Easy,

I fished in Canada a few years ago with Seacat on one of his friends boat, and he used the pancake style downriggin weight. We had no problems whatsoever and I think Seacat mentioned to me that a lot of the folks up there used those weights.
I was at Sportco Saturday and noticed they were starting to sell them, but only had 8#'s and 10#ers.
I use the regular ole 12-15# lead balls from Sportco.
After reading my black box book, they recommend using the coated weights with a plastic snap. I use the Green foot and a half long rubber snubber to isolated the lead from the steel cable.