Is a Suunto Seaquest Companion an ok computer

[Alvin Slovinsky]

A Companion is fine. I’ve had Suuntos of that vintage and some friends of mine may still have these. New ones tend to be friendlier but these are still simple enough to operate. Use it until it needs a battery or you want support for nitrox.

A lot of computer batteries of that vintage weren’t meant to be user replaceable and its not worth the expense of sending it in as they intended, but you can always give it a shot if you want and if you mess it up you haven’t lost much. (Some of those had potted batteries which I’d say aren’t worth the trouble, but I’d be surprised if you’ve got one of those still running.)

Current Suunto customer service and the lawsuit might affect a decision to buy a more recent Suunto, but are irrelevant to an old unit you already have.

It appears the batteries are still assessable on eBay/Amazon for a reasonable price and I’m not doing Nitrox at this time.I’ll definitely upgrade but till then I’ll play with this one

 

[Fires]

ok - I'll add to this. Suunto as a company handled customer support over serious issues with affected devices very poorly. Even if they had a new bulletproof device that would never fail I will not do business with them.

Thanks, that I'm sure helps the OP more and others reading. I also agree with you, their support really is lacking. I have had multiple issues with them in terms of delays in getting back to me and not great responses then either.

 

[Fires]

A Companion is fine. I’ve had Suuntos of that vintage and some friends of mine may still have these. New ones tend to be friendlier but these are still simple enough to operate. Use it until it needs a battery or you want support for nitrox.

A lot of computer batteries of that vintage weren’t meant to be user replaceable and its not worth the expense of sending it in as they intended, but you can always give it a shot if you want and if you mess it up you haven’t lost much. (Some of those had potted batteries which I’d say aren’t worth the trouble, but I’d be surprised if you’ve got one of those still running.)

Current Suunto customer service and the lawsuit might affect a decision to buy a more recent Suunto, but are irrelevant to an old unit you already have.

It appears the batteries are still assessable on eBay/Amazon for a reasonable price and I’m not doing Nitrox at this time.I’ll definitely upgrade but till then I’ll play with this one

Just something else to consider also on the battery replacement, although in all honesty I am not sure if it affects these. But there were issues with a version of a computer (an older model like this if I remember correctly) that sometimes when run completely flat, and a new battery is inserted it killed it. Like a mini surge. Like I say, I think it was Suunto, and I think it was an old one. They still make you sign the "dead on arrival" bit when you hand in to the main distributor here by us.

 

[Alvin Slovinsky]

Just something else to consider also on the battery replacement, although in all honesty I am not sure if it affects these. But there were issues with a version of a computer (an older model like this if I remember correctly) that sometimes when run completely flat, and a new battery is inserted it killed it. Like a mini surge. Like I say, I think it was Suunto, and I think it was an old one. They still make you sign the "dead on arrival" bit when you hand in to the main distributor here by us.

I’ll let you know how it goes still waiting on delivery of the battery not arriving till Sept 6/19 and I’ll institute ASAP.

 

[Fires]

I’ll let you know how it goes still waiting on delivery of the battery not arriving till Sept 6/19 and I’ll institute ASAP.

Cool. Would be interesting to see what you end up doing.

 

[spoolin01]

I’ll let you know how it goes still waiting on delivery of the battery not arriving till Sept 6/19 and I’ll institute ASAP.

Were you ever able to successfully replace the battery?