How reliable are hoseless transmitters?

[Bhtmec2]

Well most people use them to reduce the number of hoses. I understand their reasoning.

Yesterday I was out with four friends doing a set of deep dives. My buddy motioned to me about 40 min into a 78 min dive and his hoseless computer was out. He has the mask with it integrated. He has been using it for years and I always bust his chops as to what if happens.......

Well it did yesterday. He does have a pony button gauge in his first stage as a backup so I gave him the current PSI and all was good. I gave him my backup bottom timer so he would have depth and our dive time and we continued. I kept up with his PSI and all was good. Made a dive plan, followed the plan and continued the plan after resolving any issues and determining that the issue was not a Reason to CXL the dive. We made that decision with all factors and made sure the team knew and assisted on the remaining part of the dive. We checked every 5 min and that did not interfere with the plan.

Most people do not have a button gauge and if you are using a hoseless without a normal guage I would highly recommend it. On he next dive we dove it normally and he used my spare. We discussed the next dive during the interval and dove as a team. We did PSI checks for him and did not have to change a thing.

Always have a backup and know your gear. On my twin setup I have a button guage on the right first stage that does not have a guage. That way if I have to isolate I still have a PSI readout for that tank. Just like in the military I still follow the mantra of "one is none and two is one".

 

[tphelps]

Im an instructor and big gear-junkie. I have never own a wireless transmitter by choice. I have heard of a couple friends whom have had a couple failures with them. As something I learned from Tec diving, it is just something else that can fail and I dont like the risk of it. I have 3 computers, the Suunto Cobra (hose air-integrated)which is my primary when I dive but have 2 back ups - a Sheerwood Insight that I have because I picked it up for cheap as chips, and an Oceanic OCS that I like a lot. My advice, buy durable and reliable.

 

[diveprof]

I've been on dives where 4 transmitters have failed during the past year. I don't use them. My 2 cents is that you can buy two reliable non-AI computers and a pressure gauge for the price of some of these AI units. That said, if you decide to go the AI route, I recommend you get a back-up computer and a analog pressure gauge. IF you do not have a back-up computer and a pressure gauge, your dive is over. With two computers if one fails, you are still diving. Failure of analog gauges are rare.