It's the Mercedes of scooters and not cheap,,,but all the features built into it make it worth it in my opinion. All the double o-ring seals and just a well thought out flexible design to increase what you need for more power or lighter weight.
But that battery design is the " Cat's Meow "..........Airline compliant Lithium batteries!! That renders most scooters as home-sitters for vacations.
Very nice addition to the gear bag,,,color me green with envy !!
Yes, I shopped every scooter there is, as this is a lifetime investment. Maybe my process might be helpful for others.
I am a recreational ocean diver mainly from boats, often crowded dive boats. I plan to use this to handle strong currents and as a stable platform to shoot photos and video. So, I am not looking for exploration level run time or the ultimate in high speed. Also, I travel, and for the money scooters cost I wanted something that could travel with me. In the end it was a no-brainer because DiveXtras solved several serious scooter problems:
1. Expensive proprietary batteries that are hard to install (what if the company goes out of business or your battery dies unexpectedly?). No issue, these DeWalt batteries are everywhere (In the US at least) and will be around for a long time. Also, the DeWalts charge in 50 minutes! You can run the scooter to death, charge it over lunch, and be right back in action. As for cost, well, the original proprietary DiveXtra battery is $1100. Four original (not knock-off) Dewalts, which is what the scooter takes, are $224 from ebay! Knock-off batteries are half that cost. You can have two full battery sets and still be 1/3 the cost of one proprietary battery. Also, it takes literally 4 minutes to pop off the nose (no need to take the scooter apart) pop out the dead batteries, click in the new ones, put on the nose and draw a vacuum.
2. Weight and size--mine weighs 24 pounds including battery and is very short--way better than others out there for boat dives. It included the smart slice, which adds three pounds and two inches length, but that gives you a battery consumption gauge and a vacuum pump and monitor to guarantee you are sealed up tight against floods. Well worth the couple of pounds especially for salt water divers like me.
3. Travel: YES!! Finally a premium scooter that can fly anywhere in the world, both due to the light weight, modular design that breaks down, and travel-legal batteries. Fully packed I am under 40 pounds and size-legal for checked baggage on any airline. I have to pay for an extra bag, but no overweight/oversize charges.
Were there some disadvantages, well, there always are, but they did not make the difference:
1. Lots of sealing points: Yes, due to the modular design. I believe that they effectively mitigated this by using double O-ring seals everywhere and, even better, having the vacuum design to seal it up and verify it holding.
2. Standard prop seal instead of the magnetic one; I'll live with that, they said the magnetic one adds weight.
3. Slightly less thrust than some of the big boys. No issue for me. First, it's not very much difference. Also, I am a recreational diver and this will be more than enough to pull me and my buddy, even with the camera mounted.
4. Run time. Claimed to be 50 minutes full throttle and almost two hours cruise. Not an issue for my rec diving. It has more than enough for two one hour dives (not on the trigger all the time and definitely not at full all the time), batteries can be easily swapped, and I can add more battery compartments if I really want expedition level run time.
Cost--Backscatter offered a package (might still have it going on) with the scooter, smart slice, great heavy duty camera mount with cam strap and quick release set-up, travel case, spare O-rings and handles and weights, and the vacuum pump, for $1600 off of retail. This made it WAY less that any similar packages.
The only thing I added was the DiveXtra console with SK8 compass and a boot for a puck style bottom timer. I need to navigate between wrecks and reefs so this was necessary for me.
