Are Suunto Zoops super conservative?

[Lorenzoid]

I don't believe Suuntos reset to 3 if you go out of the 10-19 foot range they give you for your safety stop. I used one for years, and if I did stray out of that zone momentarily, it would just stop counting off the time until I returned to the zone. If you get right back to the zone, it should only cost you a few seconds.

I think you're right--there is some threshold amount of time you can deviate from the zone without it resetting the 3-minute countdown. It doesn't reset if the swell elevates you momentarily. We can't be sure what happened in the situation @myshadeofred referred to.

 

[BoltSnap]

I don't believe Suuntos reset to 3 if you go out of the 10-19 foot range they give you for your safety stop. I used one for years, and if I did stray out of that zone momentarily, it would just stop counting off the time until I returned to the zone. If you get right back to the zone, it should only cost you a few seconds.

I have been using Suunto computers for over 20 years now and this is what happens when you drop below 20'/6m for a short time and then go back up above the safety stop floor of 20'/6m. It may reset the clock back to zero if you drop below the safety stop floor for an extended time period (I don't recall what it is) but that is a good thing.

 

[Marktan]

My wife dives with the Zoop and absolutely loves it. It is, however, almost always more conservative than my Hollis TX-1 and gives her a lot more "warning/violation" beeps for deep stops (Her deep stops are earlier/deeper than mine...GF difference perhaps?), safety stops (more on this in a moment), and ascent/descent rates. I swear her 3 minute safety stop timer is 4 minutes LOL! The Zoop doesn't seem to "start the safety stop timer" until she's right at 15' whereas my TX-1 starts timing at 19'. Also the time allowed for any depth variance seems to be less and resets her counter (so if she drifts down to 20' from 15' for more than ~5-10 seconds without paying close attention and coming back up, it fusses and resets her 3 minute timer. Mine let's me come back up within 60 seconds and continues counting as if nothing happened.) Zoop also seems to fuss more if there is a short (less than 45 minute) surface interval just looking at the warnings/violations on the dive profiles that I download for her logbook.

There is a three-step adjustment for the conservatism if I recall, but I think it is to make it even more conservative than the standard setting. Strangely, the only time it was more "liberal" was on a dive to 100' on day 3 of 2 dives each day ranging from 60-90'. On this 3rd day, at 100' it gave her 15 minutes of No-Deco time and my TX1 gave me a "whopping" 9 minutes in comparison (which she was pleased to tease me about because usually I'm waiting/responding to her and her computer), but I'm assuming that the "accumulation" of profiles from the prior days' dives probably came into play.
That being said, it's been a great bulletproof computer and she absolutely loves it (but she likes the Perdix AI more. LOL!)

 

[scubadada]

My wife dives with the Zoop and absolutely loves it. It is, however, almost always more conservative than my Hollis TX-1 and gives her a lot more "warning/violation" beeps for deep stops (Her deep stops are earlier/deeper than mine...GF difference perhaps?), safety stops (more on this in a moment), and ascent/descent rates. I swear her 3 minute safety stop timer is 4 minutes LOL! The Zoop doesn't seem to "start the safety stop timer" until she's right at 15' whereas my TX-1 starts timing at 19'. Also the time allowed for any depth variance seems to be less and resets her counter (so if she drifts down to 20' from 15' for more than ~5-10 seconds without paying close attention and coming back up, it fusses and resets her 3 minute timer. Mine let's me come back up within 60 seconds and continues counting as if nothing happened.) Zoop also seems to fuss more if there is a short (less than 45 minute) surface interval just looking at the warnings/violations on the dive profiles that I download for her logbook.

There is a three-step adjustment for the conservatism if I recall, but I think it is to make it even more conservative than the standard setting. Strangely, the only time it was more "liberal" was on a dive to 100' on day 3 of 2 dives each day ranging from 60-90'. On this 3rd day, at 100' it gave her 15 minutes of No-Deco time and my TX1 gave me a "whopping" 9 minutes in comparison (which she was pleased to tease me about because usually I'm waiting/responding to her and her computer), but I'm assuming that the "accumulation" of profiles from the prior days' dives probably came into play.
That being said, it's been a great bulletproof computer and she absolutely loves it (but she likes the Perdix AI more. LOL!)

What settings do you use on your TX-1?

 

[scbaNE2179]

On my first few Livaboards I used my Petrel as primary and my Suunto D4i as a backup. One one trip to Turks and Caicos, the Suunto went into deco while my Petrel showed I had 15min left. So of course I ascended to the boat's drop line and began my safety stop(approx 5min on the Petrel). Petrel cleared but Suunto told me I had another 10-13 min of deco. It was dinner time so I just surfaced-well low and behold, I got locked out by my Suunto and had to bench this computer for the remainder of the trip. Suuntos are excellent computers-but their default RGBM algorithm may not play nice with other computer makes/models.

For those who are wondering, I was running my Petrel on default Med conservative setting.

 

[outofofficebrb]

On my first few Livaboards I used my Petrel as primary and my Suunto D4i as a backup. One one trip to Turks and Caicos, the Suunto went into deco while my Petrel showed I had 15min left. So of course I ascended to the boat's drop line and began my safety stop(approx 5min on the Petrel). Petrel cleared but Suunto told me I had another 10-13 min of deco. It was dinner time so I just surfaced-well low and behold, I got locked out by my Suunto and had to bench this computer for the remainder of the trip. Suuntos are excellent computers-but their default RGBM algorithm may not play nice with other computer makes/models.

For those who are wondering, I was running my Petrel on default Med conservative setting.

This is a reason to consider using a backup that has the same or very similar algorithm to your primary because this would then defeat the purpose of a backup if you end up benching it and then actually needing it because something happened with your primary. I dive a Vyper Air and my backup is a 3 button Zoop that I picked up for $100. It's perfect because they both agree with each other.

 

[scubadada]

On my first few Livaboards I used my Petrel as primary and my Suunto D4i as a backup. One one trip to Turks and Caicos, the Suunto went into deco while my Petrel showed I had 15min left. So of course I ascended to the boat's drop line and began my safety stop(approx 5min on the Petrel). Petrel cleared but Suunto told me I had another 10-13 min of deco. It was dinner time so I just surfaced-well low and behold, I got locked out by my Suunto and had to bench this computer for the remainder of the trip. Suuntos are excellent computers-but their default RGBM algorithm may not play nice with other computer makes/models.

For those who are wondering, I was running my Petrel on default Med conservative setting.

This is a reason to consider using a backup that has the same or very similar algorithm to your primary because this would then defeat the purpose of a backup if you end up benching it and then actually needing it because something happened with your primary. I dive a Vyper Air and my backup is a 3 button Zoop that I picked up for $100. It's perfect because they both agree with each other.

The Suunto should have only been locked out for 24 hours, but, of course, its nitrogen tracking would also be incorrect. Could have been put back into service, unless it would just face being locked out again. I have to agree that computers need to generally match, we have had the deco algorithm debate many times.

 

[Marktan]

What settings do you use on your TX-1?

Which one? lol...

Deep Stop: ON
Safety Stop: ON (15ft @ 3 mins)
GF is set at 35/90 (I think the Zoop is the equivalent of 30/70).
O2 Narc: YES
Glo duration: 15 sec.
Sample rate: 15 sec.
Last Stop: 10ft
2 wireless transmitters (side mount)

 

[scubadada]

Which one? lol...

Deep Stop: ON
Safety Stop: ON (15ft @ 3 mins)
GF is set at 35/90 (I think the Zoop is the equivalent of 30/70).
O2 Narc: YES
Glo duration: 15 sec.
Sample rate: 15 sec.
Last Stop: 10ft
2 wireless transmitters (side mount)

A GF hi of 90 should certainly be more liberal than Suunto RGBM, though I think a GF hi of 80 or 85 would be closer than 70.

 

[BoltSnap]

I think the Zoop is the equivalent of 30/70

I think that it is more like: 30/75 to be precise