Northern Diver Dry Glove System

[Scuby]

Will do. I had dry gloves before so its nothing new to me - just a different ring system since the old ones have been heavily bashed and so are very difficult to get off now.

About the DVD, I never noticed anything particularly unusual in the video, all seemed to make sense, and when I put them on never had any problems. Obviously not quite as quick as in the video (they cut out some of the "fiddling" needed to get them square) but certainly no problems with it.

Also can't foresee any problems with the plastic - its fairly chunky, seems nice and tough. Also the outside parts are all essentially "passive", ie the seal is made on the inside of the ring. With my old gloves the seal was made on the outside of the ring, so the most exposed part of the ring was the sealing surface - hence the need to replace them now (albeit after 3 years of use, so not bad). Only time will tell though...

Only time I swap to 3mm gloves is when i'm in a wetsuit. In my drysuit I prefer the dry gloves even in the summer, I find I have more dexterity (helped by the fact I wear thinner liner-gloves in the summer) and they're still easier to put on than 3mm gloves, just don't find any reason to swap back to 3mm really. Don't *need* the warmth of the dry glove, but still prefer them to neoprene now.

David

[IanDennis]

David

I will have to have a look at my friends re the seal as sound different to the way the rolocks are fitted. I like the way that the rings protect the seals.

Re swapping to wet gloves- I do this for wrecks and for longer deco in the sea where I don't need the warmer drygloves. I tend to keep the drygloves back for inland sites where I can get out quickly if I have a flood. On wreck dives I just feel a little more confident with wet gloves and in the sea, most of the time its warm enough for wet gloves. Still at £3per glove hardly need to worry about it do we!! 3 or in some case 5mm just makes me feel a little more relaxed when ferreting through some dodgy wreck.

What are you using as thinner liners

[Scuby]

Originally Posted by dennydiving

What are you using as thinner liners

I just use some cheapo liner gloves I found in Millets - nothing exciting really. Although they're not perfect - I wear them inside out because they've got seams which aren't very comfy if worn the right way around.

On wrecks I don't tend to worry about the glove leaking - i've dived with them soaked a few times (I didn't used to have anything under the seal, so if some air leaked through at depth they'd blow up on ascent, so I took them off to reveal the pressure - lesson learnt: always have something under the seal!). Even soaked, I don't find them any colder than wet gloves (since that's essentially what they become). Only problem with them leaking is if they leak into the suit through the seal, in which case yes it can be a big problem.

David

[msd dan]

I can put them on easy peasy!!!

there cheap, there simple and they work.

just my 2ps worth

[String]

Originally Posted by Scuby

Honestly... they're probably the worst compromise i've seen of gloves!

Horrible latex seals (i've seen someone - even with help - struggle to get these gloves on), the tight-fitting neoprene makes it even worse than the blue drygloves with a latex seal, and they're 5mm neoprene so don't even get an an advantage in dexterity.

I tried these and gave up on them, getting the first one on was easy. Getting the second one on and the seal flat i found just about impossible. Even enduring the laughter and comments about needing a buddy to help get dressed with 2 people it was still hard to get to seal properly. A nice idea on paper but i found them useless in practice.

[IanDennis]

I used to have blue gloves with latex seals - they were bad enough to get on. Can't see any benefit with the neoprene gloves-especially as they are 5mm so you gain nothing in feel.

I Did have scubapro semi drys which weren't too bad- apart from the fact that I go hand cramps at 60m when doing shutdowns cause they were too tight. Quite ok to get on as you could fold the seal back.

Still they work for some people, but if its that cold prefer proper ringed drygloves-that way you don't get loss of warmth through a double latex seal- which can happen with some blue gloves

cheers.

[String]

Shameless thread bump and revival.

How are the gloves several months on? Are you still using them or have they given problems?

My new suit should hopefully arrive in a week or 2 and im looking at getting dry gloves so were considering the ND rings.

Do i need to wear a liner under these?
How easy is it to change the gloves for a new pair (can you modify the standard "blue glove"?

Finally, how did you go about guessing size on the internet, i cant find a sizing guide on their site so wouldnt have a clue what size to get - im assuming its just the glove size and the ring part of it is constant?

[Scuby]

Hey,

Yeah, still got the gloves and still use them, not had any problems and still just as easy to pop on and off.

The ND gloves come with a separate liner glove, but it seemed unnecessarily thick and bulky to me so i've stuck with my old ones - which are just normal thin-ish gloves from an outdoor shop, nothing special. You could wear the thicker ones if you wanted, but I never have a problem with my hands getting cold even with these thin ones, so no reason to swap.

You can change the glove part very easily - it's actually much easier than it was with my old ring system which needed a lot of stretching and I seem to remember needing 5 hands to do it with! With these I can swap them myself with minimal effort, so bonus points there. They take the standard showa type blue (or any other colour) gloves, so if you get a hole in them it's £3.50 for a new pair of gloves (from baconsdozen.co(m/.uk)) - bargain!

I knew my size from the last ones I had. If you go to the baconsdozen site it's got a very rough guide to working out what size you are, but worst-case if you get the wrong size you can just replace the gloves. As far as i'm aware all the rings are the same size.

Hope that helps

David

[wilbo]

Originally Posted by Scuby

They take the standard showa type blue (or any other colour) gloves, so if you get a hole in them it's £3.50 for a new pair of gloves (from baconsdozen.co(m/.uk)) - bargain!

I knew my size from the last ones I had. If you go to the baconsdozen site it's got a very rough guide to working out what size you are, but worst-case if you get the wrong size you can just replace the gloves. As far as i'm aware all the rings are the same size.

Hope that helps

David

going off at a minor tangent: re: the bacons dozen site - they don't do the size 11 Showa gloves - only up to size 10.

you can however get the size 11s from Protec Direct PPE - Personal Protection Equipment for less money..

direct link: Protec Direct PPE - Personal Protection Equipment

[Justin Owen]

Glad you got on OK with these gloves Scuby, one of the lads from our club bought some... He fitted them and jumped in the pool to try them out before going open water...

Both the gloves exploded off his hands/suit and flew into the air! They've been at the bottom of his kit box ever since!