sick of being cold

[danaw]

I need to get a warmer undergarment. Dive regularly in puget sound and san juan islands, WA. Temp anywhere from 48 -54 F. I start getting cold approx 20 mins into dive, once I'm cold it is very hard to enjoy the dive.
Currently wear the fourth element xerotherm top and bottoms, with the artic jumpsuit over that. Dry gloves and 7mm hood by waterproof. dui cf 200x for drysuit. I 'd like something warmer and was thinking about the halo 3d by fourth element or the dui 450x. which is warmer?? not sure i want to go with the cannister battery heated suits , expensive and bulky is my impression. Thanks! Dana

 

[BRT]

Hi Dana, I'm certainly no expert but I do dive warm in the Puget Sound with a CF200. I have the Waterproof 5/10 hood which helps. My mask tucks entirely under the hood except at my mouth and the hood comes over my chin. My advice is to wear a little more weight and compensate for it with more air in your drysuit. In the 90's I dove a drysuit and liked it tight. Much easier to control the bubble but I was always cold. Now I carry a fair bubble and am much warmer. Insulation is air. I know some materials work better than others but it really comes down to the thickness of the insulation layer around your body and if you compress that you are going to be colder.

 

[buddhasummer]

I've been having the same issue with being cold. My last dive I used the drysuit solely for buoyancy and had an empty wing the whole dive. I was much warmer with the extra air. Previously I had just enough air in my suit to remove the squeeze and I was cold. It did make holding safety stop a little more difficult as I obviously had some air trapped somewhere within the suit. Next dive I'm going to add an extra kilo to try and compensate.

Trying to figure out warmest undergarment did my head in as it seems very subjective. From my research, save heated vest or heated suit, most common recommendations were either the Halo 3D, Whites Thermal Fusion or Santi BZ400. Good luck, I feel you, being cold is miserable.

 

[jbb]

I have the same undergarments with an Apollo dry suit. I also have a 12mm hood from Otterbay - they're all made custom. I also have been trying Argon. All this and I still get cold but not as bad as I used to get. I'm not sure of the record on the electric heat undergarments. I have some for riding my motorcycle and haven't ever had problems. I would prefer one with a thermostat rather than just switching on-off. I might consider those chemical heat pads that you bend the metal disc and it set up an exothermic reaction but there's no control. It seems like you have nearly covered all your bases so I would look at the heated garment rather than spending just as much money getting different undergarments and still not being warm. I know DUI has electric and USIA claimed they have one when I was at a dive show but I can't find it on their website.

Follow this thread:

More information on heating garments.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/exposure-suits/476939-cold-unhappy.html

 

[Michael Gerhartz]

The Santi BZ400 X series is our warmest undergarment, rated to water temps of 35 Fahrenheit. Since you are loosing most of your body heat over your head, a proper ( and well fitting ) hood is essential. The Waterproof 5/10mm, the 12mm Otterbay or our Santi 7/9 or 10mm hood usually make a difference over a standard 7mm hood. We also have heated vests as well as heated undersuits, which all can be used in combination with the heated gloves, if that is something you are looking at. Not sure if you are using dry gloves or not, but having warm and dry hands keeps the blood circulation through your hands also warmer. You can pm me if you have any specific questions

 

[KD8NPB]

Hmm, I'm okay with the Arctic + Xerotherm in that water temperature...

Are you wearing anything underneath the Xerotherm? As silly as it seems, some people wear traditional underwear and t-shirts underneath their drysuit undergarment...these items are 100% cotton and will hold on to moisture rather than wick it away, which completely negates the undergarment.

Xerotherm + Halo3D would be the next logical step for you.

 

[Johanan]

Pay attention to Whites Thermal Fusion. Very warm and comfortable, because it's not bulky. I use it together with a Whites MK0 base layer in the temperatures you mentioned and it's OK. Michael is right regarding the importance of the hood.

 

[jcaplins]

What seems to make me feel cold is my hands. If they're cold, I feel cold all over. Most recently I have been using 2mm wetsuit gloves under my dry gloves (Pinnacle Amara 2mm, only because that is what I already had). It works for me and as a bonus I don't feel any squeeze in my hands. Only downside so far is clammy hands at the end of the dive.

I use a 5mm Aqualock hood. I have the wetsuit version with the long bib, that I still need to trim so I can tuck it into the flap around the neck seal. This thing works pretty good; I swear sometimes my hair is dry when I get out of the water.