Oceanic vs Mares vs Suunto Algorithm

[audiotyro]

Eternal newbie here. My wife and I dive using Suunto. My teenage son recently got certified and I want to get an inexpensive dive comp. I saw Oceanic Veo 100 and Mares Puck in leisurepro. From what I understand dive comps use algorithms to do what they do. Would the algorithms of the 3 brands be different enough to be concerned about? Thanks.

 

[tstormdiver]

Especially with multiple dives, the Suunto computers tend to be much more consrvative & the Oceanic computers more liberal (sorry, I know nothing of Mares products). I've dove Suuntos for the last few years & when I was on a trip with a buddy who has an Oceanic computer, I was only a couple miuntes from decompression & he was nowhere near, so we based our dives NDL's off of my computer. If you 3 are going to dive as buddies or a team of 3 & going to stay within NDL's then you base your NDL's off of the most consrevative computer. If air, or a time limit is not the limiting factor, then the team goes with the diver who is closest to decompression, based on what is decided in the pre- dive plan. Conservatism isn't necessarily a bad thing. The biggest concern would be if your son dove with another diver with another liberal computer. It all just depends on what you decide is the better decompression model to follow.

 

[Kern]

The Mares puck uses a non iterative version of RGBM. As the Suunto uses a non iterative RGBM, they should be "similar".

The Oceanics Pelagic DSAT based algo is less conservative.

 

[scubadada]

Hi audiotyro,

The Oceanic Veo 1.0 has the Pelagic DSAT (Spencer/Powell data basis) and the Pelagic Z+ (Buhlmann ZHL-16C data basis) algorithms. With the conservative factors, the Pelagic Z+ algorithm can be made to fairly closely mimic any of the available, more conservative, algorithms in NDL time if that is what you want to do.

I would imagine most people do what tstormdiver suggests and have the most conservative algorithm control the dive. Everyone in my family uses an Oceanic computer with the DSAT algorithm. We all know reasonalbly accurately how much NDL time we all have unless the profile has been significantly different.

Good diving, Craig

 

[redacted]

Eternal newbie here. My wife and I dive using Suunto. My teenage son recently got certified and I want to get an inexpensive dive comp. I saw Oceanic Veo 100 and Mares Puck in leisurepro. From what I understand dive comps use algorithms to do what they do. Would the algorithms of the 3 brands be different enough to be concerned about? Thanks.

The suunto and oceanic computers may provide quite different results in some cases with the oceanic generally providing more dive time (higher NDLs) on subsequent dives. So, it depends on what you would be concerned about. All have an established safety record so no reason for safety concerns. I suspect more divers with suunto computers push the limits of their computers and accept unplanned deco to complete planned dives. Such things are unnecessary and may not be good practice with oceanic computers. If you are concerned about him getting more safe bottom time than you....

 

[audiotyro]

Thanks everyone for the prompt and very helpful responses. My concern was being able to ascend/descend together as guided by the dive comps. Normally we would wait for each other at the safety stop but there are times when it might be necessary for some to get out of the water sooner. I was thinking that if algorithms were similar the computers will show the all clear within a reasonable span of time is higher. Your responses validated this. Based on the responses I think I'll pass on the Oceanic. Not so hot about the Mares. Hoping to find a good deal on a Suunto. Thanks again!

 

[Hatul]

Best to get him the same computer as you use.

 

[elchato]

Have you thought about the stunt zoop? About the same price and you will all have more or less the same NDL when diving together.

 

[elchato]

*suunto zoop... damn that autocorrect

 

[audiotyro]

*suunto zoop... damn that autocorrect

That's the Suunto I'll be waiting on. Thanks!