Dry Gloves

[formernuke]

Ok, the last detailed thread I found about these was very old and the banner thing is yelling at me to post so.....

I'm planning on getting a pair for the winter and I need to know how much money to try and save up. Now that people have had them for a while and or tried out several different ones. What style do you like and why?

 

[TSandM]

I'm a huge fan of the Viking bayonet ring system. It was designed for hazmat diving, so it is a positive lock system, and it is difficult to put it together so that it will leak. It mounts on the seals themselves, so it is easy to install and remove from the suit. Gloves can be changed out in the field in about five minutes, with no tools. I use the Atlas gloves you can buy at the hardware store for $4.95 a pair. They last me a couple of months, depending on frequency of diving, before they develop a seeping leak and I replace them.

Bob3 on this board is a Viking dealer with very good prices.

 

[ligersandtions]

I also dive the Viking Bayonets and really like them. It would be (nearly) impossible to put them on and have them leak....it's very obvious if they are not seated correctly. In fact, you can't even turn the glove ring if it's not seated in there correctly.

One of my buddies dives the new Si-tech glove system and it's somewhat similar to the Viking Bayonet in that it would be almost impossible to not notice that it was put on incorrectly. The thing I don't like about his is that he often needs someone else to give him a hand to make sure the rings have been turned sufficiently. With the Vikings, it's very easy to do yourself.

I've seen many divers use the Diving Concepts gloves....and while many of them have never had a problem....it seems like it would be very easy to put them on incorrectly and have them not seal fully. I've dived with buddies who have had that exact issue. If I needed a different set of dry gloves, the DC are not the ones I would choose, personally.

 

[Peter_C]

I have both the SI Tech and the Viking system. The reason I am switching from the Viking system to the SI Tech is because I am changing my drysuit seals out to a permanant cuff system that will allow me to do seal changes in the field with no glue. Along with my neck seal ring from SI Tech. They both work, and they will both do what you need.

I had a pair of DC's and did not like them. Wound up giving them away.

 

[Crush]

A question to the OP - are you planning to dive dry gloves only, or do you want to maintain a wrist seal as well as dry gloves as an extra layer of redundancy? Your choice of gloves might (not sure) be limited if you wish to do the latter. I do the latter (DC rings) and use a small piece of plastic tubing to interrupt the wrist seal, allowing pressure equalization within my glove. If my glove ever developed a catastrophic leak I could remove the glove and yank out the tubing, allowing the wrist seal to become perfectly watertight.

I've seen many divers use the Diving Concepts gloves....and while many of them have never had a problem....it seems like it would be very easy to put them on incorrectly and have them not seal fully. I've dived with buddies who have had that exact issue. If I needed a different set of dry gloves, the DC are not the ones I would choose, personally.

I only have experience with the DC gloves. I must disagree with the premise that they can be accidentally put on in a way which does not fully seal. Of course, if you really tried to do so, you might manage it. However, a properly lubed and maintained DC ring lock makes an audible click that sounds and feels right. If you didn't get a click, you may not be sealed.

 

[formernuke]

A question to the OP - are you planning to dive dry gloves only, or do you want to maintain a wrist seal as well as dry gloves as an extra layer of redundancy? Your choice of gloves might (not sure) be limited if you wish to do the latter. I do the latter (DC rings) and use a small piece of plastic tubing to interrupt the wrist seal, allowing pressure equalization within my glove. If my glove ever developed a catastrophic leak I could remove the glove and yank out the tubing, allowing the wrist seal to become perfectly watertight.


I only have experience with the DC gloves. I must disagree with the premise that they can be accidentally put on in a way which does not fully seal. Of course, if you really tried to do so, you might manage it. However, a properly lubed and maintained DC ring lock makes an audible click that sounds and feels right. If you didn't get a click, you may not be sealed.

I plan on doing the same with the gloves in case they leak I like the idea of being able to easly and cheaply replace the gloves instead of having to replace the entire system as you would have to do with say zip seals or something similiar. Plus I like the idea that if I do get a leak in the glove the rest of me stays dry.

 

[Crush]

I plan on doing the same with the gloves in case they leak I like the idea of being able to easly and cheaply replace the gloves instead of having to replace the entire system as you would have to do with say zip seals or something similiar. Plus I like the idea that if I do get a leak in the glove the rest of me stays dry.

It is nice to have the security of redundancy. However, I must admit that having dived the zip-seal writ-seals (that is, wet gloves with no hard plastic ring) it is much nicer to not have those hard rings. I believe that in most cases it is not recommended that you use the same wrist-seals both with and without rings as the rings stress out the seals, and repeated ring mounting and unmounting will create a much higher probability failure point.

 

[iztok]

I have neoprene wrist seals (Typhoon neoprene drysuit) and wonder on solution.

 

[formernuke]

Next question what have you guys found worked for underneath the gloves for the different temps? I know this is personal but options are always good. FYI the coldest I've seen so far was 34 degree and I don't think I'll get much colder.

 

[ERP]

I wear fleece liners under both the smurf blue gloves with the DC rings and the neoprene DUI Zip gloves. They're adequate for all the diving I've done.
Most of my diving is in the low 50's, though I did a fair amount of freshwater diving in the low 40's when I lived in CA with the same protection.