Thermalution Battery Powered, Heated Undershirt: A Product Review

[Mikko Ilari Laakkonen]

Yea 13lbs. I dive sidemount with no backplate and near neutral steel bottles so no heavy rig and I am not even full of it . For commercial diving I would probably go with thicker neoprene drysuit, they will stay warm even if punctured. I don't think dui or elite would be best options for work. Great for cave and rec diving though, I have been thinking of replacing my current suit with the e.Lite.

- Mikko Laakkonen -

I love diving and teaching others to dive.

 

[diverdenise]

I am looking into a thermalution heated vest and come across your thread. My situation is: in the winter I am diving in a fusion drysuit with either a Santi heated vest or Santi heated BZ400. Water temps 35-40F. Yes I am cold blooded. The need for looking into a vest is because during this time of year the water is still cold for me 60ish but 100 plus air temps make getting into a drysuit miserable. I usually dive shallow however a few times we do deeper dives so am looking at the blue grade or compact dive series. Would love the yellow grade plus but with all the money I have put into the heat already not sure I can justify it. Of course if I was warm with the 7ml and a heated vest maybe I could sell the Santi heated vest and go wet earlier and later in the season. Anyway any thoughts on my situation would appreciated.

 

[Deep South Divers]

Hey diverdenise!

I can imagine that it's a miserable experience suiting up dry in 100 degree temperatures. What's the dive site like? Is there a shower? Is this on a boat? Salt or freshwater?

 

[diverdenise]

Sea jay,
We do mostly freshwater ponds and lakes locally. Deeper dives off a small private boat a couple times a summer. The rest is shore diving. Sites are short walks with only a restroom available. I'm in idaho

 

[mathauck0814]

SeaJay - you've brought up cost as a variable in this thread several times. Is the thermalution the best heating solution on the market or simply the best for the money?

I don't think our diving is very similar in purpose, location or really any other way so I won't engage you on your thoughts on drysuits. Though one question I do have (since the thermalution seems to have a depth limit) is whether you're using this past 70m (the wireless one is closer to other heating products and has a depth rating of only 90m), which is insufficiently shallow for a lot of the wrecks we're diving here in CA. What side effects have you seen from the system at depth? To what depths have you tested it?

I'd think that the can battery solutions like the one from Golem Gear would be more useful/powerful/versatile for long runs but I'm curious if (in your opinion) you'd recommend this as the best product, regardless of price, (hopefully based on knowledge of other heating options) on the market for divers who will never wear a wetsuit.

 

[danvolker]

SeaJay - you've brought up cost as a variable in this thread several times. Is the thermalution the best heating solution on the market or simply the best for the money?

I don't think our diving is very similar in purpose, location or really any other way so I won't engage you on your thoughts on drysuits. Though one question I do have (since the thermalution seems to have a depth limit) is whether you're using this past 70m (the wireless one is closer to other heating products and has a depth rating of only 90m), which is insufficiently shallow for a lot of the wrecks we're diving here in CA. What side effects have you seen from the system at depth? To what depths have you tested it?

I'd think that the can battery solutions like the one from Golem Gear would be more useful/powerful/versatile for long runs but I'm curious if (in your opinion) you'd recommend this as the best product, regardless of price, (hopefully based on knowledge of other heating options) on the market for divers who will never wear a wetsuit.

Given wet suit compression and functional uselessness/ridiculousness on technical dives deeper than 200 feet deep, I can't see the direction of a Thermolution/wetsuit combo for this.....it won't evolve any way of merit unless some new material more like a GorTex is developed that can be equivalent to a 5 or 7 mil suit ( and work at any depth since it has no air cells for insulation properties)....And it would have to be slick/low drag....UNtill somebody makes this product, the Thermolution direction is great for recreational divers that want to be slick in the water, and poor for tech divers....If Thermolution wetsuit undershirts could be used in the drysuit ALSO, this would be a huge plus for the tech diver....While my wife does not tech dive, she does 5 and 6 hour duration macro photogrpahy dives at the BHB Marine Park often, and she "turns on" the Thermolution when she begins to feel cold after the first three hours...wearing a Aqualung semi dry suit ( which is an awesome etsuit).....She has a 5 mil for spring and fall, and a 7 mil for Jan and Feb...
While she has a DUI TLS 350, as do I, we find the drysuits are a huge limitation to enjoyable diving whenever currents become an issue--which happens at tide change at the BHB Marine park ( tide coming in creates currents that often sweep clueless divers far from where they want to be). Our Ocean Drift dives off of Palm Beach are similarly impacted with the dry suits---to use one is to decide that you will NOT be able to do many things you would easily do ( pictures/video you could easily get) if you were wearing the Aqualung wetsuit alternative with Thermulution....And so typical drysuit divers here don't even try--they dive like leaves in the wind, and go where the wind takes them...while we easily go in any direction our best shots take us...

The best way to showcase the huge difference--the HUGE and ridiculous drag difference between the dry suit and the Aqualung alternative...is the high tide shift at BHB...
As the tide is beginning to rip out, there are some great hydroid and nudibranch areas you can lie down flat on the bottom next to, and with the Aqualung suit, the water slips over you and leaves you essentially unimpacted for another 2 hours of shooting....try this with the drysuit, and the high drag suit catches water flowing past at high speed, and becomes a sea anchor--and tries to bowl you over..and drags you along. This is true of a custom fit TLS 350 dry suit....maybe there is a drysuit that has a smooth outer shell that does not act like a sea anchor, but the tri-lams we use for cave or deep, just don't cut it in high current environments. And of course, if Sandra and I are on a drift dive, or a wreck dive that we drifted into, the current means that Drysuit divers with us can NOT really be in our buddy teams, as they can't easily move around the same areas easy for us to move throughout....

Even without much of a current, we have video subjects here that move too fast for a dry suit diver to follow, but are easy for a wetsuit diver....see the wreck of the Caster video I shot, and see the speed I am swimming WITH the Jewfish....so that I can keep them in frame....and this would be impossible with my DUI suit...
[video=youtube_share;PIaXVw61qJI]http://youtu.be/PIaXVw61qJI?list=UUsM5Za9Kc3DbP7Qo3-Zmz9w[/video]

 

[mathauck0814]

The best way to showcase the huge difference--the HUGE and ridiculous drag difference between the dry suit and the Aqualung alternative...is the high tide shift at BHB...
As the tide is beginning to rip out, there are some great hydroid and nudibranch areas you can lie down flat on the bottom next to, and with the Aqualung suit, the water slips over you and leaves you essentially unimpacted for another 2 hours of shooting....try this with the drysuit, and the high drag suit catches water flowing past at high speed, and becomes a sea anchor--and tries to bowl you over..and drags you along. This is true of a custom fit TLS 350 dry suit....maybe there is a drysuit that has a smooth outer shell that does not act like a sea anchor, but the tri-lams we use for cave or deep, just don't cut it in high current environments. And of course, if Sandra and I are on a drift dive, or a wreck dive that we drifted into, the current means that Drysuit divers with us can NOT really be in our buddy teams, as they can't easily move around the same areas easy for us to move throughout....

Even without much of a current, we have video subjects here that move too fast for a dry suit diver to follow, but are easy for a wetsuit diver....see the wreck of the Caster video I shot, and see the speed I am swimming WITH the Jewfish....so that I can keep them in frame....and this would be impossible with my DUI suit...

Currents don't usually run as deep as where we're diving, but when they do we have an army of DPV to manage it. What scooter are you using to play in the currents when you're struggling with your drysuits? I am assuming (based on what I know of BHB) that you're also not particularly deep and that the water temps are probably significantly warmer than the high 40s/low 50s there?

 

[danvolker]

Currents don't usually run as deep as where we're diving, but when they do we have an army of DPV to manage it. What scooter are you using to play in the currents when you're struggling with your drysuits? I am assuming (based on what I know of BHB) that you're also not particularly deep and that the water temps are probably significantly warmer than the high 40s/low 50s there?

At BHB it is very shallow...less than 20 feet... In ocean, for high distance recreational or tech, I use Gavin scooters.
At 280, we sometimes have massive Gulfstream intrusion with currents that feel like white water over boulders

 

[mathauck0814]

At BHB it is very shallow...less than 20 feet... In ocean, for high distance recreational or tech, I use Gavin scooters.
At 280, we sometimes have massive Gulfstream intrusion with currents that feel like white water over boulders

You're unable to overcome drysuit drag with a Gavin scooter?

 

[Deep South Divers]

Dan: Nice video! Beautiful, and beautifully done! My wife and I were just in West Palm last week for our one-year anniversary. Took a trip with Sea Pup to see sea turtles. 65fsw max, 13 sea turtles. Two dives, 119 min total runtime on 32%. One hour SI between. Awesome.

I hope you don't mind... I shared your video on my local club's facebook page.

Mathauck, I don't think Dan's implying that the drag from a trilam drysuit can't be overcome with a Gavin scooter... After all, that's really what Gavins were designed for. But take a ride on one while wearing a wetsuit and the difference in speed and agility is night and day.

Yes, I have mentioned cost. Keep in mind that I have several suits, as do my guys... Two SANTI drysuits, one DUI, a Northern Diver (all trilam drysuits), several undergarment combinations, and a whole plethora of wetsuits. I've owned dozens of wetsuits over the past decade or so. My point is.... I've already spent the money. I am not allergic to spending money. So if you're looking for a financial reason for me to have the opinion that drysuits are not across the board superior to wetsuits, you're not going to find it.

There's a bunch of reasons why I like this Thermalution... I list them above. But the biggest advantage of them is that they're designed to be used with a wetsuit. SANTI's and DUI's heated suits can't do that. A Thermalution can be used either wet or dry... In fact, you csn even wear it to the kids' soccer game. It's wonderful. And a bargain at that price for the benefit you get from a heated shirt.

With only two heating elements situated along the spine, of course it's not going to be as effective as the drysuit-only, $4,000 DUI system. But for a few hundred bucks you get a pretty outstanding experience that's shockingly effective at keeping you warm... And giving you versatility that the DUI and SANTI systems do not have.

...And if you're okay with spending $5,000 -$10,000 on a drysuit with an electric undergarment from DUI or SANTI, I'm sure you'll be able to justify the additional several hundred dollars for a good wetsuit and a Thermalution.

diverdenise: The dive site you're talking about is freshwater (so you'll need less weight than you would in salt water) and has limited current. Entry and exit seem comparatively easy. Lakes and ponds and quarries are typically riddled with thermoclines, and you mentioned that you do occassionally dive "deep," although I'm not sure how you define that. (To us, "deep" is 300+' fsw.) Frankly, it sounds to me like a SANTI - like the lighter E MOTION - is the ticket for you. I'd probably select a BZ200 undergarment and throw in there a Thermalution or a BZ200 heated vest. The BZ200 heated vest is going to be a lot more expensive and less versatile (the BZ200 heated vest can only be used with the drysuit on dry dives) than the Thermalution, but it's going to be more effective, too. Both will allow you some control of temperature... That is, if you get cold, you can crank up the heat. If you get warm, you can lower it or shut it off completely.

I strongly recommend the RIGHT material between you and your undergarment... A "wicking" material like UnderArmour. Fourth Element stuff is probably the top of the line for this. It will help wick sweat away from your skin so that the loft can do it's job while you are submerged. If you are not already wearing something like this, it may be the reason why you are "cold blooded."

...Or, if you also dive wet and want to try switching to a wetsuit sooner in the season and staying in it longer like you mention... Yes, the Thermalution is a great extender of the season. It's great to have what is effectively a heated wetsuit.