Suunto Or Uwatec?

[Paulus Magnus]

I had almost the opposite experience when I did the dive above. My Stinger required the 8 minute stop whereas the Smart Pro didn't say anything. I was on a drift dive, one-on-one with an instructor and she was diving to a normal 5 minute stop. She was also running my air to the bottom so I didn't feel that I had time to do the 8 minute stop and just did the 5 minutes. Therefore, my Stinger locked out for 48 hours and spent the next two days on the boat whilst I went diving but I agree with your comment about them being tools and not Gods. I wish I could turn this protective feature off as it's annoying.

Although you can change the Vyper batteries, the Stinger is a Suunto dealer only thing, which is a bit of a pain.

One other annoying thing I've found with the Stinger is that I once set the EAN to 33% Oxygen as I'd just set up my tank but it was about two hours before the dive. When I jumped in the water and got down to my depth, it had switched back to air and as far as I know can't be changed during a dive. Therefore, I had to leave it on deck for the second dive or it would have freaked out.

Pros and cons to both which is why I like having both.

 

[iflyprops]

I have the suunto Cobra and am nothing but happy with it. It is basically the vyper with AI. Great user interface, I figured it out mostly without the manual. I don't think you could go wrong with the Suunto's, the recent recall of the Uwatecs, personally, makes me a little nervous.

 

[cyklon_300]

Would it 'freak out'? Diving EAN using an air computer just adds additional conservatism...

 

[Scubakevdm]

My dive buddy and I dive with different dive computers. I have a Suunto Vyper and he has the Uwatec SmartPro. Both worked almost identically in terms of no deco limits in our recent diving -- except in one case recently on a dive to 28 meters. We both did a too rapid ascent from 2 meters, exceeding the computers' recommended rate (we printed the dive profile later to prove that was the problem). Absolutely, not a good practice . My computer beeped, so did his. Then the computers behaved very differently.

After 1 minute at the surface, his shut down for 24 hours, while mine registered the rapid ascent with a "slow" warning. We both agreed to stay out of the water for 24 hours, since his computer was non-functional (not even guage mode) and his manual advised it. But when we checked the dive profile, the only error was the rapid ascent, we were very conservative otherwise.

To my thinking, this is a major defect for the Uwatec. It should not shut down in the event of a diver error, at least give me guage mode in case I have an emergency. It is a tool for the diver to use, not a God to be followed. But that's how Uwatecs work, no matter what I think.

The second major issue I have with them is you have to send them to a factory repair site for battery change. Again, never mind what the customer wants, Uwatec knows better. With my Suunto, batteries are available everywhere, and I can change them and get back to diving. I carry the lithium battery and O-ring in my save a dive kit because I dive in remote locations.

Uwatec makes a good case for their more conservative algorithms, which take microbubbles into account. In practice, we noticed no difference except for the shutdown. It's up to you to decide if you want to use a computer as a tool, or have it be your master. As for me, I would never use an Uwatec even if it was given to me.

Okay, I'm really struggling with almost everything you've said here. First, the Smart Com will only lock out if you ignore a decompression obligation. Even then, you have three minutes to correct your mistake. Second, it is my experience that Suunto is much more conservative than the Smart Com, especially on repetetive dives. After a series of dives with some customers a couple weeks ago, everyone had so much more bottom time available than the Vyper divers, that I posted a thread on this board to try to find out why.Third As far as I know, Scuba Pro is not marketing any of the Uwatec computers as Gods. They are kinda cool looking, but are really only intended to do lots of math and display information. That you seem to believe that they are worthy of such attention is sadly interesting. Third, the batteries. Most divers will never have to have the batteries replaced. Some divers, and I'm one of them, will. It looks like I'm going to squeeze just about 600 dives out of the battery in my Smart Com, then I'll have to send it off to Scuba Pro and get a new battery... free. While they have my Smart Com there at the shop in sunny California, they will also run comprehensive diagnostics and make sure everything is A-okay, also free of charge, before they send it back. Fourth, the micro-bubble suppression feature is selectable, levels 1-5 or off. The algoritmm is the Buhlmann algorithm. Maybe someone who knows about Vypers can help me out here, but I think the Vyper uses a Buhlmann algo too. That being said, there's nothing wrong with using a conservative computer, and there's nothing wrong with Vypers. Plenty of divers use them and like them just fine, and I think that's great. Uwatecs are nice computers too. They do an awful lot and I'm very happy with mine. They have some weak areas too. They're kinda difficult to operate... not very user friendly. The lock out thing... you know that could go either way. I'd probably be annoyed if I ever locked mine out, but, you know I don't ignore deco stops. There have been times that I probably would have been okay if I didn't make a stop, but the pain in the butt factor of being locked out was greater than the pain in the butt factor of making the stop, or of heading up before I would have to make a stop. On the other hand, I've seen divers that just didn't know any better. They blow off deco obligations, then come and ask me if I can figure out what's wrong with their computer as they're getting ready to make the next dive. You know, its probably a good idea for those guys to stay out of the water for a little while, just to be safe. So there's sorta this give and take thing going on when you look closley enough at computer selection. I think its nice that we have choices.