Has anyone used the Genesis ReACT?

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Zagnut

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If so, what do you think of it? I was checking out dive shops today and one of them showed me a Genesis ReACT. He said he liked them better than Suunto because the algorhythm wasn't as conservative as the Suunto. He said after each cosecutive dive the Genesis gets progessively more conservative whereas the Suunto is more conservative up front. He showed me a comparison between a Genesis, an Aeris, and a Suunto with a simulated depth of 60'. the Suunto showed a remaining no-deco time of 50 minutes and the Genesis and the Aeris showed a remaining no-deco time of 57 minutes. He told me he had gone diving(I beleive he said nitrox) with a few buddies once and one of them had a Suunto. It locked him out after the third dive, whereas the others were able to make a fourth and fifth dive. Also, are Genesis computers made by Aeris? He had a pretty good deal on the Genesis ReACT and said he would throw in a nitrox certification class for free. I would appreciate any comments(good or bad) on this particular computer.
 
ahem....Well, I sold you on the Ranger, so now I'll sell you on the ReAct. :D (if I'm not careful, I might make you into a diving clone of myself! =-)

Genesis Computers (and many of the other hocky pucks) are made by PPG, Palaegic Pressure Group (Mario, check me on this). If you were to set several of the different brands side by side, you would see that many models are very similar to one another. Case in point, the ReAct and Resource computers by Genesis are very similar to the DataMax by Oceanic.

As far as the conservativeness of the NDL's, so far I have not been in a situation where the NDL's hampered my my dives. So far air consumption on my blue water dives has been the limiting factor to my bottom time. And comparison of "this computer gave us "X" time while Brand B gave "Y"" is not a true apples to apples comparison. There are too many considerations in the dive profile to accurately "match" the computers against each other. It's even been shown to me personally that two computers of the same brand will report different NDL's base soley on where they are mounted on the diver. In this case, one was on a retracter on the right hand shoulder harness and the other on the divers wrist. Since the wrist was sometimes 1 foot lower than the harness computer, after sufficient time, the wrist computer became the more conservative (displaying less NDL time).

I have 20 dives so far with my ReAct and am very happy with it. The two buttons make accessing the settings and dive information very easy. And the displays are very easy to read. The rh button will "light up" the display and when I was on my night dive at the Flower Gardens, I could see it just fine.

One reason I chose the ReAct over the ReSource was the simpler layout of information (espeically when doing nitrox and deco diving). The React only has one bar graph which shows N2 limits when on air and a combined N2 and O2 limits when on Nitrox. I find this to be much simpler than interpreting two graphs like the Resource and others. Also since I eventually plan to diving that will require deco stops, The right hand deco stop bargraph makes it simple to determine where my first stop is and according to the manual, the deco run time will be prominently displayed.

I also like the fact that if I desire, I can download dive information using the seperate accessory. Currently I don't have the accessory but it is on my list of future toy purchases.

You said something about a Suunto going into a lockout. If you are pricing the ReAct at the shop that I think you are pricing it at (the free nitrox class gave it away), then this is a sales pitch, and you should get more details as to what caused the lockout.

According to the ReAct's user manual, it will lock you out, but only for an immediate violation. To quote the manual:
  • The ReACT enters Immediate Violation Mode when a situation totally exceding its capacity to predict an ascent procedure. These dives represent groce excursions into decompression that are beyon the boundaries and spirit of the ReACT design and the ReACT should not be used for these types of dives.
Essentially, you purposely entered into the realm of serious technical deco diving and the ReACT is not the computer for this type of diving. And the lock out is the computers way of telling you, "You got dangerous, are lucky to have ascended without geting a DCS hit, and are done diving for the day."

With that said, if you follow safe diving practices and "dive within the green" (keeping the NDL graph in the green zone), the you will have no worries.

Summary: The ReACT is a good choice for your basic air/nitrox computer and I recommend it highly.

Gear Buying Tip: Do what I did when I was evaulating which computer to purchase. I talked Harold at Sand & Sea Scuba into letting me borrow the user manuals for the computers that I was considering. This way I could see how they displayed dive information and what it took to change the settings or see additional info.

Oh, and about that free nitrox class....while this is a good selling point, I recommend that you wait until you get your 15th or so dive into your log book. You already have a lot to keep in mind on your next set of dives and you need to get these things down cold. Then you can add nitrox to your tool box.
 
TexasMike,

Thanks for the reply. It sounds like a nice computer. I have been doing some studying up on it and it seems to be pretty well laid out as far as user frendliness goes. Which, I'm sure will help me. Rodale's said really the only drawback is that it just has a countdown timer for flying time. Which, I'm guessing, is as opposed to some sort of calculation that estimates the residual nitrogen in your body and takes into account altitude. I figure that it's a pretty insignificant drawback. They recommend waiting 12 to 24 hours before flying (depending on daily multiple dives over several days or dives requiring deco stops) anyways. I don't think that would seem to be that much of a problem. I trust your judgement on gear and I'm glad to hear from those who use this particular computer. I think it'll probably be the computer I end up with.
 
As far as "Time to Fly" is concerned, I basically ignore that. I figure that if I am on a trip requiring air travel, I will have already taken the 24 hour interval into consideration (for example, in Cozumel, most of your diving is in the mornings, so a 24-hour interval will allow you to leave early afternoon, which is when I like to fly anyhow (habitual late sleeper)). And I will probably have already packed the computer for my return trip so I won't be paying attention to the "countdown".

BTW: I might be making an Athens run Saturday afternoon. Wanna go?
 
I don't know what the salesperson has against the Suunto Vyper, but I dive on one and have had no issues with it, including diving Nitrox. I tend to push the limits at times and have been in deco mode several times. It has never locked me out for subsequent dives; it doesn't lock one out if they go over the NDLs (it will show the route back up). I believe that the algorithm that it uses is one of the top performers on the market, in line with the Uwatec line of comps. I like that fact, plus the user replaceable batteries, download capabilities, and user settable preferences on site.

Now in defense of the React. The first computer I owned was Pelagic Systems Oceanic Datamax Sport, similar in style and algorithm to the React, though not Nirox compatible. I enjoyed the amount of time it allotted me, however as my experience progressed my computer needs increased, thus the upgrade. The one truely unique feature of this line is the Nitrogen loading graph: Love it, and miss it on the Suunto. Anything from the line of Pelagic Systems will be a wonderful addition to your equipment stash.

You must decide what type of diving you intend on doing when purchasing a computer (or any equipment) and find the appropriate one that fits your needs. Don't just look at cosmetics when choosing, look at features, algorithms, and does it meet your needs.

Happy shopping.....and if I was in your area Mike, I'd love to join you at Athens. I just read the write up in Dive Training Mag. Looks awesome....enough to warrent a road trip, visit some fam, do some diving. However, the wrecks of L. Superior are calling me this w/e.
 
I have 8 total dives on the ReAct and so far I love the features it has. The Nitrogen tissue adsorption graph is great. I am a new diver and I am just learning about all the technical aspects of diving so my option is a little limited, but for my first computer it has been flawless.

Brad
 
JMS---Yeah, Athens is a nice place to go to keep your gills wet and to practice various skills. It's shallow enough so that if you have to bail out and surface, your chance of a DCS hit is realtively low. There is plenty to look at, and the platforms are large enough for classes of 8 to 12 people. Now if they would just move that place a leeeeetle bit closer to me so I didn't have the 2-hour drive time.

But I got to remember, in Texas, 2-hour drive time is getting from one side of Dallas to the other! But if you do get this way, get with me and I'll gladly join up with ya.

I can agree with you on the excellent capabilities of the Suunto, but now that Warhammer and Joewr have help enlightened us as to the differences in display, I'm probably going to always keep my ReACT around as a backup computer just so I can see some of the N2 loading. And as much as I'd like to go spend the dollars on a Cobra or a Mozzy, I'm thinking of spending for the u/w camera first since the computer can't remember the stuff you saw.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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