Seaquest Fusion Problems Anyone?

[VancouverBC]

My wife and I have two brand new Seaquest Fusion BC's. We went on our first dive last week and had nothing but trouble with them - maybe we're just noobs with a non-hose style BC but neither of us could get this thing deflated at the surface. We had to load on extra weight and get our dive leader to "pull" us under to get us going. I tried a head first dive with fins in the air, extra weight etc and still couldnt empty the bladder completely. The dump valves seem fine...but i'm no technician. The instructor said we still had residual air in the bladder he had to squeeze it all out manually when we were in the water.

Has anyone else had a problem emptying the bladder completely on this BC to start a descent? Eventually we got down to 50 feet, but on the ascent once again we couldn't empty the bladder completely and the decompressed air ballooned the BC - needless to say we made a hasty ascent and missed our safety. It was a very "sloppy" day. Luckily it was a "gear test" dive and we weren't doing anything too serious.

Can't decide if I need to return this or just get used to it - it was our first dive with this type of BC.

Thanks.

 

[divebutt]

Tried that BC a few years back. Same problem. Got rid of it right away.

Aqualung discontinued that BC at the end of '05 or early '06, so yours are not 'new'.

They have come out with the i3 system. I took the tech course on it last week - MUCH better design. Actual plastic pushrods instead of pulling strings. Heard great things about them.

If I were you, look for a refund from your LDS, or the satisfaction warranty (30 days I believe) from Aqualung and go with an i3 inflator on the Pro series BCs.