Weight belt vs. Integrated weights

[agilis]

Weight belt, because I have Luddite tendencies and because I do a lot of shallow inlet dives in 20 to 30 feet of water with a back plate instead of a BC or wings. The 5mm wetsuit provides more than enough buoyancy, and weights can easily be dropped in an emergency. The very slight decrease in buoyancy at 30 feet is not a issue. On deeper dives I use a belt even though my BC can use integrated weights because it's easily fine tuned, simpler, and simple is usually better. The weights I use can be removed without taking off the belt.

 

[Bob DBF]

Ha ha .... Skinny with no fat, my wife will laugh lots at that. I guess I'm about 200lbs (95kg) and no DSLR cameras. I dive a tranpac harness with no plate and voyager wing

Over in Indonesia I had 2 AL 80's (one slung). A 3mm suit and sharkskin one piece under suit that required 4lbs

Yeah, if I was in Indonesia I probably wouldn't need much weight, but my 7mm farmer john back at home needs a lot.

Ignoring body size, and exposure protection I'm convinced people get "addicted" to weight and believe they need it ( much like you can talk yourself into poor air consumption) an could if they dive frequently easily dive with less

Agreed, had to talk a couple of divers, that wanted to dive with me again, out of some of their weight as a condition, and they were shocked that they didn't actually need it.



Bob

 

[Silver $crambler]

Did he say 43lbs?
That's a crap ton of weight!
Lucky for me my diving experience is still limited and practicing neutral buoyancy is still fun and rewarding!
At 43lbs, I would be "embedded" in the muck at the bottom.

I hate weight belts - belly too big - butt too small.

 

[Skulmoski]

My Dive Rite BP/W has two integrated pockets. I am a bit of a sissy, so I only dive in temperate waters and therefore do not need much weight.

Hats off you you drysuit divers!!

GJS in sunny Abu Dhabi (45C today!)

 

[gcarter]

When diving my Balance, split between trim pockets, integrated front pockets, and belt. The split is for trim, and putting my ditchable in 3 places.

With my BP/W, I have added 2 upper trim pockets and use a belt.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Ditto.

For jacket BCs, I don't see any advantages for using a weight belt if the BC has quick-release integrated pockets.

If the diver is in cold water and needs a lot of lead there are several reasons to use both.
Weight distribution so that the loss of any one system or part of a system does not result in an uncontrolled ascent.
The ability to drop a small percentage of weight if necessary.
It makes the BC much easier to handle.
Some weight pockets are easily loaded once you have the BC on. Others are a downright pain in the butt and may actually not get installed correctly.
I began with a WI BC during my OW class. Dived it for over a year. Then went to a BPW and back to a belt. That was over ten years ago and my primary method for adding lead is a Mako rubber belt.

 

[GreggS]

Just after finishing my OW certification, I did a dive out of Little River, SC to an old steamer wreck lying in 50 feet of water. I had not yet started buying my own equipment so rented from the dive operator. I had been debating on whether to buy weight belt or integrated. I had trained using a belt but felt like the integrated made more sense. Anyway, as is usually the case, the gear from the dive operator was very used and of couse had a weight belt. Most of the onea they had were too short to fit me and the only one they had on board that was long enough was way long. On the 2nd dive, I was at the bottom fanning the sand looking for relics when I suddenly felt the belt sliding off my waist. Somehow, the buckle had come unclinched and was leaving me. I was able to grab the end of it just as it came off and I was ganging there upside down in the water with my now underweighted body wanting to go to the surface. I was finally able to get the belt back around my waist but due to its extra long length I could not get the end if it back into the buckle. And to top it off, my instabuddy had somehow gotten separated from me and there was no one with me to help.

I ended up having to surface while holding the belt arounf my waist with both hands. I did a very slow ascent and fortunately didn't suffer any ill effects from the adventure.

You can probably assume from this that when I did buy my BCD, it was weight integrated.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

So a failure to re-secure the belt at depth, coupled with having the wrong size belt, led you to assume that integrated was better? What will you do if the integrated pocket ever drops out without you noticing and you start a rapid ascent because you can't grab it as you were able to with the belt? That you felt sliding and were able to get a hold of.

 

[GreggS]

That's a good question and is always a possibility. I don't know what caused the belt to become loose, whether it was my fault for not securing it properly, it was a worn out buckle, or I unknowingly raked across something on the wreck that caused it to become unbuckled. The BCD I bought has a seemingly secure snap-in system that has not yet failed in over 2 years of use. But let's say one did suddenly break or become unsnapped and fall out. Combined with the fact that I would still have the other pocket in plus the trim weights on my tank strap, I would only be losing less than half my total weight. It would not be like losing the entire belt at once. While I might still be heading to the surface, I might have a goog chance of controlling the ascent better than if I had suddenly lost my entire weight system. It is highly unlikekly that an entire integrated system would fail all at once.

 

[Patoux01]

@GreggS are you aware that you do not necessarily need all your weight to be on the weight belt? It causes amongst others:
- bad trim (usually)
- backaches
- problems when dropping weights (rocketing to the surface)

And you only need a few kg (somewhere between 2 and 4 kg is more than enough) to be ditchable, the rest shouldn't be. Let me add though, that you might not want ditchable weight at all (my case).