Oceanic GT 3 or Oceanic Alpha 8

[SeaSoulSelf]

Mark -

As the owner of a FDX10 with DVT -- if I had to do it over again, I would have bought a GT3 without the DVT.

It could be useful little gadget if somehow your "dust" cap were to be left off, but I can tell you that both of our regs make a horrible whistling/ping noise which is a result of the DVT. Have had it the shop a couple of times and it is no better.

I find it extremely annoying and am looking at other regs. Your mileage may vary.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Mark, did you ask about having it un-DVT'd. I too hate the whine of my FDX10 DVT.

 

[keyshunter]

Leo,
Oceanic has very good customer service. I would call and tell one of the CS reps how dissapointed you are in your 2 regs, and ask what they will do. They might even offer to have your regs "reverted" to the previous design. I don't know their official policy on the matter, but there have been quite a few people who have had noise issues with the dvt.

When they decided to go with the dvt system, they dumped out all of their non-dvt CDX5/GT3's to dealers at a very low price. There were some great bargains out there for awhile. Of course, that was during the great high pressure seat debacle, which shortly resulted in a recall.

The CDX5/GT3 without dvt, which I bought new for $150, was a very decent reg once the HP seat was replaced. Oceanic threw out the baby with the bathwater by discontinuing what was a good, if unsensational, inlet design and replacing it with a largely unnecessary advertising gimmick. Personally, I would not have played the giveaway game, and would have offered the first stage with either option, at least until I had several years of actual in-use history on the new design.

During this same period, Aqualung introduced their closure device which is metal and, instead of relying upon air pressure, is held open mechanically. The Aqualung version has been far less troublesome.

 

[SeaSoulSelf]

Thanks for the info Keyshunter. I will check with Oceanic CS. I had posted a question on the Oceanic forum and hadn't really gotten a firm answer. Our LDS tech has replaced the plastic bullet thingy (my technical term) but hasn't replaced the spring yet that I can remember. From what I have read,the noise some kind of harmonic reverb that is caused by spring. One of the LDS managers says his does the same thing and he just ignores it. Unfortunately I just can't do that! (On the plus side, I always know where to find my DH/buddy, even on night dives.)

Funny you should mention Aqualung, as one of my friends has a Titan LX and loves it, but his is the older model Titan without the ACD.