REALLY WARM dive boots and gloves

[Beanie]

Not really interested in the boots now I'm after a drysuit

But I need as much opinion as possible of the gloves

Has anyone used mitts and what can they say about them?


beanie

[neilh]

Not sure if it helps, but I really feel the cold and swear by dry gloves. You can vary the thickness of the undergloves depending on how cold it is and it's really noticeable that my hands warm up really quickly after a dive. By the time I've de-kitted and had a chat I'm very toasty.

Plus it's nice putting on warm, dry undergloves for another dive

[Dino_Donis]

How do dry gloves seal, do they go over the sleeve/seal of the dry suit? or do they have to contact your skin? I'm in the same boat as I was at Wraysbury on Saturday in 4°C water for 30+ minutes...my hands nearly fell off! I only have 2mm summer gloves :-(

[salty_scuba_peanut]

Northern Diver Superstretch 5mm. Absolutely awesome in terms of flexibility and cost about £15 i think from http://www.shop-sports-components.com/pr...253&page=1 My hands can still get pretty cold using them but I have really skinny wrists so they flush a fair bit but you can reduce that by turning the cuffs up or probably by doing as polly said and wearing plastic ones underneath.

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Don't quote me on this as I've never used them but i know a guy who does and I think that you put something else into the seals of your drysuit and they screw into them. The seals can still be used without the dry gloves you just have really big plastic rings around your wrist

(01-12-2008 11:06 PM)Dino_Donis Wrote:  How do dry gloves seal, do they go over the sleeve/seal of the dry suit? or do they have to contact your skin? I'm in the same boat as I was at Wraysbury on Saturday in 4°C water for 30+ minutes...my hands nearly fell off! I only have 2mm summer gloves :-(

[Beanie]

Well from what i can see there are two types of dry gloves

and yes
one of them as you say needs an extra fitting on your suit seals

the other kind don't though

they're an entirely different air space (not sure how squeeze would affect that??) and they seal with this clever little doo-hicky on the outside

i'd definatly consider giving them a try like but a 60 quid if you don't like them it's a pricey investment

thank god for ebay

[salty_scuba_peanut]

Awesome who makes them? ND ones retail at £61 on 321splash

[Beanie]

from the look of it there are a lot of manufacturers

mainly the higher end drysuit companies

mares scubapro and the like don't seem to bother

yeh all the ones ive seen so far have been 60 quid give or take

[neilh]

The three types tend to be:
- ones with latex seals that are just glued to the gloves. You wear whatever undergloves you want and just have to make sure that the seal on the glove lies flat on the wrist seal on the suit to prevent leaks. They're easy enough to put on once you know the technique and work fine. The disadvantage is that you either need to buy a new pair if you hole a glove or do some work to remove the latex seal and refit it to another glove.

- ones that fit to the seals on a the suit. These either have a suit attachment that fits to an existing seal or you glue an extra seal on to fit them to. The gloves also have an attachment on and often you can easily replace the gloves for a few quid (http://www.baconsdozen.co.uk/gloves.htm). The two parts either screw, twist or push together depending on the manufacturer.

- zip seals. DUI specific dry gloves that fit to the suit in a similar way to those zip-lock food bags. You can also get zip seals to allow quick and easy replacement of wrist or neck seals. Nice idea, but damned expensive unless you fancy gluing the zip bit onto replacement gloves.

Both types are, as you say, separate air spaces so a small length of 3mm bungee under the suit seal provides enough of a path for air to migrate in and out as necessary, but also only wicks water into the suit should a glove leak.

I use RoLocks (http://www.divingniknaks.com/proddetail....od=nb1102) and love 'em to pieces year round

[kitkat]

I have Posiedon Mittens and absolutely love them. I really suffer from the cold affecting my hands and I'vev tried all sorts of 5mm, 7mm, 2 types of Drygloves and nothing has worked for me better than 3 finger gloves!

Awesome!