Teric owners, have you required repair or replacement service?

[Belzelbub]

This thread is more than a little bit scary. Are there good questions I should ask if buying a Teric used? Or should I give up and get a Perdix instead? (I prefer the Teric's compass and form factor, but I want a computer that I can travel with reliably.)

I don't know that there are any questions you can ask that will provide reasonable assurance that there won't be a battery issue. That issue seems to be the most prevalent, though there have been others. A few years ago, I was making the same decision. At that point the battery issue was starting to be reported, so I opted for a Perdix AI instead. It's been great. I do agree that the compass implementation on the Teric is better, but at the time I opted for a manual compass, and that's been fine, until I got a Garmin. Now I use the Garmin as my backup and use the Garmin's compass screen when needed.

From a firmware base, the Teric is alone. The rest of the Shearwater line use the same firmware, and while some use replaceable batteries, the Peregrine and Nerd use rechargeable batteries. So, maybe it's a combination of the battery type and firmware that is causing the majority of the issues.

Form factor is a personal preference. I've not found the size of the Perdix to get in the way at all during a dive. Obviously, it wouldn't make a good every day watch, but honestly, neither does the Teric. It can be used as a watch, but then it's just a large watch.

 

[O-ring]

Charged my "rapidly discharging" Teric to 92% on 8/7 and today it is at 66% (stored off and with AI and compass off). My other Teric was at 84% on 8/7 and is at 82% today (stored in an identical state). So one discharging at roughly 2% in two weeks and the other 26%. I'll try to do the 90% thing with the good one, but am leaving for Cocos in a couple days so not sure I'll be able to keep a close enough eye on it to catch it and remove it from the charger every time. As @stuartv opined upthread - the 90% theory is prob not a thing if the battery is already exhibiting the fast discharge issue so I wanted to throw my experience out there as a further data point.

 

[lexvil]

Charged my "rapidly discharging" Teric to 92% on 8/7 and today it is at 66% (stored off and with AI and compass off). My other Teric was at 84% on 8/7 and is at 82% today (stored in an identical state). So one discharging at roughly 2% in two weeks and the other 26%. I'll try to do the 90% thing with the good one, but am leaving for Cocos in a couple days so not sure I'll be able to keep a close enough eye on it to catch it and remove it from the charger every time. As @stuartv opined upthread - the 90% theory is prob not a thing if the battery is already exhibiting the fast discharge issue so I wanted to throw my experience out there as a further data point.

My resend failure was the pressure sensor which was having an effect on power drain, sent it to divetronics, it cost me $219 for a new sensor, battery seals etc. a reasonable repair cost. I mailed it last Monday and it’s scheduled to be delivered today, that’s hard to beat.

 

[berndo]

Charged my "rapidly discharging" Teric to 92% on 8/7 and today it is at 66% (stored off and with AI and compass off). My other Teric was at 84% on 8/7 and is at 82% today (stored in an identical state). So one discharging at roughly 2% in two weeks and the other 26%.

They most likely don't discharge at a different rate. When the cells have different capacities when delivered, the low capacity once will lose more % per day.
The inconsistent cell capacity issue is a known issue (especially very small ones). You have the same issues with larger cells too but it's not as noticable.

 

[scubadada]

My resend failure was the pressure sensor which was having an effect on power drain, sent it to divetronics, it cost me $219 for a new sensor, battery seals etc. a reasonable repair cost. I mailed it last Monday and it’s scheduled to be delivered today, that’s hard to beat.

How old was your Teric? Obviously, out of warranty. That was the cause of your 1115 foot dive?

 

[O-ring]

How old was your Teric? Obviously, out of warranty. That was the cause of your 1115 foot dive?

"I was trying to get a better picture of that hammerhead"

 

[lexvil]

How old was your Teric? Obviously, out of warranty. That was the cause of your 1115 foot dive?

It appears I didn’t actually make that 1000+ foot dive, I can probably stop off gassing now, much to the relief of my wife

They said it was a 2019 model, I’ve lost track of which one is which but both are early ones.

 

[scubadada]

They most likely don't discharge at a different rate. When the cells have different capacities when delivered, the low capacity once will lose more % per day.
The inconsistent cell capacity issue is a known issue (especially very small ones). You have the same issues with larger cells too but it's not as noticable.

I have had 3 bad batteries. All my Terics started off with very good/normal battery life and continued to perform well for some time. It was not until they had been dived a few or many times that the battery life deteriorated significantly. Once they began to deteriorate, it continued to progress. During dive trips, I simply charged them more often. This doesn't seem consistent with delivery with different capacities.

Bad battery 1: 17 months, 115 dives
Bad battery 2: 3 months, 50 dives
Bad battery 3: 11 months, 147 dives

 

[berndo]

I have had 3 bad batteries. All my Terics started off with very good/normal battery life and continued to perform well for some time. It was not until they had been dived a few or many times that the battery life deteriorated significantly. Once they began to deteriorate, it continued to progress. During dive trips, I simply charged them more often. This doesn't seem consistent with delivery with different capacities.

You can only check for capacity by charging fully charging a new device and see how long it runs until it switches off. Once you have it for a while it could be temperature and charge pattern too. If you ever get a new one I would check how long the cell last from full empty in some mode that use a lot of energy and compare it with what SW says.
The reason I think it's most likely a capacity issue is that the teric has been out for a 5 years or so and I reckon they would have fixed a software issue and would have fixed a hardware issue (as they must have had more than one production run). The battery issue isn't really something they can fix.
They have a pretty good and fairly long track record, so I don't think their engineering team is incompetent.
Of course I don't know it for a fact but I think most likely explanation and capacity issues are a known thing.

 

[O-ring]

I have had 3 bad batteries. All my Terics started off with very good/normal battery life and continued to perform well for some time. It was not until they had been dived a few or many times that the battery life deteriorated significantly. Once they began to deteriorate, it continued to progress. During dive trips, I simply charged them more often. This doesn't seem consistent with delivery with different capacities.

Bad battery 1: 17 months, 115 dives
Bad battery 2: 3 months, 50 dives
Bad battery 3: 11 months, 147 dives

That echoes my experience. On my currently rapidly discharging Teric it was fine in storage when I bought it until I went on a LOB. Then it developed the fast discharge in storage problem. Sent it in to be repaired and it was fine until I went on another LOB. Now it's rapidly discharging again in storage. My second Teric went on the same LOB as the first one in May and it seems fine. *shrug*

Leaving on another one in a couple days so we'll see how Teric #2 behaves after I get back. Since we're sort of spitballing...aside from actually diving them one delta in behavior/usage between storage and actual usage is a lot of charging in quick succession. When in storage I check them every 2 weeks and only recharge if needed. When on a LOB I might charge them every day or two.