Which BCD do you recommend?

I know this has probably been asked a hundred times, but I couldn't find it in a search and new kit is always coming out.

My BCD has been diving longer than I have and is starting to show it's age slightly. Apart from the garish black and orange colours, it's not the comfiest thing in the world. So I've decided to spend my birthday money on a new one.

Most of my diving is in the tropics of the UK (For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of diving over here, I think the general consensus is, it's blooming cold) But I love nipping out to the Med. So, I'd need something suitable for cold and warm water.

I don't really want a wing, but I don't mind the new "half and half" design, with little wings. In fact, I prefer them.

I recently swapped with a mate for a dive to see what I thought I loved the integrated weights. So that's another things I'd like.

The only thing I've found so far is the Mares Dragon. Which seams to tick all the boxes, apart from my brother has got his eye on one, so we'd look like a pair of bookends! Which doesn't rule it out, but if there's anything else out there, I'd be very interested.

Price, around the £250 ish mark. But I don't mind going over slightly.

Ta muchly

I have a back inflate BC which is close to being a bp/w but with some extra bells and whistles.

I have the Cressi Air Travel. It's light, packs small, integrated weights, and pretty simple. I like it but I think I will try out bp/w soon.

Check this out.

TOP STORY / Travel BCs

How much negative weight and positive weight will you be wearing in cold water? That will determine how much lift your BC requires and in lieu can cross off some BC recommendations.

The type of half-half design you're looking for is a called a back-inflate.
You may want to look at the following

Scubapro:
Knight Hawk
LiteHawk
Sea Hawk

Zeagle:
Express Tech
Ranger
Stilleto

Sherwood:
Tortuga (hybrid between jacket and back-inflate)

I dive a Seaquest Balance- I found it in the attic of a Dive Center I worked for a few years back, paid $100 for it and it works sweet. Only one pocket which is actually a pretty crap design IMO but other than that it's good. Trim pockets, packs down small, lots of buoyancy fully inflated. I'm sure you can pick them up for pretty cheap on ebay.

Personally I would avoid BCDs with too much bling. A couple of D-rings, a rear dump and a couple of pockets is all you really need IMO. This isn't
actually my BCD- just some photos I found on inter

Personally I hate jacket BCs so I'm not going to be much help to you but I wanted to tell you that I like your username. Good luck, please consider trying a rigid plate/webbing harness/small wing for an actual dive before you say no to that type of set up. If you already have, sorry...you can fart in my general direction.

no matter what you get, the most important need (other than actually holding air and holding your tank) it FIT. How you achieve that, is with numerous possibilities... Comfy in the store means nothing. Put a tank on it, what happens to how it holds you? Is everything in the right place? If so, you have a winner.

Cheers for your help guys
What are peoples views on folding back plates over rigid ones?

I think that you should be careful to select one that has a pull dump device located near the rear

My SS plate and Halcyon wings work for cold water and dry suits/steel tanks locally, and salt water and floaty aluminum tanks in the Caribbean. What's not to like?

Backpads on back-inflates can be rigid plastic or soft flexible fabric.

On soft fabric backings you can have a hard plastic tank rack or a soft tank rack. The latter allows the BC to roll up like a sleeping bag. An example would be Scuba Pro's Glide.
The former won't allow you to roll up your BC.

I prefer having a hard plastic tank rack, it helps with tank stability. Having a hard plastic backpad adds to tank stability, but not by much.
Look for a BC that fits you, has the lift your require, and has any accessories you desire:
- weight integrated pockets
- storage pockets
- D rings
etc.

Preferably you want weight pockets that are easy to inserts on your own when your wearing your BC. You'll also want them to have an easy quick released mechanism.
D-rings you really only need 4; 2 on the shoulder, 2 on the waist.
Storage pockets aren't very ideal on a stock BC. Rarely are they big enough to hold anything useful without being stretched and a making you very bulky.
The only thing I've ever stored in my BC's pockets are small sample vials and RPC chains when I'm doing a science dive. Everything else is clipped off and tied down to prevent dangling. YMMV