My twenty quid heated waistcoat from Maplin

Janos

I've just bought a heated waistcoat from Maplin and am wondering about it's practicalities for use underwater.

I've also taken some photos. The first is of me sucking in my post-Christmas stomach, wearing the waistcoat. I'm waering a size L which is clearly too small for me but it's the biggest they have. I haven't submitted you to the 'pleasure' of me wearing it undone, but that is far more comfortable and how I will try it underwater.

The second is of one of the two battery packs. Each battery pack takes three AA batteries. I'm using three 1800mAh NiMh batteries that I've had for a few years and have been charged badly and unevenly.

The two battery packs fit inside little pockets inside the waistcoat. They are connected by something that looks like a mobile phone charger connection. (See second photo). There is also a small switch which is next to useless for diving purposes. There are heating pads all the way up the front of the waistcoat, but nothing on the back. The waistcoat material is cheap polyester which is perfect for a diving application.

The heating effect at the moment is not too bad. It's like leaning against a slightly hot radiator. Not so hot that it makes you go "oooh oooh oooh" but hot enough so that if you press against it you go "yes that's hot". If the waistcoat is away from my skin then I can't really feel it.

Burntime so far is two hours, and still going strong.

So. What could go wrong?

Janos

Attached Images

	Waistcoat.jpg (3.7 KB, 271 views)
	Batteries.jpg (8.5 KB, 272 views)

__________________
You can lead a horse to water but you can't climb a ladder with a large bell in both hands - Vic Reeves
www.hellfins.com/shed

Gary Graham

What about getting wet itself? In particular the batteries, not just from a suit flood but from sweat, etc. Will it still work then?
Or worse, in the event of a flood, would the effect of mixing salt water and electricity be a bit uncomfortable to say the least

Dive safe,

Gary

__________________
CK#103

Edvin M

I wouldnt want any batteries inside a dry suit, try to take just a single aa cell and short it and feel how it will get. Placed directly against your skin it would definetly give some nice scars.

Although the vest itself could be nice. Do you know what kind of heating system it has? carbon-polymers, kanthal-, nikrothal- or just simple electrical wires? Is is waterproof?

Janos

The waistcoat claims to be washable (without the batteries), so I'm not worried there.

Things I do worry about are:

1) O2 fire caused by spark (I'm not really worried about this as it's only 3.6V, and if I did I could use Argon to remove the risk of a fire).

2) Batteries leaking causing caustic burns.
The waistcoat will have a couple of layers of undersuit between me and it, and I think I may put the batteries in sealed bags as an extra safety measure

3) Some sort of wierd effects going on due to increased pressure.
There are other heated vests on the market, some designed specifically for diving. I think the Typhoon used 14V (Li-ion), and these seem to function without problems.

Janos

__________________
You can lead a horse to water but you can't climb a ladder with a large bell in both hands - Vic Reeves
www.hellfins.com/shed

divetheworld

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
Da da da, da ,da ,da.....
ROTFLMAO




But on a serious note, the heating is caused by a resistance wire that runs through the front two side panels. You could get a hot spot from water or sweat and not be able to do anything about it and either melt that part of the drysuit or burn yourself. Probably not seriously, but with an hour or two of deco to go might be a tad uncomfortable.
Not quite as uncomfortable as a nut shot with a paintball gun......... which is a really funny search on youtube BTW.

__________________

undrh2o

I was considering getting something like this but I thought of putting a reed switch on the inside and a magnet in my thigh pocket to turn it on and off to prevent overheating.

I'd prefer to use alkalines instead of rechargeables since they are less volatile when shorted and have a less sharp end to their burn curve.

woody

[quote=divetheworld;160200]

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
Da da da, da ,da ,da.....
ROTFLMAO




Brent its very scary that you are sooo familiar with that song.....doh! that kills me off as closet village people fan

M

Mdemon

I'm very interested to see how you get on Janos - would like to try similar.

I don't know what your DS is like, but I have lots of spare room. So, I'd buy a cheap dive torch or two and two glands. Then I'd re-wire, getting rid of all connectors and potting the cable through a gland and into the bezel of the torch(es). You could pass this through some sort of fitting in the DS and have the pack outside the suit, giving you control and safety from shorted packs.

I'd be tempted to leave it on the inside though, and turn it on through the suit.

The benefits of using a diving torch are obvious, and of course, you can use C cells or bigger if you like and double/triple the duration.

HTH

__________________
www.southwestmafia.com

"small minds talk about people, Average Minds Talk About Events, GREAT MINDS TALK ABOUT IDEAS!"

The WRONG Attitude will get you killed.

"Once the agenda-monkeys and perfect-worlders have moved on, perhaps we can do some diving?"

Dave Crampton

Looks Good Janos,

Only the front of my chest every gets cold (along with my forearms) so the heating effect is just what I need. You could augment the heating effect by sewing a space blanket to the front to helt reflect some of the heat from just warming up the channel . Nice Idea about using alkalines intead of rechargables, I didn't know that. Could you waterproof the battery packs in some way? small sealable box with oring and a rubber seal for the wires? Or you could use an external battery canister, lke the Icebreaker by Typhoon. You can by wetmates to conect/disconect in water.

I remember a guy a few years ago doing something very similar but used a house light switch to turn it on and off through his drysuit.

Dave C

PaulTG2

Hello,

I wonder if you could rig a fairly good sized switch to turn it on and off through the suit. Or rig a magnetic reed switch to activate it. Perhaps so that magnet can sit in a pocket, or perhaps a patch a velcro glued to the magnet to hold it where the reed switch is.

-p