Compass - don't buy this kind

[Randy43068]

I've been reading some reports on the Dutch scuba forums about Suunto SK7's the "frooze" in cold water and wouldn't turn anymore. Given teh number of people reporting it, it doesn't seem like an isolated thing.

Anyone else having that kind of thing?

R..

Mine gets stuck at a sharp tilted angle sometimes no matter the water temperature.

 

[Diver0001]

yeah that's normal. What I'm talking about is the rotating disc getting frozen in place regarless of the angle simply because the water is cold (I assume that means 4C or lower). This has been reported repeatedly on the Dutch forums.

R..

 

[Randy43068]

yeah that's normal. What I'm talking about is the rotating disc getting frozen in place regarless of the angle simply because the water is cold (I assume that means 4C or lower). This has been reported repeatedly on the Dutch forums.

R..

toss it in the freezer to see what happens.

I used to have access to temperature chambers in a previous life. This would be a fun thing to test.

 

[Diver0001]

good idea. I think I'll do that tomorrow afternoon and report back here.

R..

 

[Papa Steve]

I guess I got one out of a good batch. I have the dive rite and mine works just fine. I'll be careful, however, about recommending it to others since there are several here reporting it as having some faults.
On the other hand, are you sure it's just not being affected by that steel plate in your head?

 

[frogman159]

On the other hand, are you sure it's just not being affected by that steel plate in your head?

You mean the one the aliens put there:shocked2:...No we're cool, they told me it was titanium:mooner:

 

[C8X]

I find the compass mentioned by the OP to be a fine piece of gear priced right. I sell them for 1100NT or about 30US to my customers. My Atomic regulator failed once but that doesn't make it a crap regulator. My Suunto D6 computer stuck in dive mode right after buying it....are all Suunto computer bad too?

I'll give you that - I've only personally tested one copy and maybe the majority work better. But it wasn't like it was working fine and failed once, it's horribly sluggish all the time which makes it really uncomfortable to use underwater when you could rather use those extra 6 seconds doing other important things besides watching a dial turn really slowly, and it leaves me with a greater chance of getting a bad reading.

I thought that I might have a bad copy, but there are three other negative comments on the scubatoys product review page alone, and another poster here confirmed the same. At least I went to the effort to demonstrate the problem on youtube, so anyone thinking about getting the same who sees this first at least knows what they could be getting into. I think its a matter of safety, and it's either bad design, mismatched balance zones, or poor quality control for this model of compass. Caveat emptor.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I use the Suunto SK7 and have been happy with it. I've had it in 41 degree water while in Alaska and never had any problems.

I just got a DSS low profile wrist mount. an improvement over the factory one.

-Mitch