Mares Puck Pro vs Suunto Vyper. Which one should I get ?

[socc]

Hello everyone,

I am quite new to diving but I want to get more involved into diving (currently I have the PADI Open Water and only a few dives).
I have decided to buy my first diving gear which is of course a DC. After spending some time researching I found out that the Mares Puck Pro and the Suunto Vyper are the best candidates for me. However I cannot decide which on to get.

The Mares is cheaper and I love the idea of one button. It also seems to have everything that I need.
On the other side, the Suunto seems to show info more succinctly (the interface just seems to be better organised) and have some more alarms. The Mares Puck Pro supports two gases whereas the Vyper only one (I am not sure if I will ever use two gases in a dive anyway since from what I understand is more about technical diving and not recreational).
From what I understand both offer almost the same features.

So what do you thing guys ? Which one you think is better and why ? Is there anything that I might have missed ? Which one is better for a new diver that wants to slowly become an advanced one ?

Many thanks,

Socc

 

[Getnsquirrelee]

I have never played with the Suunto, but I bought my wife the Mares. We have about 75 dives on it now and it has worked flawlessly. It is extremely easy to use. She dives air and nitrox. Easy to use with both, we just learned to trick the computer on the nitrox settings. Very easy and does everything she needs it to.

 

[Keith.M]

I have never played with the Suunto, but I bought my wife the Mares. We have about 75 dives on it now and it has worked flawlessly. It is extremely easy to use. She dives air and nitrox. Easy to use with both, we just learned to trick the computer on the nitrox settings. Very easy and does everything she needs it to.

What do you mean by, "trick the computer on the nitrox settings" ?

 

[Aguablanco1]

What do you mean by, "trick the computer on the nitrox settings" ?

That's a very good question that I would love to hear an answer to as well.
RichH

 

[Getnsquirrelee]

If you are dive an nitrox dive you can't go back to the air settings. You have to adjust the nitrox setting from 32 to 24. Our other computer will allow you to go back and forth. Sorry for the confusion.

---------- Post added January 7th, 2014 at 05:17 PM ----------

Meant to hit 21

 

[Aguablanco1]

I do something similar. When diving air I set the EAN at 21%. Always ready for anything that way. Thanks for clearing that up.
RichH

 

[Keith.M]

I have the Mares Puck (Not the Pro) and that is not the case with it.

I took a look at the instructions for the Puck Pro. You absolutely should be able to get back to AIR.

I have seen others post before that they can't get back to air on whatever computer. I think it is operator error, no offense.

When you scroll through the different menu's, hold the button down when you get to Mode. The first screen that comes up should be the EAN, showing your MOD at the top, EAN in the middle and Your current setting for PPO2 and O2% on the bottom. Hold the button down again until the EAN starts to blink. At that point you should be able to scroll through Bottom Timer, AIR and EAN. When you get to AIR, hold the button down again to select it.

---------- Post added January 7th, 2014 at 03:36 PM ----------

And setting EAN to 21% is definitely valid, air is 21%

From the manual regarding why they even have air.

AIR
is the equivalent of setting EAN to 21%

and a ppO
2max of 1.4bar, but simplifi es the

display a bit by not showing the CNS (its value

however is calculated in the background and if

needed the 75% warning and the 100% alarm

are triggered).

 

[Getnsquirrelee]

It may be, I have tried it with hers during a dive and it wouldn't go back to air. I just reset the ean to 21%. It wouldn't bring up the option to switch back to air. As long as I wasn't in the surface interval time it will switch back and forth without a problem.

 

[DiveNav]

You can see the Vyper in action in the Vyper Online Class and in DiveNav simulators

 

[socc]

Thanks a lot all of you !