Different BCDs - Pros / Cons

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Scuba-Blue-13

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Location
Delaware
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I'm a new diver, researching different equipment to begin purchasing my own gear. I am well aware that there appears to be a strong bias for BP/W around here, but I don't have enough experience and understanding to know why.

I've only ever used a jacket style BCD and had no discernible problems with them. I dive with no air in my BCD and trim/buoyancy are decent (have been told by experienced divers it's good, and I feel good int he water). Most of my diving has been / will be in warm Caribbean water, with an occasional trip to the "local" fresh water quarry.

If diving with no air in the BCD, is there really any benefit/drawback to a jacket style vs BP/W? As best I've been able to tell thus far, I use my BCD to hold my tank and to keep me afloat while I wait for the boat to pick me up.

Just looking for more information in order to make an informed decision and purchase.
 
so no air in the BC is something that can only be done under certain circumstances. Largely AL80 diving with no exposure protection. If you start diving locally in the mid-Atlantic, you won't be able to do that due to compression of the wetsuit. You can technically dive with no BC with thick wetsuits, but the weighting gets weird and it's not recommended. They did it way back when, but you have to have weighting set for different depth profiles, and it's generally annoying.

So, the pros and cons of a bp/w vs a jacket have little to nothing to do with the air cell itself in my opinion. The air cell advantages are nice, but not the "big one".
BP/W advantages:
Buoyancy: most jacket bc's float, and the bp/w will allow you to take between 6-10lbs off of your weight belt and if diving without any wetsuit with an AL80 in the Caribbean, you are likely not to need to wear any weight belt at all with a SS backplate. This is a huge benefit. I haven't worn a weight belt outside of skill demo's, ever....

In water stability: the bp/w has a nice large platform that the tank is able to use to prevent rocking. Jacket bc's use a narrow piece of plastic and the tank can rock around on your back unless the jacket is cinched way down, not so comfy.

Surface stability: Crotch strap... All bc's can have crotch straps, but most jackets require you to sew one on where bp/w's are designed for them. This and the waist strap are the most important straps on the rig while underwater, but also on the surface. To keep a jacket from riding up on your body, they have to use wide cummerbunds that are cinched tight with shoulder straps cinched down as well. With a bp/w the shoulder straps are quite loose and the waist strap is at your belt line. Waist strap is put on about the same tightness as the belt on your jeans, and when at the surface you basically sit on the crotch strap which has a similar sensation to sitting on a bike seat. Much more comfortable imho when at the surface since you are largely unencumbered.

Cost: the best bp/w on the market imho is just under $500. Most quality jacket bc's are at least that expensive if not more so

Durability/Modularity: If something critical on your jacket goes, you are resigned to chucking the thing. With a BP/W, if it gets cut off in an emergency, you are out a $20 piece of webbing. If the wing get's a puncture, you may have to spend $100 to replace the bladder. No damage can really "total" the rig. This modularity also allows it to be used in different scenarios as well. You have some of the best wreck diving in the world in your area, albeit with some conditions that leave a lot to be desired. If you purchase say a 20lb wing to be used on your Caribbean trips, you can purchase a larger single tank wing, or a doubles wing, and start doing the wreck diving in your area. Not a huge expense vs. potentially having to buy a different BCD.
The other huge part of their modularity is unlike jacket bc's where the lift is determined by your size *even a lot of back inflate bc's have at least 2 different lift capacities based on size*, you get to actually tailor the lift to your needs. I'm a big guy at 6'3", if I go to Scubapro and want to buy a bc, I will check out the Classic. In an XL which is the size that I need, there is 81lbs of lift in that jacket! Knighthawk has 45lbs and is a back inflate... I would be purchasing those rigs for warm water diving like you, where I'd be using an AL80, and assuming no exposure protection, but still want to keep my head above water, I need ~15lbs *for head*, plus ~6lbs for the air in the tank, so a 20lb wing is more than sufficient. The Knighthawk has me carrying double what I need, and the classic at 4x what I need. This is added weight on the rig, more area for the bladder to get damaged, more fabric to hold water and take longer to dry out, more drag when in the water, more places for air to get trapped where I can't easily dump it, etc. With a bp/w, I can take my long pattern plate from DSS, and put anything from a 12lb Super Scooter wing, all the way up to the 57lb Torus doubles wing depending on my needs. Same harness, same backplate, but the wings swap out and are fairly inexpensive.

Packability: because of the modularity, the rigs can be quickly and easily disassembled to allow for better packing dimensions when travelling. You can also leave the plate somewhere, and bring just the wing inside to clean out and dry out. Wings can be removed, rolled up like a towel and stuffed somewhere in your bag to keep them protected while the plates can act like a skid plate on the bottom or top of your travel bags.

edit: subject has come up over the last few days. The Transplate is a 100% brilliant harness and it will fit you like no other harness on the planet. HOWEVER, unless you need your backplate to fit like a backpacking pack, i.e. you are hiking with your gear over long distances *not uncommon for some shore divers, but certainly not the norm*, then the one piece harness I find to be much better in the water. We are diving, the walk to the water is the necessary evil and if you can deal with about 70% of the comfort on the surface, then stay with a one piece harness. If you need that comfort/stability while at the surface *for me the break point would be regular 100yd+ treks*, then the Transplate may gain you that last 30% but at the cost of not being as comfortable in the water *though it is still better than a jacket harness imho*
 
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I dived with a jacket BC for years and years. A couple of comments: even with a cummerbund, a jacket BC is unlikely to fit you as snug / well as a backplate harness. With a jacket BC, there is air all around you and as you swim, twist and turn, it's moving around, sometimes albeit slowly. I used to have times where I'd stop and be looking at something, but would keep spinning or twisting as all the air moved around to reach this highest spot in the bladder. With a backplate, the wing is either a horseshoe or donut shape and all the air settles in the highest spot pretty quickly. When you're on the surface with a jacket BC and fill it with air, you definitely feel it squeeze your sides since the bladder is wrapped around you; none of that with a backplate. Most jacket BCs have way more lift than needed, and hence have really big bladders. With a backplate, you can typically get away with less lift, i.e., a smaller wing, which is more streamlined for moving through the water. I sometimes miss not having a pocket if I spot something to pick up, but not enough to go back to a jacket style BC. You should definitely try before buying to understand and feel what the differences are
 
Thanks tbone1004! But that's what dive buddies with traditional BCs are for - underwater pack mules :)

Seriously though, I'm going to get a friend to sew up a pocket from tight nylon mesh for my wife to stow her reef hook for when go to Palau in a couple of weeks, and have her sew one up for me as well, probably like the DR travel pocket but a little bigger, so I can grab pretty shells (empties) for my wife on local dives. I figure I can slide it on my waist 2" webbing when I need it and leave it off the rest of the time
 
so no air in the BC is something that can only be done under certain circumstances. Largely AL80 diving with no exposure protection. If you start diving locally in the mid-Atlantic, you won't be able to do that due to compression of the wetsuit. You can technically dive with no BC with thick wetsuits, but the weighting gets weird and it's not recommended. They did it way back when, but you have to have weighting set for different depth profiles, and it's generally annoying.

So, the pros and cons of a bp/w vs a jacket have little to nothing to do with the air cell itself in my opinion. The air cell advantages are nice, but not the "big one".
BP/W advantages:
Buoyancy: most jacket bc's float, and the bp/w will allow you to take between 6-10lbs off of your weight belt and if diving without any wetsuit with an AL80 in the Caribbean, you are likely not to need to wear any weight belt at all with a SS backplate. This is a huge benefit. I haven't worn a weight belt outside of skill demo's, ever....

In water stability: the bp/w has a nice large platform that the tank is able to use to prevent rocking. Jacket bc's use a narrow piece of plastic and the tank can rock around on your back unless the jacket is cinched way down, not so comfy.

Surface stability: Crotch strap... All bc's can have crotch straps, but most jackets require you to sew one on where bp/w's are designed for them. This and the waist strap are the most important straps on the rig while underwater, but also on the surface. To keep a jacket from riding up on your body, they have to use wide cummerbunds that are cinched tight with shoulder straps cinched down as well. With a bp/w the shoulder straps are quite loose and the waist strap is at your belt line. Waist strap is put on about the same tightness as the belt on your jeans, and when at the surface you basically sit on the crotch strap which has a similar sensation to sitting on a bike seat. Much more comfortable imho when at the surface since you are largely unencumbered.

Cost: the best bp/w on the market imho is just under $500. Most quality jacket bc's are at least that expensive if not more so

Durability/Modularity: If something critical on your jacket goes, you are resigned to chucking the thing. With a BP/W, if it gets cut off in an emergency, you are out a $20 piece of webbing. If the wing get's a puncture, you may have to spend $100 to replace the bladder. No damage can really "total" the rig. This modularity also allows it to be used in different scenarios as well. You have some of the best wreck diving in the world in your area, albeit with some conditions that leave a lot to be desired. If you purchase say a 20lb wing to be used on your Caribbean trips, you can purchase a larger single tank wing, or a doubles wing, and start doing the wreck diving in your area. Not a huge expense vs. potentially having to buy a different BCD.
The other huge part of their modularity is unlike jacket bc's where the lift is determined by your size *even a lot of back inflate bc's have at least 2 different lift capacities based on size*, you get to actually tailor the lift to your needs. I'm a big guy at 6'3", if I go to Scubapro and want to buy a bc, I will check out the Classic. In an XL which is the size that I need, there is 81lbs of lift in that jacket! Knighthawk has 45lbs and is a back inflate... I would be purchasing those rigs for warm water diving like you, where I'd be using an AL80, and assuming no exposure protection, but still want to keep my head above water, I need ~15lbs *for head*, plus ~6lbs for the air in the tank, so a 20lb wing is more than sufficient. The Knighthawk has me carrying double what I need, and the classic at 4x what I need. This is added weight on the rig, more area for the bladder to get damaged, more fabric to hold water and take longer to dry out, more drag when in the water, more places for air to get trapped where I can't easily dump it, etc. With a bp/w, I can take my long pattern plate from DSS, and put anything from a 12lb Super Scooter wing, all the way up to the 57lb Torus doubles wing depending on my needs. Same harness, same backplate, but the wings swap out and are fairly inexpensive.

Packability: because of the modularity, the rigs can be quickly and easily disassembled to allow for better packing dimensions when travelling. You can also leave the plate somewhere, and bring just the wing inside to clean out and dry out. Wings can be removed, rolled up like a towel and stuffed somewhere in your bag to keep them protected while the plates can act like a skid plate on the bottom or top of your travel bags.
Once again, tbone nails it.
 
Hello,

I'm trying to decide if I should buy my own equipment and stop renting when I go on trips. the scuba shop I use is having an end of season sale.

I am considering a Oceanic EX 100 BCD. What do you all think? asking price is $150.

I believe as I start diving around the world it will make sense to have my own gear because I won't be able to count on some of these locations to have good rental stuff.

Thanks

Jeff
 
I am considering a Oceanic EX 100 BCD. What do you all think? asking price is $150.

Looks like okay value for money. I expect it is run-out stock.

If it fits and works for you then it probably is a good buy.

Would I buy it - no, I prefer a back inflate, either std BCD (Scubapro knighthawk) or BP/W they work for me :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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