Thanks. I'm doing a demo on one hopefully soon. Now the hard question on a public forum..Is there anything you don't like about the SF2?
I assume that was aimed at Ken, but I'll answer as well.
Breathing at the surface (vertical, head out of the water) totally sucks. Switch to OC for that. I've only had to do it once waiting for a boat pickup, but staying on the loop wasn't really an option. Underwater vertical has been covered and I agree with everyone else in this regard... not great, but not impossible either.
My biggest issue so far has been the placement of the cells and collecting condensation. If I go vertical without knocking on the top of the unit, mine seems to collect the condensation on top of the #2 cell. It seems to drip off the top of the head and land right on that cell. This usually happens to me at the end of the dive when I'm getting back on the boat and I'm on 100% anyway, but getting a slow cell during a dive due to condensation has been an issue a couple times. I had to call one dive because I didn't open up the loop to let it dry out between dives and it wouldn't read correctly or calibrate. Because it had a big drop of water on the cell face.
I had 2 of my three original cells crap out on me within about six months, last one died at 9 months. Replacements have been rock solid so far.
Things I have changed:
-Swapped to Cooper hoses. When I ordered my unit they still came with the 15 foot long loop hoses. The current ones are an appropriate length.
-Added a Shrimp BOV
-Added an AV1 HUD. That thing kicks ass. About the size of your thumb and plugs straight into the fischer connector. no battery box, no additional cable. You can get them from Silent O Solutions.
-removed the inline shut off on the O2 side first stage.
- I didn't like that the dill MAV and the wing inflate hang on top of one another with the add buttons on the same side (added dil instead of adding air to wing more than once), so I swapped out for a shorter infiltrator hose (12" I think) and turned around the MAV. So MAV button in inboard, inflate button is outboard and higher on my shoulder.
Overall I really like the unit, but I'm still trying to determine if the condensation thing is a design issue or a "I don't know how to dive it" issue. I haven't heard anyone else complain about it.
-Chris