Review: Cozy Winters heated vest

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TSandM

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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. It has three power settings, and according to the literature, will run for up to 7 hours on low (I think, from the last couple of days, that that's pretty optimistic).

Anyway, I wore it around the house last night and it worked well. Low heat was plenty, and it ran for several hours.

Today, I dove with it. It was WONDERFUL. I used it in place of the 200g Thinsulate vest I normally wear, and removed a layer of fleece underneath as well. That left my buoyancy pretty much unaltered. I activated the vest before I zipped up my dry suit. It worked well through an hour dive in 46 degree water, and then I turned it up to "medium" on the way home in the car, which was delightful.

I am going to put the battery and controller (the only water-damageable parts) in Zip Lock bags, so that it would take a water-sloshing suit flood to damage them, and if I have one of those, I suspect I have more to worry about than salt-ruined batteries.

Anyway, I wish I'd done this a long time ago.
 
TSandM:
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. It has three power settings, and according to the literature, will run for up to 7 hours on low (I think, from the last couple of days, that that's pretty optimistic).

Anyway, I wore it around the house last night and it worked well. Low heat was plenty, and it ran for several hours.

Today, I dove with it. It was WONDERFUL. I used it in place of the 200g Thinsulate vest I normally wear, and removed a layer of fleece underneath as well. That left my buoyancy pretty much unaltered. I activated the vest before I zipped up my dry suit. It worked well through an hour dive in 46 degree water, and then I turned it up to "medium" on the way home in the car, which was delightful.

I am going to put the battery and controller (the only water-damageable parts) in Zip Lock bags, so that it would take a water-sloshing suit flood to damage them, and if I have one of those, I suspect I have more to worry about than salt-ruined batteries.

Anyway, I wish I'd done this a long time ago.

And if the battery unexpectedly runs out it's still a fleece vest with some insulation ability. Nicely done. I think I'd like the foot warmers; it's usually my feets that catch a cold.
 
Cool product. What kind of drysuit do you use, neoprene or some kind of "bag" suit?
 
I have two suits, a Mobby's trilam and a Diving Concepts compressed neoprene suit. I'm using the vest with the compressed neoprene at the moment.
 
I see that page has only two sizes (assuming men's or unisex)? How did you find the medium, was it huge and bulky, seems to have quite a lot of pockets and stuff too? (I assume you got that). And related question, did it trap air bad?
 
Looks like I got the last small! The small, BTW, is big -- These are clearly sized for men who like beer on their hunting trips :) The hem comes down to my hips, so essentially my entire torso is inside the heating area, which is nice.

It does not seem to trap air badly. As I said, I essentially traded it for my Thinsulate vest, and it didn't seem to do anything to my buoyancy.
 
Great topic, im a commercial diver and sometimes spend 4-5 hours in the water at a time, i may just have to order some of this gear it would make my job alot more conferrable.

Thanks
 
TSandM:
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. It has three power settings, and according to the literature, will run for up to 7 hours on low (I think, from the last couple of days, that that's pretty optimistic).

LIon batteries have the disturbing habit of catching fire when they short out.

I'm not sure I'd want one zipped up into a drysuit with me.

Terry
 
Web Monkey:
LIon batteries have the disturbing habit of catching fire when they short out.

I'm not sure I'd want one zipped up into a drysuit with me.

Terry

:11:

Cripes, that would be inconvenient.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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