patiently waiting for nereas to find this thread and enlighten us...
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patiently waiting for nereas to find this thread and enlighten us...
patiently waiting for nereas to find this thread and enlighten us...
patiently waiting for nereas to find this thread and enlighten us...
Just started diving dry and have been in temps of 45 degrees and intend to keep diving during the winter (Northeast) and cooler waters. While comfortable, toward the end of the second dive I do start to get a little cool but I'm still comfortable. Anticipating I may be diving in cooler waters or extending dive times, is it worth using argon and does anyone have a guesstimate as to how much warmer it actually keeps you. I couldn't find a thread, blog, or site that actually addresses the temp difference in a dry suit using argon vs. air. Just trying to figure out if it is worth the cost. Thanks.
And from that article:But moving away from subjective data to objective data, we now have this (from NEDU/ Duke):
Nuckols ML, Giblo J, Wood-Putnam JL. THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DIVING GARMENTS WHEN USING ARGON AS A SUIT INFLATION GAS. Undersea Hyperb Med. 2008 July-Aug;35(4) RRR ID: 7789
RESULTS: Improvements in localized thermal insulation values were seen throughout both drysuit ensembles when using argon as an inflation gas when compared with those while using air. Overall, the total suit insulation values increased by 16 – 20% for the two drysuit ensembles. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation has demonstrated that significant improvements in drysuit thermal protection can theoretically be achieved when using argon instead of air as a drysuit inflation gas. It should be noted however that these improvements can only be achieved by carefully and repeatedly purging (a minimum of 6 purge cycles) with pure argon prior to water entry.