Argon in your dry suit?

[dreamdive]

"you need a separate suit inflation system when using trimix, that's just a fact of life. "

????


Sorry but I don't get that. I plug in from one of my bail-outs - regardless what I have filled in them (that's another discussion), so I don't understand why that is different for OC tech.

 

[tbone1004]

it's not, that is still a separate suit inflation system because you aren't using it on back gas. You can do it on bailout, on a 50/50 deco mix, travel gas, whatever other than high o2 mixes and helium, but it's a bottle that you aren't going to be dropping and it is separate from your primary breathing gas and being inflated from a non-trimix bottle.

In OC I usually plug in via travel gas. It will have two inflators, one for the wing, the other for drysuit. It's usually only a 30 or a 40, and usually air.

 

[OkByMe]

It is more a question of wasting expensive gas than anything else for me. Helium costs money and there is no point in venting it in multiple level dives through the dry-suit. When on Nitox or trimix, I use a bottle for the suit and wing with air, I'm cheap.

 

[PfcAJ]

[abstract] THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DIVING GARMENTS WHEN USING ARGON AS A SUIT INFLATION GAS.

In these testing conditions, there was a 16-20% total increase in insulation values. That's worthwhile to me.

Here's the thing about that study; The suit was purged 6 times with argon. That seems like a lot, right? Who's gunna do that? No one. But the trick is that you're descending a LOT more on a tech dive (where you'll have trimix on your back) than they did in the study which has the same overall effect as purging.

Inflating off a shallow deco gas is a thing that some people do, but that requires having the bottle on (which isn't breathable at depth) and it doesn't scale to cave diving where you leave the shallow bottles toward the entrance of the cave.

In any case, thermal management needs to start simply with a a dry drysuit, a quality undergarment (thinsulate) and baselayer, a proper hood, then consider argon, and finally a heated system.

 

[shoredivr]

As an experiment I did one 140 ft dive in 42F water using 20/25 as back gas and suit inflation followed by another similar dive on the same wreck with20/25 back gas and argon as suit inflation and I was surprised at how much warmer I felt on the second dive.

 

[SeaCobra]

also helps to avoid isobaric counter diffussion

 

[Michael Guerrero]

Aside from the studies posted that found either 1) no discernible difference in double blind testing, or 2) that you did get a marginal improvement if you properly and adequately purge the suit, I've heard questions related to taking a gas with you that you can't breathe at any depth.

One thought is that in a worst-case scenario, having your inflation gas be breathable (even if that's through your inflator hose) might outweigh the (possibly negligible) improvement in insulation.

 

[PfcAJ]

I cannot conceive a a reasonable (even unreasonable) situation when I would be going to my al6 argon bottle to breath off of.

Srysly?

I'm also not sure 16-20% is 'marginal'.

 

[oldschoolto]

Is that like PEE in a wetsuit ????

 

[BRT]

Aside from the studies posted that found either 1) no discernible difference in double blind testing, or 2) that you did get a marginal improvement if you properly and adequately purge the suit, I've heard questions related to taking a gas with you that you can't breathe at any depth.

One thought is that in a worst-case scenario, having your inflation gas be breathable (even if that's through your inflator hose) might outweigh the (possibly negligible) improvement in insulation.

But not using your breathing gas for suit inflation still gives you that gas to breathe