Ultima Dry Glove System question

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Great review, Zef! Thank you!!

I, too, find the "cover rings" to be sacrificial. They just need to be replaced every once in a while. They get cut up at my work and eventually split.

I might put some tape on them for protection.

I'll make a product request from Waterproof for a heartier ring... Perhaps something with steel mesh or Kevlar in it... Or just one made of nitrile rather than polyurethane. That'd help a lot.

If you can nudge them to make them more widely available and at a more reasonable price that would be sufficient for me. A price of $12for what amounts to a fancy but functional wide black livestrong bracelet is just ridiculous.

-Z
 
Great review, Zef! Thank you!!

I, too, find the "cover rings" to be sacrificial. They just need to be replaced every once in a while. They get cut up at my work and eventually split.

I might put some tape on them for protection.

I'll make a product request from Waterproof for a heartier ring... Perhaps something with steel mesh or Kevlar in it... Or just one made of nitrile rather than polyurethane. That'd help a lot.

If you can nudge them to make them more widely available and at a more reasonable price that would be sufficient for me. A price of $12 for what amounts to a fancy but functional wide black livestrong bracelet is just ridiculous.

-Z
 
Are the slits/cuts on the "lip" part of the protective rings as well?
Because the "lip" of the ring is what gets lodged in between your gloves and the rings is what forms the seal it would make very little to no difference if the damage was on the rest of the protective ring and not the "lip".
If the "lip" of my protective rings had slits or cuts in them I would get them replaced.
And because I've already broken one of my protective rings I would toss them in hot water before mounting them so they'd stretch a bit more and installing them would be easier, definitely won't make that mistake again! :D

Great tip about warming them up in water prior to stretching them in place.

No, the slits are not by the o-ring type lip. The lip is not what forms the seal, it just reinforces / locks the actual o-ring in place that does keep the glove on and sealed to the glove ring.

The difference it makes is that the cover rings are compromised and will most likely get worse with time and use, and will probably tear through the next time they are removed from the glove/glove ring if they don't fail before that.

The application of a couple layers of electrical tape should protect them, and when the cover rings do fail the tape will protect the gloves as well.

I need to order some 1.5inch electrical tape for that eventuality.

-Z
 
Great tip about warming them up in water prior to stretching them in place.

No, the slits are not by the o-ring type lip. The lip is not what forms the seal, it just reinforces / locks the actual o-ring in place that does keep the glove on and sealed to the glove ring.

The difference it makes is that the cover rings are compromised and will most likely get worse with time and use, and will probably tear through the next time they are removed from the glove/glove ring if they don't fail before that.

The application of a couple layers of electrical tape should protect them, and when the cover rings do fail the tape will protect the gloves as well.

I need to order some 1.5inch electrical tape for that eventuality.

-Z
I worded myself poorly I suppose :p
Obviously the seal is between the glove/ring, but the lip of the protective ring should help close the only place where water can seep in, which is the groove between the ring/glove, no?
If the protective ring actually does any difference at all I have no idea, but placebo or not I'd like to think it helps a little bit :)
How long have you had your rings, how many dives? If the protective rings start to go bad after a while I better get my head out of my arse and contact WP about purchasing some replacements.
Could the slits have formed due to swapping gloves often, which means stretching the protective rings often to get them on off and in doing so wearing them out a bit?
As I broke one of mine without using too much force I figured they're not very stretchy (and/or durable) and pulling them on/off often would probably wear them out fast perhaps?

I'm tossing an email to WP after posting this, if I don't hear from them in a day or so I'll toss the dive shop where I bought my WP drysuit a call, they're located a stones throw from WP and should have an answer.
Hopefully they can sort out spares, one possible explanation for the Norweigan shop and a few others having spares could be that they buy the whole Ultima system and split it up and sell the parts separately though.
I'll get back here when I've heard from them, I'm hoping because I'm in Sweden (same as WP) it can be sorted and if so I can probably help you get some spares with waaay cheaper shipping than that Norweigan shop, but you never know. :wink:
 
Okay so WP replied insanely fast and the reply was awesome!
I can order the spares through any of my local shops that work with WP and maybe you can do the same even if you're not in Sweden, hit up your local shop that stocks WP products and ask them about it.
If they can't help you send me a PM and I can order what you need and send it to you :)


Edit:
Got this from WP, you should be able to order the parts through your local WP dealer using the item numbers in the image below.

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Had my 281’s out today with my santi heated liners, Fail! Both times the gloves leaked and I suffered. The water temp was 32-34 today. I’m done with them. I guess I’ll start working on the next iteration. I’ve been thinking about going without a wrist seal, but just can’t do it, the water is always cold here, and a glove failure is bad enough, but a flooded suit with a least an hour of deco, can’t do it. It was a slow leak today, and my hands were hurting at the end, it’s just to hard to deal with problems like this as well as enjoying myself.
 
Had my 281’s out today with my santi heated liners, Fail! Both times the gloves leaked and I suffered. The water temp was 32-34 today. I’m done with them. I guess I’ll start working on the next iteration. I’ve been thinking about going without a wrist seal, but just can’t do it, the water is always cold here, and a glove failure is bad enough, but a flooded suit with a least an hour of deco, can’t do it. It was a slow leak today, and my hands were hurting at the end, it’s just to hard to deal with problems like this as well as enjoying myself.

what was the failure point? were the gloves compromised? were the rings not mated properly? or was the failure where you glued the cuff rings to your suit?

-Z
 
All good questions, my cuff to rings are good, I’ve used other gloves and have been dry.
I had a good snap of the rings on both outings. I think it’s just the gloves, which I tried to test in the water by filling up with air and looking for leaks, but nothing, but it’s hard to get much in them.

The 281’s are big enough to get the santi gloves in comfortably, that’s why I tried them,
I’ll put the 620’s back on and give those a go with the santi liners. Not as comfortable but I have better confidence in them being dry. I can’t get them in the 720’s at all, or I’d go with them.

I’ve tried my other heated liners in the 720’s, they are thin, they weren’t as warm as I would like. If I can keep dry, I can evaluate the santi gloves better.
 
The 281’s are big enough to get the santi gloves in comfortably, that’s why I tried them,

I can’t get them in the 720’s at all, or I’d go with them.

Can you just get the next size up 720?
 
As per my discussion with swimlikethefish back on page 56, I ordered a set of Burton Powerstretch "Liners" (underglove) for testing compared specifically against the Fourth Element Xerotherm undergloves.

Short story? A win. As good as the Xerotherm, cheaper, available in four colors, and a sticky palm that helps keep them situated correctly inside the 720. From now on, these will be the underglove that I recommend to anyone using drygloves.

Video review of them compared to the Fourth Element G1 and Fourth Element Xerotherm:

 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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