Dive computers failure rates?

[RAWalker]

Your best bet of getting that kind of data is going to be right here on the board -

Rest assured that we have something to say and do about the quality and safety of our products every day of our lives.

It seems to me the people most likely to chime in are those that have had a problem. Indeed I've heard a great number of poeple that use computers but are hesitant to rely on them based on the experiences of others. This doesn't necesarily mean the product failed it could very well be the user failed to understand the products use. I'm sure anyone who has worked in a repair service environment has seen supposedly defective product that are proven to be flawless.
Leaving this just up to community reporting may help to find design or manufacturing flaws but will not give a accurate reporting of long term reliabilty or the chance of having a device fail during it's expected service life and it doesn't help project just what to expect in terms of a service life. This doesn't give a realistic view of the number of failures in comparison to the number of happy customers that have never experience a problem with your product.
Further it doesn't give the diving community any idea of the safety and reliablity of the product.
As for others anology to drug manufacturers they are required to publish safety data to get approval from the FDA. This data is available to the public. Trade secrets only apply to how products are made not whether they work as advertised or if they are safe for their intended use.

 

[Dive Junky]

I'd like to know the failure rates of dive computers broken down by model, user error/maintenance issues, manufacturing issues and simple electronics failure.

I'd be interested to know this as a percentage of units sold and as a comparison to a standard SPG. Is such info available for divers to make a informed decision?

Also what is considered acceptable from a design standpoint for such devices?

Is this a reliability question? If so shouldnt we be taking into consideration the reliability of our bottom timers, depth gauges, and SPGs and comparing those numbers with the reliabilities of our computers?

I've had three computers, Prodigy, Atom 1.0, and Atom 2.0 in ten years and they have all performed exceptionaly. Not one complaint.

Seems to me to try to compare the reliability of all these devices and all the manafacturers of all these devices is simply impossible.

 

[RAWalker]

Seems to me if they can compare safety issues of cars on the road that this is only a minor task but 1 that gear manufacturers have been avoiding.

 

[300bar]

As for SPG's,we had, and i've seen, a hole lot of them fail/flood.
I had a SPG tube burst on a dive.
As for the Oceanics,well i have a PP2 for 3 years now and no problems.Do they fail,yes they do,but i've seen and sell other brands that fail a lot more.
Just recently we had the new salesrep. for Oceanic Benelux in our shop and they where amazed at how little problems they had.
They have been salesrep.for an other big brand for years and the had a warehouse full of broken stuff.Now they only have a 3 meter wall rack for Oceanic.

Any brand and product can and will fail at some point.Since Oceanic is a big name and widely used (especialy in the US)you will hear more problems,not because they have more problems but because they are used much more.

cheers,

 

[Hetland]

I've got an Oceanic Prodigy that's about 8 years old. I use it as a back-up. Never a hitch.

Consumer electronics have a failure rate just under 1% (iirc). Dive computers are consumer electronics that are routinely subject to long-term immersion in salt waters, and at pressures that can exceed 5 atmospheres. I'm willing to give them a little wiggle room over 1%. Especially when we're talking Oceanic. They stand behind their gear like no other company I've dealt with.

 

[NCadiver]

I have a Datatrans that been working for 14 years no problems, I also had a Atom 1 that was replace 4 times in one year the last time it was not a dive problem but a download problem. I did not think they were going to replace the last time, it was mine and Oceanic error the battery was not low enough to turn on the low battery alarm but low enough not to let the download run which they figured out later on which it had some killer dives log on it.

 

[paulw]

I have had a VT Pro for 3 years with no problems and a Datamask for 1 year with no issues.

 

[AndyDragon]

Over 200 dives on my VT3, few battery changes and NEVER a problem.

 

[Web Monkey]

I'd like to know the failure rates of dive computers broken down by model, user error/maintenance issues, manufacturing issues and simple electronics failure.

I'd be interested to know this as a percentage of units sold and as a comparison to a standard SPG.

So would everybody else, but it's not going to happen.

Just for starters, the manufacturer would have to be insane to release this data since it would let their competitors simply publish "better" data. However aside from that, manufacturers only know how many were returned for service, not how many were tossed in the trash or simply ignored and never used again.

Terry

 

[RAWalker]

If they were to release data of this sort they would be forced to back it up. If they published false data they would have liability issues.