Weight pouches

[Fifa]

I recently bought 6 soft weight pouches from Scubapro. 5 of them seems to be water tight, but one is softer and lead balls inside are not hold tight like in others. This bag also absorbs water and after all dives I need to pour out a nasty gray water. Is it a legitimate reason for warranty claim ?

 

[Zef]

Typically with soft weight pouches the lead shot is contained in a plastic bag. While it does cut down on the amount of lead/lead oxide dust that forms coming out, the plastic bag doesn’t last forever. Dropping the pouch or stacking other weights on top of it are typical ways that rupture the plastic and can happen in transit during initial shipment but eventually just normal handling is enough to rupture the thin plastic bag in the pouch.

There are folks who have switched back to solid lead weights due to concern about releasing lead into the environment via the dust that comes off the balls of shot that is constantly grinding against each other forming that gray water you mentioned.

Whether it is something you should try to claim under warranty or not is entirely up to you, but realize a couple of things:
1. As I mentioned above it is an eventuality.

2. Other than concern about releasing lead into the environment, you most likely only care because the pouches are new…eventually you will pay less regard to them and toss them in your car, on your work bench and treat them more like a utility and less like a Fabergé egg. I am not knocking you by stating this…we all go through that phase to one degree or another.

I would not worry about it too much unless you are concerned about the release of lead and in that case you should switch to hard weights.

-Z

 

[Fifa]

Thanks for your view. I understands bags will not lasting forever, but this one is one week old. My concerns is not only about the "mother nature environment" but taking the pouch and spraying everything around (in dive boat/ dive center/car/dive box by this nasty grinded lead dust is something I'd like to avoid.
BTW: As the pouch is not sealed there is some air trapped inside. I'm curious how it can influence oweral buoyancy characteristic of the weight - probably not too much, but carrying 2kg weight which at the end provide only ~1.8kg negative lift is annoying

 

[Fifa]

In the future I will most probably switch to the hard plastic coated weights for my back trim pockets and for the waist i will keep soft bags

 

[Zef]

Thanks for your view. I understands bags will not lasting forever, but this one is one week old. My concerns is not only about the "mother nature environment" but taking the pouch and spraying everything around (in dive boat/ dive center/car/dive box by this nasty grinded lead dust is something I'd like to avoid.
BTW: As the pouch is not sealed there is some air trapped inside. I'm curious how it can influence oweral buoyancy characteristic of the weight - probably not too much, but carrying 2kg weight which at the end provide only ~1.8kg negative lift is annoying

As the pouch is not sealed the air should escape when submerged but even if it didn’t, the buoyant effect of such a nominal amount of air is negligible as is the difference between 1.8kg and 2kg when it comes to weighting.

Eventually the bulk of the lead dust will wash out and it won’t be a problem. Rinse at your home in a bathtub or in your garden if you are concerned about it getting on other peoples gear…but after a few dives it will not be much of an issue. Until it is washed away it is something you should expect and warranty replacing your weight pouch will not change the fact that the plastic bags within the pouch will eventually break open and you will find the same issue in the future with the rest of your pouches.

Your concerns are in-line with that of many new divers and new gear owners…I can only recommend that you focus less on this issue and instead focus on things that really matter like establishing and maintaining neutral buoyancy, navigation skills, and just gaining experience to be a good diver.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Cheers,
-Z