My Detailed Initial In-Water Impressions of Garmin Mk3i

[petunia_saurogemi]

Question from a new garmin/mk3 user. I’ve been having to manually track my start/end psi as it’s not populating in my dive stats on the app. Are these computers supposed to track psi or do they just display it during the dive? Am I missing a setting?

 

[chrisjur]

Question from a new garmin/mk3 user. I’ve been having to manually track my start/end psi as it’s not populating in my dive stats on the app. Are these computers supposed to track psi or do they just display it during the dive? Am I missing a setting?

You have an AI transmitter hooked up to your first stage, yes?

 

[stuartv]

Just battery life and battery reliability.

I have had as many battery issues with my 2 Terics as probably anybody on this board. Between the 2, I've had something like 8 or 9 battery replacements now.

Even when they are at their WORST, my Terics have always had plenty of battery life to last for nearly a week of diving every day.

And, I have never had an issue with reliability in the sense of a battery dying and causing me to miss a dive.

The ONLY issue I have had - and I think this is consistent across all the Teric users that have had battery issues - is that they discharge more quickly WHEN STORED than they are SUPPOSED to. I.e. the manual says that if you have charged it and then store it, you should top up the charge every 6 months. Well, at the worst of mine, I've needed to top them up every 1 month.

And even at their worst, the self-discharge has minimal effect on how it performs when you are using it every day. On a 1 week liveaboard, when the battery is new and good, maybe it will go all week without HAVING to be charged. And when the battery is at its worst, I've had to charge it once during the week.

So, yeah, the Garmin battery will go longer on a full charge when you're wearing it as a daily wear watch. Maybe it will even do more hours in the water. And yes, you seem to be a LOT less likely to need a warranty battery replacement on a Garmin.

But, to ME, the issues with the Teric battery are annoying and yet so minor that the battery would not be high on my list of deciding factors between the Teric and the Garmin.

I do understand that that is just me. I dive all the time and I don't wear a watch of any kind when I'm not diving. So, keeping my Terics charged is not an issue. I don't need to remember to top them up every month or two, as I'm using them way more often than that. And I don't care about "sports watch" functionality. Obviously, YMMV.

 

[thogan401]

Thanks for your great review.

I just got my new MK3I and am excited to use it next week for the first time in Socorro!
I am curious to the second sentence in manual under the heading of Dive Warning
which reads..

.The diving features of this device are for use by certified divers only. This device should not be used as a sole dive computer.

What does that mean that it should not be used as a sole dive computer?

 

[chrisjur]

Thanks for your great review.

I just got my new MK3I and am excited to use it next week for the first time in Socorro!
I am curious to the second sentence in manual under the heading of Dive Warning
which reads..

.The diving features of this device are for use by certified divers only. This device should not be used as a sole dive computer.

What does that mean that it should not be used as a sole dive computer?

I think this is just Garmin lawyer talk. They are saying that dive computers are an important part of the modern safe diving toolkit but there is always a chance of failure, so you should use redundant computers (and if it does fail, don't sue them because you got bent).

From a tech diving perspective, there's no disagreement with that (as I mentioned in the review, I always dive with two computers). For recreational diving, however, the risks are less, and 99% of folks just dive with one computer - which is fine.

 

[Jai Bar]

I think this is just Garmin lawyer talk. They are saying that dive computers are an important part of the modern safe diving toolkit but there is always a chance of failure, so you should use redundant computers (and if it does fail, don't sue them because you got bent).

From a tech diving perspective, there's no disagreement with that (as I mentioned in the review, I always dive with two computers). For recreational diving, however, the risks are less, and 99% of folks just dive with one computer - which is fine.

Plus, we have the gray computer between the ears. Sometimes it is useful, others not, but as a backup it can be okay, maybe. Ish.

 

[Sevenrider860]

Thanks for your great review.

I just got my new MK3I and am excited to use it next week for the first time in Socorro!
I am curious to the second sentence in manual under the heading of Dive Warning
which reads..

.The diving features of this device are for use by certified divers only. This device should not be used as a sole dive computer.

What does that mean that it should not be used as a sole dive computer?

Lawyer talk. From the Scubapro G2 manual...

"Never dive without a backup instrument. It is imperative to always have backup instruments for depth, time and tank pressure, as well as a dive table with you while diving."

 

[petunia_saurogemi]

You have an AI transmitter hooked up to your first stage, yes?

I do. Not sure why but the psi information took longer to sync with my Garmin App than the rest of the dive info. It was all there the following day… hopefully just a one time thing!

 

[newkidondock]

Watch is too big for my small wrists. Great watch for diving but I don’t dive enough to justify having it and it’s too big for everyday use and would like to sell it if anyone is looking.

You should check out the smaller size. It's just about perfect for most wrists

 

[SKS22]

I do. Not sure why but the psi information took longer to sync with my Garmin App than the rest of the dive info. It was all there the following day… hopefully just a one time thing!

You might have to go into the logged dive and import the numbers from the transmitter. That's what I have to do. After you finish your dive and the watch transmits to your phone, open the logged dive in Garmin Dive app; click the three vertical dots in the upper right hand corner; select "edit;" scroll to "log your gas;" select the gas ("bottom gas" should be the only and the correct option as a regular recreational diver); select "copy tank info from;" then select your transmitter. It will then pull all the stats from that transmitter to include starting PSI, ending PSI, avg SAC, avg RMV, avg pressure rate etc. Some of those stats will only work if you set your cylinder correctly (for example tell it you're diving an AL 80 with 3k psi in the transmitter setup field in your watch which is something OP mentioned above).

Tangent: While you're doing that play around with the other logging options in the App if you haven't done so already. They're some options I really like that make searching for old dives and grouping similar dives easy and convenient. Also some good options to track how many dives various pieces of equipment have.

I don't know of any other way to get that info. I thought it was annoying at first. Someone told me it's that way because technical divers with lots of gasses need to be able to choose which should be used for that info, which made sense to me (but I am not a tech diver so what do I know, lol).

Apologies if I didn't explain it well. If what I wrote is confusing call Garmin. They're helpful and their pros will probably explain it better than me.