Melanie White
Contributor
I'm getting a BCD. I am leaning getting a Aqualung Soul i3. I have heard people downing the i3. So I would like personal experiences of people who have actually used it.
Aqualung Soul i3 people's experience please
- Thread starter Melanie White
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
I don't have first hand experience, however, I can give some second hand experience from people we talked with while looking into the i3 system for my wife. We spoke to 2-3 instructors who personally used the system for a period of time and no longer do due to experiences they had with the inflate/deflate lever getting caught on kelp while diving in California and causing the bc to fill/dump on its own accord. That was enough to steer us away.
Last edited:
shooter1rn
New
my wife and I have the I3 system BCD's (Soul, Dimension). My wife has limited mobility to her left arm due to a injury and loves her Soul. If it ever failed, she would get another one with out hesitation. I also love my Dimension, you can dump air in any position. We have over 600 dives on them and I have experienced the issue of the lever catching on rocks and adding a little air only twice while spearfishing. the first time, it took me a little while to figure out what was going on, I thought I lost a weight pocket. after that it has not been a problem. We dive every week in the PNW and spearfish every chance we can. We also take our I3's on vacations to the tropics. Also on special note is to buy your gear from the BEST dive shop ever (Eugene Skin Divers Supply)!! To me,customer service is the most important part of making major dive purchases.
shooter1rn
New
oops sorry, my wife's BCD is a lotus.
JustinCarmack
Registered
I have the Aqua Lung Dimension i3, and think thats the perfect one for me. Although its a little heavy for travel. The Axiom i3 is just as good too, but a lot lighter to pack. Don't know about Soul, but my dive buddy (a woman) uses the Lotus, and its awesome too. Here are a bunch of sweet BCDs. Aqua Lung rocks. The Best Scuba BCDs for 2018 - Art of Scuba Diving
OP
Melanie White
Contributor
I went with the Soul without i3 it is shipping to me hard to find my size medium without i3 in stock
Samuel Self
Registered
I'm thinking of the Mares Hybrid AT. Same concept as the Aqua Lung i3 versions but the controls are larger buttons rather than a lever. Distinct colors as well so anyone can see and access the controls easily.
The couple old-school divers that I know hate the technology because "salt water will eventually clog the mechanisms". My understanding is that a salt solvent for washing it out will do the trick easily enough.
The couple old-school divers that I know hate the technology because "salt water will eventually clog the mechanisms". My understanding is that a salt solvent for washing it out will do the trick easily enough.
Jonny Wishbone
Contributor
Melanie, I dive with the Aqua Lung Dimension i3 and my wife dives with the AL Lotus i3. I know there are numerous people out there who don't like the inflator. I have no complaints. I like it. The only weird thing is i also have other BC's with the "normal" hose dump so when i switch I sometimes grab for something thats not there. Sorta like driving a rental car all day with the gear shift lever on the steering column and then getting into your car that has the shifter on the floor. I have had no problems with mine.
Melanie, my first BCD was an AL Pro QD with an i3 system... from 10 years ago. I used it for years and the system is pretty slick. When I became an instructor, I switched to a traditional inflator because that's what my students use. In fact, I attached a traditional inflator to my Pro QD... so I still had the i3 lever, but used the traditional inflator.
I used just the traditional inflator to inflate, but the i3 lever could still be used to deflate. It's very nice in that respect because pushing down on the lever opens the top and bottom dump valves.
I have had no problems personally with my i3, and after 10 years it still functions just fine.
However... my mother bought an AL Lotus BCD with the i3 six years ago. Last year she had a problem with the i3 system, it wouldn't deflate properly. She took it to the local dive shop and they sent it to Aqualung (fortunately we live not far from AL headquarters... the shop may have just dropped it off, no shipping involved.)
The AL people reported back that the i3 system was not repairable, and they wanted to "destroy" the BCD. They recommended my mom just buy a new BCD. I intervened, insisted that they send it back.
Basically what had happened with my mom's i3 system was the little cables that open the dump valves have some plastic parts in them. A couple of these crucial plastic parts had been bent. And according to AL, there was no practical way to open the system and replace the parts.
So I put a standard inflator on my mom's BCD and I added pulls to the dump valves so she could operate them manually. In essence, I bypassed the i3 system and converted the BCD to a traditional system. And it still works great.
In summary, my opinion of the i3:
Pros: nice little system, very intuitive and easy to operate; if necessary, you can convert to a traditional inflate/deflate system
Cons: non-traditional, so it might confuse others; if you have a problem with it, don't expect AL to fix it
I used just the traditional inflator to inflate, but the i3 lever could still be used to deflate. It's very nice in that respect because pushing down on the lever opens the top and bottom dump valves.
I have had no problems personally with my i3, and after 10 years it still functions just fine.
However... my mother bought an AL Lotus BCD with the i3 six years ago. Last year she had a problem with the i3 system, it wouldn't deflate properly. She took it to the local dive shop and they sent it to Aqualung (fortunately we live not far from AL headquarters... the shop may have just dropped it off, no shipping involved.)
The AL people reported back that the i3 system was not repairable, and they wanted to "destroy" the BCD. They recommended my mom just buy a new BCD. I intervened, insisted that they send it back.
Basically what had happened with my mom's i3 system was the little cables that open the dump valves have some plastic parts in them. A couple of these crucial plastic parts had been bent. And according to AL, there was no practical way to open the system and replace the parts.
So I put a standard inflator on my mom's BCD and I added pulls to the dump valves so she could operate them manually. In essence, I bypassed the i3 system and converted the BCD to a traditional system. And it still works great.
In summary, my opinion of the i3:
Pros: nice little system, very intuitive and easy to operate; if necessary, you can convert to a traditional inflate/deflate system
Cons: non-traditional, so it might confuse others; if you have a problem with it, don't expect AL to fix it
Similar threads
