had si-tec's fitted to my new suit.
I can't believe I didn't do it earlier tbh.
This weekend I did 70 minutes in 5c water and the tips of my fingers were all that was cold (I use very thin berghaus under gloves so if I get thicker ones then I'm sure I would not be cold at all). As Colin says if you have mahoosive hands then you will struggle to get them through the rings on the ro-loc's. The Si-tec rings are bigger though.
The original si-tec's just use o-rings and pressure to seal but the new ones (Divers Warehouse sell them) have a locking cuff and are very good.
As for the dry fives I have dived with a couple of people that use them and they speak highly of them. Not totally dry but very warm.

[colinicky]

Yes I have a set that have been used twice & do not keep my hands warm in 6 degree water . they do say on there web site that they will keep you dry with a "Wetsuit" , I have an O3 suit & you can get them to be dry by :- suit up , roll wrist seals up arm , fit gloves leaving first seal in place roll outer "glove cuff" forward onto hand , then roll suit wrist seal back down over 1st glove seal then roll glove cuff up arm over both , ie you create a sandwich of the suit wrist seal . Keep in mind that the O3 has long Neoprene wrist seals so you can do that & still have a good bit of wrist only seal. Problem then is that any air in the glove gets squeezed at depth . I survived at 6-7 metres but at 25m last weekend the squeeze was painfull & my hands froze .
I do get VERY cold hands though ie I need dry gloves with heated gloves underneath which is a work in progress as well .
I also have a set of O3 extreme condition gloves ( have tried their mitts as well) & they are just as cold for me .
By cold I mean my hands cannot even push the wing inflate button after 10 minutes in 6 degree water , they are totally useless & take about 2-3 hours to come back to full life again .

[colinicky]

The original si-tec's just use o-rings and pressure to seal but the new ones (Divers Warehouse sell them) have a locking cuff and are very good.
As for the dry fives I have dived with a couple of people that use them and they speak highly of them. Not totally dry but very warm.

Paul
serious question , how do you find the Sitech for doing up & undoing? I was at CPS ( uk importers ) yesterday looking at a brand new set & they needed both hands just to hold & turn the locking ring . Admittedly they were dry with no lube on at all , but even the guy showing me them was concerned at how tight they were . Did yours start like that & loosen up or were they not tight to start with ?

[Paul Bailey]

Paul
serious question , how do you find the Sitech for doing up & undoing? I was at CPS ( uk importers ) yesterday looking at a brand new set & they needed both hands just to hold & turn the locking ring . Admittedly they were dry with no lube on at all , but even the guy showing me them was concerned at how tight they were . Did yours start like that & loosen up or were they not tight to start with ?

I've actually got the 1st gen ones Colin so they just slot in and the ring on them is for getting them off.
The guy I dive with who has the new ones with the locking ring has no problems at all with one handed operation. I would say that they are a significant improvement over the 1st gen ones in as much as they give you added peace of mind and the only reason I fitted 1st gen over 2nd is I had a pair under my bed.