Another Shearwater question.

[Robbyg]

I really love both the Perdix and Teric.
Someone mentioned phones and recharging and life span being about two years before you see degradation. Well made Lithium Ion batteries like the ones in iPhones and most likely also in the Teric have a life span that is primarily determined by the amount of charge cycles you do and age is secondary to that. I don't see five years as being a bad service interval for any dive computer and I also think that portable charges that use a built in battery pack can be just as convenient in a dive bag as a spare AA battery.

I think the Perdix design is very convenient. Yes flipping in a battery at the last minute is a lot easier if you screw up your check list and in many ways I can see that as being a major selling point to many divers. I would point out though that AA batteries, especially Duracell are notorious for leaking and I have seen numerous engineers on the Internet trying to figure out what triggers it. Quiescent Current draw (Aka low power draw in standby) on a nearly depleted battery was thought to be the trigger. Many tests have been done and I have not seen one person prove that this is the trigger. Most of the engineers I have seen posting on EE forums now seem to think it's just the luck of the draw and if you get that 1 in 1000 battery that does not have properly sealed electrode cap the acid can leak out. I just thought I would pass on that info in case anybody leaves the batteries in the unit for months on end.

Both computers are great and it just comes down to personal preference. I think Shearwater would be wise to keep a model that uses AA batteries in their lineup so that they have all their customers preferences covered.

 

[ATJ]

I have a Garmin Descent Mk1 which has an internal rechargeable battery. I've had it for over 2 years. It is my every day watch as well as using it for recording running, walking, etc. activities. I also dive every weekend. I typically only need to charge the watch twice a week - Monday after a weekend's diving and Friday after a week of activities.

I have not noticed any degradation in the battery at all.

I realise it is not a Shearwater but it is an internal rechargeable battery so is comparable. I would expect a diving only computer would last even longer.

 

[-JD-]

I really love both the Perdix and Teric.
Someone mentioned phones and recharging and life span being about two years before you see degradation. Well made Lithium Ion batteries like the ones in iPhones and most likely also in the Teric have a life span that is primarily determined by the amount of charge cycles you do and age is secondary to that. I don't see five years as being a bad service interval for any dive computer and I also think that portable charges that use a built in battery pack can be just as convenient in a dive bag as a spare AA battery.

I think the Perdix design is very convenient. Yes flipping in a battery at the last minute is a lot easier if you screw up your check list and in many ways I can see that as being a major selling point to many divers. I would point out though that AA batteries, especially Duracell are notorious for leaking and I have seen numerous engineers on the Internet trying to figure out what triggers it. Quiescent Current draw (Aka low power draw in standby) on a nearly depleted battery was thought to be the trigger. Many tests have been done and I have not seen one person prove that this is the trigger. Most of the engineers I have seen posting on EE forums now seem to think it's just the luck of the draw and if you get that 1 in 1000 battery that does not have properly sealed electrode cap the acid can leak out. I just thought I would pass on that info in case anybody leaves the batteries in the unit for months on end.

Both computers are great and it just comes down to personal preference. I think Shearwater would be wise to keep a model that uses AA batteries in their lineup so that they have all their customers preferences covered.

Duracell batteries leak because they are crap NOW. I grew up (80s) one town over from their headquarters, a they were great. Better power density than anything around and (almost) never leaked. Made me a very loyal buyer.
Recently, 50% of the time that I open a device that contains Duracells for a longish time (remotes, flashlights, etc) one or more of the cells has leaked. Most of the time I have been able to clean things up. I had a brand new 40 pack stored in a humidity temperature-controlled with multiple leaking cells. An unopened pack with 8 years on it "good-to date."

From now on, I'm using the Energizers. Less data, but seems to be significantly less leakage events.

For critical items (ex. Emergency DSMB strobe), I use their Lithium primary cells.

 

[Robbyg]

Duracell batteries leak because they are crap NOW. I grew up (80s) one town over from their headquarters, a they were great. Better power density than anything around and (almost) never leaked. Made me a very loyal buyer.
Recently, 50% of the time that I open a device that contains Duracells for a longish time (remotes, flashlights, etc) one or more of the cells has leaked. Most of the time I have been able to clean things up. I had a brand new 40 pack stored in a humidity temperature-controlled with multiple leaking cells. An unopened pack with 8 years on it "good-to date."

From now on, I'm using the Energizers. Less data, but seems to be significantly less leakage events.

For critical items (ex. Emergency DSMB strobe), I use their Lithium primary cells.

Yes, Duracell batteries made today are absolutely crap. I think that I had read that the company was sold in the 70s to Warren Buffet and the manufacturing sent to China and South America.

As it stands the manufacturer is just using up the name and giving customer cheap crap in the same nice package. Just a word of warning I have had several Energizer batteries leak in devices but not nearly as frequently as Duracell. The one battery that has never leaked once and is my battery of choice is EBL and the link is below. I think EBL has slightly less power density than Energizer but unlike the others it does not ride on the red line of chemical density and is also made very well and therefore does not leak.

https://www.amazon.com/EBL-AA-Batte...rds=ebl+batteries&qid=1610345114&sr=8-25&th=1

Ignore the one to three star reviews, if you look at them most of the idiots are complaining that they leaked or stopped working after they tried to charge them

 

[jborg]

There’s a lot of talk of battery degradation, charge cycles and cell phones. Yes, a cell phone battery is often noticeably degraded after a couple of years of almost daily charge cycles. Most people use their dive computer less than their cell phone, though. If I had a peregrine it might get charged monthly. It’ll take it a while to get to the same charge cycles.