Northern Diver Dry Glove System

[Scuby]

After some poking around the interweb, i've come across dry gloves made by Northern Diver (Northern Diver Dryglove System) - just wondering if anyone had used them, knew anything about them, had seen them anywhere, etc? They're only £61 from Display Products, yet sound like they're just as good as the "good" drygloves, and better than my current cheap and bashed Hydrotech ones.

They *seem* to be what I want, the locking mechanism *sounds* good, that I should be able to do it alone, etc, but would rather have some input from someone who'd seen or ideally used them, rather than relying on the advert!

Any comments?

David

[colinicky]

Friend of mine (ex friend ) went & bought a set of these after I paid £130 for Rolocks He loves them & they certainly work as well as my Rolocks .

[Scuby]

Good to know.

Don't suppose you have any idea if the gloves are easily replaceable, or are they glued to the rings? Hard to tell from the pictures, and ND aren't answering emails

David

[colinicky]

Will try & find out tomorrow/sunday for you

[IanDennis]

Was at Stoney on Saturday. I have set of Rolocks and my friend turned up wearing a set of these northern dive gloves. Looked fairly easy to fit, very positive locking ring. Only drawback would appear to be the size of the rings- they are very large compared to the rolocks. Once locked on then stayed on- no leaks. My rolocks have a habit of unlocking a little when I move my arm-(looking at it I think the bungy on my compass is too tight-hence stopping the sleeve moving with the glove). These had no such problem. If you can live with the size of the rings then might be a good buy. Only coment is that the plastic looks a little cheap - at least compared to rolocks. Gloves held on by similar ring inside so should not be too difficult to swap over with new gloves. (the standard ones are a little thin). Liners are good.

I love my rolocks - even if they do need checking ever few minutes to ensure they are still locked, but these look OK.

Ian

[Scuby]

Ah, ok cheers. Well I'll just hope the ring size isn't too much of a problem, because I ordered them earlier this evening!

Ta for the replies

David

[Scuby]

Well, they arrived today!

Haven't got them installed properly yet (I need new seals), but put one of them on an arm. Quite impressed with them, on first impressions. They definitely are bigger than the old ones I had, but not sure how much of a problem that'll be - might just end up putting them a little bit further up my arm so it doesn't cause a problem, but i'll see.

The locking mechanism is very nice, seems very easy to get on and off, and no chance of falling off! Also can't be put on wonky, and so can't leak like my old (Hydrotech?) ones did.

Also a very good method of fixing them to the seals. Can go on latex, neoprene, or even on neoprene warm cuffs, all exactly the same method, so very flexible. And the seals aren't stretched over the outside, so should be less chance of damaging the wrist seal (which is the reason I wanted new gloves in the first place). But these took less than 5mins to fit to a latex seal, where as the old Hydrotech (?) ones i've got could easily take 30mins each side, and often much more!!!

The gloves themselves are held in with a nice firm gripping thing, so again there's nothing stretched over on the outside, and no o-rings or rubber things to slip off (which used to happen regularly on my old gloves). And nice and easy to swap new gloves onto when I put a hole in these - can take any old glove - perfect!

So yeah, very impressed so far, though obviously i'll really see when I get them in the water. But they look like they're much better than any other dry glove ring systems i've seen, comes with a DVD showing exactly how to fit them, and only £61 (follow the link to the shop from the Northern Diver website).

So thanks for the comments earlier, i'll try to remember to add my thoughts after i've got my new seals and taken them diving.

David

[msd dan]

Just buy some of these

http://www.deepbluedive.com/product.aspx?id=10579

get the seal right and they work a treat. cheap as well


Dan

[Scuby]

Originally Posted by msd dan

Just buy some of these

http://www.deepbluedive.com/product.aspx?id=10579

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.

The blue drygloves also pay for themself very quickly if you find yourself putting holes in things easily - replace the glove part for £3.50, rather than replacing the whole lot for £25 each time.

David

[IanDennis]

Be very interested to see how you get on with them.

I finally seem to of got my rolocks sorted out so they don't move and unlock underwater.

The positive lock was something that I really liked about these northern diver gloves- if I didn't already have the rolocks then I would consider a set of these to fit to the suit. As mentioned above the only drawback I can see is the size of the rings and the quality of the plastic. My friend commented that the DVD paused at odd times when fitting the rings - did this happen to you?

Enjoy the gloves -I know that changing to dry gloves was a really good move and I would never go back to a wet gloves in cold water. Huge difference between wet and dry for me- cold water gives me cramp in my hands and prevents me manipulating valves etc. In warmer water then I would still swap to 3mm for comfort.

Cheers

Ian