Dry glove system for Santi smart seals

[Nicool]

The improvement i see is it will cost me only 70€ to mounton my existing smart seals

 

[laikabear]

Guys, if anyone has a Santi suit with the Smart Seals and waited to get dry gloves, you should consider the (now available) Santi dry glove system. I bought mine at DRIS and you can mount it on suits that have Smart Seals. It's easy to install and lets you use dry gloves (any type) without removing the wrist seals, so if the glove leaks the suit doesn't flood.

I dive almost every weekend so I didn't want to send my suit in for Kubi rings, and I was concerned I would not be able to install a ring system myself.

I have only 1 dive on the system but it was totally dry and the gloves are easy to don / doff. I also didn't want a system where you have to put your hands inside the dry gloves as you put the suit on. One of my dive buddies has Kubi rings on her Santi and she has to use a pry bar to get the gloves off.

It works with any dry gloves, and I am just using some wool gloves I bought on Amazon for liners, and some cheap gloves from Ebay for the outer gloves. They are like dishwashing gloves but black. 2 other brands of outer gloves: Showa Mapa

 

[guruboy]

So do you just put up with the squeeze in your hands?

 

[laikabear]

So do you just put up with the squeeze in your hands?

This was my first time trying dry gloves so I don't have any previous experience. This was a dive to 60 feet max and I didn't experience anything uncomfortable.

What am I missing / not understanding?

 

[guruboy]

If you leave the wrist seals sealed, the air in the gloves will get compressed at depth. Supposedly same as suit squeeze, but in your hands.

 

[laikabear]

If you leave the wrist seals sealed, the air in the gloves will get compressed at depth. Supposedly same as suit squeeze, but in your hands.

I did not experience this. The gloves were pretty tight to begin with. I didn't feel like my fingers were being squeezed underwater. When I removed them after the dive, the knit print from the wool under-gloves was visible on my hands, but it didn't feel weird, and the imprint was gone in a few minutes (much like the outline of my hood and mask on my face).

My main concern with overly tight gloves would be that my hands would get cold. My hands get cold very, very easily. In fact, all of me gets cold easily. Hands were warm on the dive. This was a 74 minute dive with a bottom temp of 59 F.

Recently on similar dives, my hands were getting so numb that I could not get my fins off at the end of the dive (finally did it with difficulty, and had to carry them on my trip back to the car by hugging them because my hands were so numb I couldn't hold them by the straps), and another dive where I couldn't undo the crotch strap of my drysuit by myself (I literally had to get my buddy to do it) because my hands were so cold. I think this is mainly because I've switched to double tanks and I'm doing longer dives than I was in the past.

This was a shore dive, max depth 60 feet. Perhaps this will be more uncomfortable at deeper depths? If I experience that, I will try the trick of putting something under the wrist seal (a straw?) to let the gloves equalize with the suit. I will report back if this occurs.

Anyone else have this happen with glove systems that retain the wrist seals???

 

[Nicool]

I did not experience this. The gloves were pretty tight to begin with. I didn't feel like my fingers were being squeezed underwater. When I removed them after the dive, the knit print from the wool under-gloves was visible on my hands, but it didn't feel weird, and the imprint was gone in a few minutes (much like the outline of my hood and mask on my face).


My main concern with overly tight gloves would be that my hands would get cold. My hands get cold very, very easily. In fact, all of me gets cold easily. Hands were warm on the dive. This was a 74 minute dive with a bottom temp of 59 F.


Recently on similar dives, my hands were getting so numb that I could not get my fins off at the end of the dive (finally did it with difficulty, and had to carry them on my trip back to the car by hugging them because my hands were so numb I couldn't hold them by the straps), and another dive where I couldn't undo the crotch strap of my drysuit by myself (I literally had to get my buddy to do it) because my hands were so cold. I think this is mainly because I've switched to double tanks and I'm doing longer dives than I was in the past.


This was a shore dive, max depth 60 feet. Perhaps this will be more uncomfortable at deeper depths? If I experience that, I will try the trick of putting something under the wrist seal (a straw?) to let the gloves equalize with the suit. I will report back if this occurs.


Anyone else have this happen with glove systems that retain the wrist seals???

To my knowledge a squeeze will happen to any dry glove syste retaining wrist seals.

I reckon people using some sort of straw indeed, as you can easily pull them off if the glove were to flood.

I’ve heard someone leaving on purpose his undersuit thumb loops below the wrist seal but in case of glove flood i am concerned it would be difficult to push them back behind the wrist seals and hence let lots of water inside the suits.

So i’d be keen to find out what people recommend, and if it is straws, what kind.


Cheers

Nicolas

 

[taimen]

I just mounted the Santi dry glove system to my emotion+ and going to try it in a pool tomorrow.
The gloves feel disturbingly easy to put on and especially to take off the rings. Did you feel the same, or do you have more than just barely noticable soft "click" when you install the glove?

 

[laikabear]

I just mounted the Santi dry glove system to my emotion+ and going to try it in a pool tomorrow.
The gloves feel disturbingly easy to put on and especially to take off the rings. Did you feel the same, or do you have more than just barely noticable soft "click" when you install the glove?

No I thought the click was too soft / squishy too! I had my buddy check them because on the video they sounded like SNAP! They were fine though. I think as long as they look on, they are on.

You'll have to let us know if you feel a squeeze once you do some diving deeper than a pool.

Maybe the squeeze thing is overblown? There wasn't much air in the gloves to begin with. ???

 

[Lorenzoid]

Maybe the squeeze thing is overblown? There wasn't much air in the gloves to begin with. ???

The squeeze is real. I normally dive in temperate water, so I don't use drygloves. However, on my first trip to a cold destination, I needed something but figured a less expensive interim solution would get me through the trip. I gave these a try: Drygloves with Seal. At about 60 feet, all was okay. By about 90 feet my belief was confirmed that this is not a serious solution for drygloves. (Not to mention these are a PITA to don.) Air is insulation. The deeper one goes, the more squeeze, and the less insulation. So, I think one can get away without glove equalization to 60 feet or so, but then the deeper you go, the more squeezed and thus colder your hands will get.