Calculating BCD Lift for Future Purchase
- Thread starter hijax
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eelnoraa
Contributor
The proper way to determine lift requirement has been discussed often. Basically, your BC need to fulfill two requirements:
1) It needs to float your rig while you are NOT in it when it is the heavist. This is usually at the beginning of the dive when tank is full.
For OP, the key take away here is weight integrated BC will increase lift requirement.
2) it needs to compensate for buoyance lost of your equipments. This is usually exposure protection. For wetsuit, it is compression due to pressure at depth. For dry suit, it is if you flood your DS and lost all bit buoyanct. This also applies to anything you bring underwater that can potentially lost buoyancy.
For OP, this is 3mm wetsuit, which shoudln't have much buoyance to lose to begin with.
So lift requirement here is really the ability to float the rig.
But at the end of the day, we can talk number all we want, OP need to do a proper weight check first. 16lb with 3mm wetsuit seems quite a bit over weighted.
Also, single regulator can't be -6lb. SMB, spare mask and compass can't be -4lb. I think they are more like -2lb and 0lb. 35lb of lift is way more than enough. People dive in Monterey with 7mmx2 or drysuit are using that much lift
1) It needs to float your rig while you are NOT in it when it is the heavist. This is usually at the beginning of the dive when tank is full.
For OP, the key take away here is weight integrated BC will increase lift requirement.
2) it needs to compensate for buoyance lost of your equipments. This is usually exposure protection. For wetsuit, it is compression due to pressure at depth. For dry suit, it is if you flood your DS and lost all bit buoyanct. This also applies to anything you bring underwater that can potentially lost buoyancy.
For OP, this is 3mm wetsuit, which shoudln't have much buoyance to lose to begin with.
So lift requirement here is really the ability to float the rig.
But at the end of the day, we can talk number all we want, OP need to do a proper weight check first. 16lb with 3mm wetsuit seems quite a bit over weighted.
Also, single regulator can't be -6lb. SMB, spare mask and compass can't be -4lb. I think they are more like -2lb and 0lb. 35lb of lift is way more than enough. People dive in Monterey with 7mmx2 or drysuit are using that much lift
boat sju
Contributor
Salt water, AL 80, 4/3 wetsuit - I dive with 15# and am not "quite a bit over weighted". I'm 5'9". A 3mm wetsuit made for a guy who's 6"4" is a fair amount of neoprene.
Hijax: The the point I'd try to make is that unless you want to buy a few BCs, which you may want to do at some point, I think the 35# lift would give you more options without being overkill. If you ever decide you want to use a 7mm suit and a 100HP tank, you easily may need the benefit of the 35# bc.
I dive the same bc in a drysuit/steel tank in Monterey (SW) and the Great Lakes (FW) and in a 4/3 mm in Bonaire (FW/AL 80)
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