Review: Cozy Winters heated vest

[ericfine50]

Thanks Tobin for the education.

 

[do it easy]

PS -- My husband bought one, too, and he loves his . . .

Is this the first dive related topic that you both agree on?

As far as failure goes, I think it's fine as long as you don't explicitly rely on it to extend your dive time. In other words, you're not assuming any more risk if you dive within the limits of your drysuit alone; you're just making those limits more comfortable.

I guess I should include some note about extra conservatism if it fails midway through a dive, since this might affect ongassing and offgassing rates.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Good write up. My hand and feet get cold faster so I was checking out the socks and glove liners.

 

[Peter Guy]

Hmmm, is it the first time we've agreed? No -- I must agree that donating the primary is a much better option than donating an octo AND having a long(er) hose on the primary is much preferred than the stupid short hose.

But I digress.

I used the vest on a simple dive Saturday, wore less than before and was very comfortable. I'm looking forward to using this in an upcoming class where I expect I'll be doing a lot of nothing which normally means COLD!

 

[fisherdvm]

Have you ever seen those chemical heaters in military MRE's (meals ready to eat).

If they made something like it for drysuits, it could keep you toasty. Only problem is with the gas that it releases, might cause a little buoyancy problem.

 

[Matt S.]

This thread got me to thinking... A completely sealed, rechargeable heating garment is certainly possible to manufacture. Seal up the battery and heating elements in silicone; the battery would be recharged via induction. Judging by my inductively recharged waterproof razor, that is probably slow and expensive, but it is also flood-proof as long as there is no mechanical damage.

Li-polymer batteries can be made in many shapes, so the pack would be big and thin, fitting in the small of your back.

(Those Solus can lights have a neat charging system. The battery can is totally sealed, and there are charging contacts on the bottom--but they aren't electrically connected until you put the can on the charging base. At that time, a magnet in the base closes the circuit inside the can, the contacts are live, and charging can begin.)

 

[TSandM]

We were actually talking about this the other day, looking at our Sonicare toothbrushes and wondering why somebody hasn't made a canister light battery you can recharge that way. Sealed would be a good thing . . .

 

[cool_hardware52]

We were actually talking about this the other day, looking at our Sonicare toothbrushes and wondering why somebody hasn't made a canister light battery you can recharge that way. Sealed would be a good thing . . .

There are a couple of practical impediments.

Some battery chemistries can offgas when recharged.

Inductive charging requires a coil in the battery case, inductive charging works by placing 1/2 of an "air coil" transformer in the charger and the other half in the battery case. Air coil transformers are not very efficient, requiring a fairly large coil if you want recharge times that are reasonably short. In addition some portion of the charge control electronics would need be in the battery canister. Adding a large, heavy copper coil, and charge control electronics to the canister poses obvious problems.

Inductive charging is practical when the batteries are small, and the duty cycle of the device is low, i.e. a shaver or toothbrush spends most of it's time in the charging cradle and not in use. If you had 2-3 days to recharge your light (or vest) and only wanted to use it for a few minutes per day inductive would work.


Tobin

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

In my state of near-panic over being told I might have to be in the water for two hours at a time in the class I'm taking next month, I broke down and ordered myself a heated vest. It's polarfleece (heavy fleece) and powered by a Li Ion battery smaller than a pack of playing cards.

Sigh…

I was just starting to feel content in the knowledge that I had all the scuba toys I could ever need, and that my credit card could rest undisturbed…

 

[TSandM]

Oh, Tassie Rohan, you dreamer . . .