Ultima Dry Glove System question

[insomniac]

I ordered larger O-Rings for Merry's Ultima rings and have no trouble mounting gloves on them. I bought two sets of Rolock90 rings for me. She has an arthritic thumb and twisting the Rolock gloves proved to be extremely painful for her. I currently have our four extra sets of Ultima rings on Ebay.

Thanks for posting that link, I purchased those last week and I'm hoping it will make it much easier!

 

[admikar]

This is a lesson in:
1. How to make an incredibly simple system more and unnecessarily complex.

2. How to stay married to a poorly spec’ed o-ring size that makes installing/changing gloves on your system a royal pain in the arse for 95% of those who buy it, UNLESS you purchase this new tool.

The shop in belgium that I purchased my Ultima DGS set from ordered 3 sets, one of which was for me. They sold one other and never recommended the 3rd to anyone nor did they ever purchase more….their reason was that it was too much of a bear to install gloves for the other customer who bought the 2nd set, and they could not recommend this product to anyone to do at home or a dive site given the other products on the market and the ease of which to mount gloves on the rings.

That being said…I am, in general, a fan of the Ultima DGS as it works easily, effectively, and consistently to allow one to dive with dry (and warm) hands. I like that the company has innovated to incorporate the twist off tabs into the rings…that is a step up from their push-pull system.

My issue with Waterproof and their Ultima system is the major flaw with the glove retaining o-ring size. The advent of the tool in the videos is, to me, a testament of how difficult it is to mount gloves on their ring system.

Kudos to them for engineering a tool to make it work…but there are other products that work more easily, effectively and consistently, out of the box without having to invest in a special tool or to reinvest in new glove-side rings to overcome downfalls in the system.

My recommendation is to purchase Rolock.

-Z

Just to make sure, you think people should buy Rolock? Or Rolock?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Thanks for posting that link, I purchased those last week and I'm hoping it will make it much easier!

It does!!! I tried mounting 720s to Merry's new Twist System with the supplied O-Rings and had to give up before I broke my fingers. With the larger O-Rings, they go on in a few seconds.

I used the smaller, supplied O-Rings on the outside of the gloves for extra protection.

 

[Zef]

Just to make sure, you think people should buy Rolock? Or Rolock?

I think people should buy whichever product suits their needs, budget, and/or desires.

What I can say is that I have dived with or otherwise handled most other systems on the market and I can state from first hand experience that the Rolock 90 is the easiest to install on the suit and use/connect for diving (while providing a consistently dry experience).

Waterproof’s Ultima DGS is a good 2nd choice in my opinion with a chief complaint of mounting gloves on the glove rings…though this is alleviated by using a slightly larger o-ring. I tested the security of the larger o-rings and sent pairs of them to some SB members to try and the feedback from them was positive, they skeptically tried the larger o-rings given the finger-busting hassle they previously experienced, they all had positive experiences mounting their gloves with the larger o-rings and none have reported any issues with the larger o-rings causing gloves to pop off.

-Z

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I think people should whichever product suits their needs, budget, and/or desires.

What I can say is that I have dived with or otherwise handled most other systems on the market and I can state from first hand experience that the Rolock 90 is the easiest to install on the suit and use/connect for diving.

Waterproof’s Ultima DGS is a good 2nd choice in my opinion with a chief complaint of mounting gloves on the glove rings…though this is alleviated by using a slightly larger o-ring. I tested the security of the larger o-rings and sent pairs of them to some SB members to try and the feedback was from them was positive, they skeptically tried the larger o-rings given the finger-busting hassle they previously experienced, they all had positive experiences mounting their gloves with the larger o-rings and none have reported any issues with the larger o-rings causing gloves to pop off.

-Z

I can vouch for @Zef o rings.

I have loaded the DGS withthe original o rings and had a really tough time. I'm not a body builder, but I consider myself in decent physical shape... my wife made fun of me for how hard it was. With @Zef o rings it was a completely different experience.. took minutes, not an hr. Haven't leaked since I swapped them out. The originals didn't either, but holy crap were they terrible. Stuff that gives you nightmares when you tear a glove, ha!

Rolock was even easier then DGS. Still in the process of breaking those in, but I like them a lot.

 

[insomniac]

Out of curiosity, I checked around and that tool posted earlier is meant for dive shops / retailers that apparently install the gloves on their customers behalf... It's about $425 USD!!!

 

[Zef]

Out of curiosity, I checked around and that tool posted earlier is meant for dive shops / retailers that apparently install the gloves on their customers behalf... It's about $425 USD!!!

That information only confirms how unnecessarily difficult it is for the end user to mount gloves on the rings.

-Z

 

[rob.mwpropane]

That information only confirms how unnecessarily difficult it is for the end user to mount gloves on the rings.

-Z

The system is beyond bad to load... but I wouldn't consider it to be so bad it needs a $425 fix

Why in God's name they just didn't release a different size o ring is beyond me. Not everything is a nail, ha!

 

[lexvil]

That information only confirms how unnecessarily difficult it is for the end user to mount gloves on the rings.

-Z

No s+it, I often have nightmares about flying to a cold water destination, the plane not crashing and having to load a new glove, truly horrific…

 

[insomniac]

FYI: I tried the o-rings that @MaxBottomtime recommended and unfortunately they don't work for me. I don't have the hand strength to mount them on the system like he does and they just aren't as strong of a fit as the factory supplied ones that actually work better with my jig system I've developed. As an aside, the o-rings that I were supplied with the my new Ultima Twist system are identical to the ones that came with my Ultima's from years ago. They are insanely tight; but I am able to relatively easily mount them using my jig.

And @lexvil, I hear you! That's why I am excited to have an extra set of old style rings that I plan on keeping with me as "ready to go" spares so I don't have to try and change gloves out on a boat. I've only done it once before and it was super stressful...