Suunto Mosquito played up - for the second time now

[Deefstes]

MY wife and I both have Suunto Mosquitos. I like the computer as it is easy to understand and operate and I have been lead to believe that Suunto is a respectable manufacturer.

However, on a recent dive my wife's Mosquito developed a problem and this is the second time the same thing has happened. Somewhere halfway through the dive she came up to me, very distressed, as her computer was indicating that we were deeper than was our plan and she was getting very close to a deco obligation. I checked mine and saw nothing wrong. Comparing the two, her computer showed a dive time of 18min while mine was only showing 15min. We dropped off the boat at the same time.

Also, her computer was indicating a depth of 28m while mine (and our gauges) were showing 23m. Her computer then continuously showed a depth of 5m more than what we really were at. At the 5m safety stop her's showed 10m and on the surface her computer still indicated a depth of 5m. The previous time this happened the depth difference was 18m!

After the dive we removed the battery and re-inserted it and she did two more dives with the computer without any apparent problems but I am now seriously concerned with the quality of the Suunto Mosquito. If this could happen twice, what guarantee do I have that it won't happen again and next time when it has much more severe repercussions?

Imagine you have to do a deco stop at 5m and happily ascend only to break the surface thinking you're almost at 5m depth where you were going to do your stop.

Has anyone else experienced something similar with the Suunto Mosquito? Is there any sort of maintenance that I need to do to it to ensure this doesn't happen? The computer is not particularly old, only a year or so.

 

[El Orans]

I've had a similar problem where my Mosquito reset itself during the fourth dive of the dive. Also once during the first dive of the day.

The Mosquito was sent to Suunto for repairs. They couldn't reproduce the problem.

I now have a D6 as my wife's Mosquito never had such issues.

 

[Deefstes]

Did you buy the D6 or did Suunto exchange your faulty Mosquito for a D6? I would think that the more equal swop would be a D4.

My wife and I deliberately bought the same computer so that we could be familiar with each others' equipment. I don't like the idea of her having a D6 and me having a Mosquito - and it's not because that means she'll have a better computer than me.

 

[El Orans]

Did you buy the D6 or did Suunto exchange your faulty Mosquito for a D6? I would think that the more equal swap would be a D4.

Suunto offered a deal on the D4 but I preferred the D6.

My wife and I deliberately bought the same computer so that we could be familiar with each others' equipment. I don't like the idea of her having a D6 and me having a Mosquito - and it's not because that means she'll have a better computer than me.

They're quite similar when it comes to using them.

 

[gr8fuldiverNC]

dump the mosquitos asap. a lot of instructors on roatan had them when i first arrived there, and shortly thereafter no one had them. instructors dive a lot, so see the problems more, and the mosquito is riddled with them, worst product suunto made. always get the best you can afford, itll pay off in the long run. ive had my viper for over 4000 dives over the last 10 years, no problems. do your research, then buy an established model, after theyve worked out the kinks....oh yeah, avoid the cheap oceanic veos. they were the next fad with roatan instructors, and all of them had to be replaced at least once for a variety of issues similar to the mosquito.....
gekkos and vipers on the other hand seem to be indestructable and just keep going.... good luck

 

[Deefstes]

Thanks. So can you put my mind at ease at least then that Suunto is good, it's just this particular model that is known to suffer from bugs?

I liked Suunto and I liked the Mosquito but if I had to find out that it is untrustworthy (which seems to be the case) it would shake my trust in Suunto in general.

 

[gr8fuldiverNC]

suunto in general makes excellent products, tho every company has its problems, even halcyon had an inflator recall. for suunto, the mosquito is junk. the first generation D9 also had problems, tho i think this has been fixed. I am not familiar with the D6 or D4, but customers with the D6 seem satisfied, except with the compass feature. suunto has a problem with the electonic compasses in the D9,6 and viper II, they must be held completely level, if not they dont work. ( the galileo (dont recall the manufacturer) has a much better one). on the other hand, elctronic compasses are not really that important, you can always carry a regular one if you need one at all. i am not very familiar with the viper2, people seem to like it (except the compass again), and otherwise seems similar to the original viper, but with an extra button. not sure about reliablily, its kinda new. the old viper was awesome, my first computer, and the only one that I have continued to use all the time (i always dive with two computers). it is still my "backup" computer. unfortunately, they dont make it anymore. your best bet with suunto is probably the gekko. cheap and feature rich, user replaceable batteries, etc.... just like the original viper but with a few less bells and whistles, indestructible. i know several other pros who have this one, and love it. it is also an established model, with proven reliablilty. not a watch style, but you can take the money you save and buy a decent dive watch (you DO dive with a backup, right?)

if you have any other questions about computers, any brand, just let me know, im kinda a gear dork, and have owned and used dozens of models, and have gotten feedback from heavy diving pros on many more

good luck

 

[Deefstes]

Thanks, that's great advice. The only reason why I had initially chosen the Mosquito over the Gekko was because the Gekko's dive profiles can't be downloaded to the PC. I guess that leaves me with the D4 if I want to go bottom of the range?

 

[Deefstes]

Just a bit of feedback. It seems my Suunto Mosquito suffers from the same defect and it also started logging a dive for no reason. And my wife's computer was getting worse as it did that more and more often.

So we took the two computers back to the shop (with my wife's in the middle of a "dive" lasting for 3 days already) and they sent it back to Suunto for repairs. Got the news today that they will both be replaced by Suunto D4's. Yay!

The bad news is that they don't have stock in South Africa at the moment (I find that very strange) and we will only get our replacement computers in 7 weeks! Oh well, at least we'll get replacements.

 

[El Orans]

Do let us know how the D4s perform (once you get them).