Is Suunto really that bad

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I see...
I find the computers pretty easy. I am the one who changes all the info to fit the trips my family takes. I find them pretty easy. But that's just me, I guess.

I have also been diving since the late 60's. I was excited to get my first SOS meter, long before "computers".

Cheers!
 
No Allison, I am not an Oceanic dealer. I have been diving for 35 years -before the time when a dive computer was even imagined. Over the years that dive computers have existed, I have both used and experienced all that have been available. (Things have really evolved since day one of the computer!). One of the best, and most intuitive computers ever was one of the first ones and it was made by Tekna. It was intuitive, easy to operate, and provided all the necessary information. Sadly, the company didn't last. I base my opinion about the Suunto computers on real life experience as well as documented reports from other divers who have experienced problems with Suunto's; particularly the Cobra. Without a doubt, and compared to many other computers, they are poorly intuitive, not as easy to program, and, when it comes to service, many Suunto owners' have literally given up on ever seeing their computers again and have been very frustrated. Many Cobra computers also have, and continue to fail. The most common symptom is that the computer will say that they are at 65 feet when they are actually at 5' or even on the boat. As you can imagine, this would create a very serious and even dangerous condition. For instance, if it was stuck on 65', it would not see to fast of an ascent. The 'remaining dive time' would be seriously miscalculated, etc. I have also been on boats and resorts and with people who have simply been trying to change their Nitrox PO2 percentages. If they didn't have their book, or weren't very familiar with the operation of the computer, they simply gave up, kept their computer set on AIR (21%) and dove very conservatively. Whenever a person asks me what makes a good computer, I tell them: 1. Only one or two buttons!, 2. Easy to operate and program, 3. Easy to Read and understand, 4. Easy to change batteries, 5. Reliable, 6. From a company who is very customer service oriented - such as Oceanic.
Hope that helps.
Kent


Kent, I'm sure you know that Oceanic does not actually make dive computers, and that the supplier, over the years, has made several serious turkey's. Several models have had major button issues. And like just about every company, has had service issues from time to time.

I don't know of any computer supplier that has not had several lemon's over the years. My last Uwatec computer was replaced 4 times...nice customer service, terrible product. (never made it past 25 dives before breaking). My current one has hundreds of dives on it, without an issue.

Today, I would say that Suunto is actually a bit better than the Oceanic product, from just a reliability point, but both have excellent models.

For the record, I own three oceanic, one suunto, and a Uwatec.

Suunto programing confuses oceanic people, Oceanic programing confuses Suunto people. Not sure one can judge which is better on that score. I have to help people program their computers more with oceanic, but in this area, there are more oceanic computers.

I would agree with your important points for a computer, except that one should not need customer service.
 
You should consider "Curaçao", 15 min from Bonaire. And if you do, contact me I'll take the day (or more) off and take you to the recommende dive spots.
 
No Allison, I am not an Oceanic dealer. I have been diving for 35 years -before the time when a dive computer was even imagined. Over the years that dive computers have existed, I have both used and experienced all that have been available. (Things have really evolved since day one of the computer!). One of the best, and most intuitive computers ever was one of the first ones and it was made by Tekna. It was intuitive, easy to operate, and provided all the necessary information. Sadly, the company didn't last. I base my opinion about the Suunto computers on real life experience as well as documented reports from other divers who have experienced problems with Suunto's; particularly the Cobra. Without a doubt, and compared to many other computers, they are poorly intuitive, not as easy to program, and, when it comes to service, many Suunto owners' have literally given up on ever seeing their computers again and have been very frustrated. Many Cobra computers also have, and continue to fail. The most common symptom is that the computer will say that they are at 65 feet when they are actually at 5' or even on the boat. As you can imagine, this would create a very serious and even dangerous condition. For instance, if it was stuck on 65', it would not see to fast of an ascent. The 'remaining dive time' would be seriously miscalculated, etc. I have also been on boats and resorts and with people who have simply been trying to change their Nitrox PO2 percentages. If they didn't have their book, or weren't very familiar with the operation of the computer, they simply gave up, kept their computer set on AIR (21%) and dove very conservatively. Whenever a person asks me what makes a good computer, I tell them: 1. Only one or two buttons!, 2. Easy to operate and program, 3. Easy to Read and understand, 4. Easy to change batteries, 5. Reliable, 6. From a company who is very customer service oriented - such as Oceanic.
Hope that helps.
Kent


I use a vyper, my son a cobra2. Both IME are easy to operate, easy to read, I change my own batteries etc. Pretty much everything you list I get from my suuntos. I can not comment on their customer service since I have never needed it. My vyper is well used and as reliable as I could ever want. My sons cobra2 is only a year old but so far no issues. My brother used a aeries AI CPU on our last trip and his NDLs were shorter then mine.
 
My brother used a aeries AI CPU on our last trip and his NDLs were shorter then mine.

Unless he had the conservatism factor adjusted very high or was always deeper than you, absolutely not... Sorry, I've done many many dives and have been able to compare the computers side by side, and in their most liberal settings, the Pelagics (Oceanic, Aeris, Sherwood) will ALWAYS give more NDL times than the Suunto's (also in their most liberal setting) after the first dive, and even more after subsequent dives. Sorry, its just how it is... There was also a magazine article that tested this, and supports what everyone here has said and what I have seen in the field...

Not calling you a liar, but, you are mistaken, for one reason or another...
 
Well I have no bone to pick in this. I don't know how his computer was set, mine is always in nitrox mode and set to 21% when I am in air. The several times we compared he always had less NDL time then me. A few dives he thumbed because he was running out of NDL and i seemed to have plenty left. Again though i don't know if he changed his conservatism factor or not. I never would set my suunto to more conservative, I do not see a reason to. The dives we do on vacation are shallow, nothing deeper then say 65' and in the end with my rental Al 80 the limiting factor has always been my air left not my NDLs. Maybe if I was doing deeper dives I would be more limited by the suunto, I don't know. When I am at home in the quarry, again deepest we go is 65' I can use my whole lp 95 filled to 3k before my NDL runs out so for me it has been the perfect computer.
 
Unless he had the conservatism factor adjusted very high or was always deeper than you, absolutely not... Sorry, I've done many many dives and have been able to compare the computers side by side, and in their most liberal settings, the Pelagics (Oceanic, Aeris, Sherwood) will ALWAYS give more NDL times than the Suunto's (also in their most liberal setting) after the first dive, and even more after subsequent dives. Sorry, its just how it is... There was also a magazine article that tested this, and supports what everyone here has said and what I have seen in the field...

Not calling you a liar, but, you are mistaken, for one reason or another...

I've done a good few handfuls of dives (probably around 60-70 or so) with a Suunto as my primary and an Aeris as my backup. I've seen the Aeris have less NDL times than the Suunto twice. I noted it because it cleary isn't common. Both times it was not the first dive of the day, both times it was relatively early in the dive. Haven't confirmed in a while, but I believe they are both at their default setting, certainly neither has the conservative factor "way up". So, I think there are probably specific, rare, multidive circumstances where this could happen.

Of course on the other hand, all the other dives were the other way. Particularly frustrating was my last dive that had me with 1 minute left on the Suunto and around 30 left on the Aeris, (as I think I was "penalized" for the 45 minute surface interval by the Suunto)
 
They are SO much worse than bad. Both my computer (Cobra2) and my husband's (Cobra) failed on a two week dive trip. We both ended up renting computers for the duration of the trip. Mine just died when it first hit the water and my husband's locked up on a safety stop (which he has apparently been doing for over a week). At least his air pressure worked. Mine did not, but I always dive with a SPG. If you gave me a truckload of these things FREE, I would tell you not to waste my time. I have been diving with computers since the early 1990s and this is the first one that has just DIED on me.
 

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