69 cent Argon gas

Rick Inman · Nov 11, 2003

I made a dive this morning and tried something weird. It worked. So I tried it again an hour ago on a night dive, and it really does work. What I did was to take one of those chemical hand warmers (you know, the ones that get hot when air hits them) and stick a small piece of double-back tape to the top of it and stick it on my chest under my dry suit right where the inflator valve blows in. And sure enough, every time I gave the inflator a burst, it blew nice warm, toasty air on my chest! VERY noticeable. Water temp was 47 degrees. But even 50 mins. into the dive the warmer was still doing its job and warming every blast of air. Very nice.

dc4bs · Nov 12, 2003

Hmmm...

I had thought about trying that but I was a bit worried that the higher ppO2 in the drysuit might make it burn "hot" and damage the suit (not to mention me

).

How deep did you go, how long and what gas mix were you diving?

I keep a handfull of the hand-warmer packets in my glove compartment in case of emergencies or for after cold water dives. I've given a few out to students who looked extra cold after dives as well.

EDIT: one more thought. What happens if the pouch rips and the filling spills out? On land you can simply drop the pouch if it gets too hot. If it's in your drysuit I guess you COULD intentionaly flood a bit to cool things down but I'd rather just wear thicker underwear and stay warm that way. DRY GLOVES make a HUGE difference as well.

DA Aquamaster · Nov 12, 2003

Nice idea to stick one to your chest by the inflator valve.

I had tried them taped to the back of my hand in my dry gloves but there was not enough free O2 to keep the chemical reaction going.

I don't think the PO2 will make much difference as I think it is essentially the surface area of the chemicals in the pouch that controls the reaction. Most of the hand warmers designed to go into a glove (the regular kind, not a diving type dry glove) as slow enough reacting that they do not get warm enough to burn you.

Rick Inman · Nov 13, 2003

dc4bs once bubbled...
Hmmm...

I had thought about trying that but I was a bit worried that the higher ppO2 in the drysuit might make it burn "hot" and damage the suit (not to mention me ).

How deep did you go, how long and what gas mix were you diving?

I keep a handfull of the hand-warmer packets in my glove compartment in case of emergencies or for after cold water dives. I've given a few out to students who looked extra cold after dives as well.

EDIT: one more thought. What happens if the pouch rips and the filling spills out? On land you can simply drop the pouch if it gets too hot. If it's in your drysuit I guess you COULD intentionaly flood a bit to cool things down but I'd rather just wear thicker underwear and stay warm that way. DRY GLOVES make a HUGE difference as well.

Didn't get TOO hot at all. In fact, I forgot about it until I hit the button and felt the warm air. I wear polypropylene underwear and then fleece over that, and I put the pad between the two so it wasnt directly against my skin or the neoprene.
I was diving good ol air down to 82 feet, 48-degree water temp, dive time 47 mins.
I never thought about the thing ripping open and spilling down my suit. Guess it would make a mess in my undies. I did test it later to see what would happen if it got wet. All that happens is the thing stops producing heat.
Oh, and speaking of dry gloves, a good friend just bought me a pair!!! I get them installed tomorrow.
God bless you, Tony!

dc4bs · Nov 13, 2003

Hmmm...

Any science types around here willing to "safely" find out what happens if you feed a handwarmer pouch elevated levels of O2?

I'd be curious to find out what the results of that would be.

Nitrox might have a more pronounced effect than air on a handwarmer, especialy under pressure. Then again, it might not.

It's not something I'd want to find out the hard way though.

saltywater · Nov 13, 2003

We were on a boat with a couple of other divers recently who relayed a story about one of their buddies who used them in his dry suit undies on a deco dive while using Mixed Gas. (Not sure of blend). He ended up with very bad burns on both thighs and had to endure it through his decompression stops. Apparently the burns were bad enough that it kept him from diving for a number of weeks afterwords. Didn't sound very pleasant. They had used them while diving air previously without problems, but after that incident, have sworn them off altogether. I think I would too. They are nice during surface intervals though.

Rick Inman · Nov 13, 2003

saltywater once bubbled...
We were on a boat with a couple of other divers recently who relayed a story about one of their buddies who used them in his dry suit undies on a deco dive while using Mixed Gas. (Not sure of blend). He ended up with very bad burns on both thighs and had to endure it through his decompression stops. Apparently the burns were bad enough that it kept him from diving for a number of weeks afterwords. Didn't sound very pleasant. They had used them while diving air previously without problems, but after that incident, have sworn them off altogether. I think I would too. They are nice during surface intervals though.

I was checking them out at the store, and some brands list their max temp, and different ones have different max temps (based on AIR). The max on the one I used is 103 degrees - not enough to burn you through a fabric. I'm going to test one again tomorrow afternoon.

FIXXERVI6 · Nov 13, 2003

yea, but is that max temp in air, or max temp, I wouldn't think they would put them in high pressure 02 and rate them that way, I'm sure if your read around on it there will be some disclaimer about only using them as a hand wamer.

Its logical that high PP02 would make it get hotter than its "rated" max temp.

If anything you at least know its good for air!

69 cent Argon gas

Please register or login

Rick Inman

Advisor

dc4bs

Contributor

DA Aquamaster

Directional Toast

Rick Inman

Advisor

dc4bs

Contributor

saltywater

Contributor

Rick Inman

Advisor

FIXXERVI6

Contributor

Similar threads