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Why does nobody talk about how cold it gets in a drysuit when your heater fails?
Last month I was doing a pier inspection in Portland harbor, 45 feet down in 48 degree water. My internal heating vest just quit after 20 minutes. I had to finish the last hour of the job shivering so bad I could barely read my gauges. Has anyone else dealt with a heater failing mid-dive and what do you use as a backup?
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pat_park8d ago
OH MAN that is a ROUGH situation. @ericp67 I've been in a similar spot and honestly I just had to grit my teeth and finish because we were on a tight schedule and the surface support was busy. What worked for me was keeping one of those chemical hand warmer packets taped inside my suit against my chest. It's not a real backup but it buys you maybe 15-20 minutes of less shaking. Now I always carry two of the big ones plus a spare battery pack for my vest, but I know that's not much help if the vest dies mid-dive. Honestly the best thing I did was start wearing a thin wool base layer under my drysuit even in summer, it holds some heat even when you're soaked.
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An hour shivering that bad at 45 feet? Man, that sounds brutal. I would’ve been useless after 10 minutes in 48 degree water without heat. Did you start trying to surface or just tough it out?
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