Wrist seal drygloves vs Ring seal dry gloves

[Colliam7]

I noticed a post in another thread regarding the Nordic-Blue drygloves (Nordic Blue) with latex wrist seals that fit over the drysuit wrist seals, rather than attaching by the more usual ring seals. Has anyone used these to any extent, and do you have first-person opinion to offer regarding their sutitability?

[TSandM]

I haven't used them, but my GUE instructor uses something similar. He seems to get them on and off with a little fussing but not a lot.

I tried to make some for myself, and I learned one thing about them. You have a fixed length from the end of your thumb or fingers to the end of the seal. If that length is too long for the size of your hand and the placement of your dry suit seals, the gloves arent going to sit right on your hands and it's very unpleasant. I can't use the Nordic Blues or the ones Steve uses for that reason. I use rings instead.

[Colliam7]

You have a fixed length from the end of your thumb or fingers to the end of the seal. If that length is too long for the size of your hand and the placement of your dry suit seals, the gloves arent going to sit right on your hands and it's very unpleasant. I can't use the Nordic Blues or the ones Steve uses for that reason. I use rings instead.

Thanks, Lynne, just the kind of info I am looking for.

[fireflock]

Mine kind of double over on themselves into something that's analogous to a telescoping torso and I've not had problems with them being too long. I would think that there might be some kind of middle ground where you don't have enough material to double over and that might get uncomfortable.

I'm not sure if that made any sense, but the moral is that my gloves work fine despite the extra length from wrist seal to fingertip. I don't have attached liners...that might make some difference?

[Emma NZ]

Hi, my buddy has the latex wrist seals and I have the rings. I got the rings as I was told I could get them on and off myself while the latex seals require help. admittedly I was a novice user, but I couldn´t get the damn rings on properly myself, and even when I got someone to help me they didn´t seal properly (=sleeve full of 1 degree water). So no advantage to rings in that respect. My buddy on the other hand needs about 5 seconds help each time he puts them on or takes them off, and they are low relief which is great if you are doing anything down there other than looking. If I was to buy again I would definitely get latex seals.

[b1gcountry]

My wife tried out the NB gloves. They were a pain in the butt to get on. She also has tiny, bony wrists, and the wrist seals don't seal very well to her wrist. She has to cut them very tight, and they still leaked. The NB glove with the extra seal just made the seal to her wrist even tighter, and she still had leaking. She would take the glove off, and her hand was wet, and swollen from the seals.

She has switched to zipgloves, and likes them.

I have the viking bayonet rings, and I like those a lot too. The rings are a little bulky when putting on your computer, and get in the way on the surface, but when I have my gloves on, I don't notice them. Glove replacement is also pretty simple.

Tom

[mwilding]

I have a pair of smurf gloves with latex seals and never had a problem with fit, getting them on, or with squeeze. Based on my experience thus far, I am not rushinbg out to get rings.

[String]

Ive tried latex seal gloves and found them a complete nightmare. More often than not you can get one on perfectly then due to the loss of dexterity are completely unable to get the other one on to seal properly. The result is 100% of my dives with that system resulted in one dry and 1 soaked hand. Getting them off was even harder.

I switched to a ring system and havent had a single wet dive yet, get them on and off faster than normal wet gloves too.

[tc_rain]

I have a pair of the Deep See dry comfort gloves and they sound similar. There are two seals on them. The first seal seals on the wrist, the drysuit wrist seal goes over the top of that, and then the other glove goes over the drysuit wrist seal. I look at them as more of a semi dry glove just like the semi dry wetsuits. I have the 4mm and used them in 44* water for over 40 mins without much discomfort. The only problem is putting them on. The first glove is easy since you have a bare hand. The next glove is impossible without help.

[PriusDrIVER]

I use rings personally, but the downfall of such is that when/if the glove leaks more than your hand gets wet. In my case, the 'original' Diving Concepts gloves were crap and developed a pin hole leak after less than 40 dives. I have since had the gloves replaced on the ring with the newer smurf gloves, of course its annoying that I had to pay to fix their flaw. Grrr. Otherwise, I love my dry suit and the new gloves.

One thing nice about the Diving Concepts setup at least is that I was able to easily swap to latex wrist seals and standard wet gloves prior to my next dive. The latex on latex sealed dry gloves do seem to take more effort to get on, and almost always require assistance from un-gloved hands.

Not sure how it would work in a group of divers if everyone dove latex-on-latex gloves, I guess the last person gets wet. So maybe one should either dive with standard wet gloves or self-donning ring gloves