What item of equipment was a waste of money?

[The Iceni]

The idea from this thread came from the thread started by barb on good equipment.

We have all bought items of kit we later regret but often our pride prevents us from admitting it.

In my case I admit it was an all singing, all dancing digital compass, which turned out to be an abject failure. (A good idea at the time!)

Like all divers, my brain stops working once I hit the water and it is all but impossible to use any of the advanced feaures on this item of equipmement.

Secondly, I find it difficult to read it in dim light.

In any case it is only accurate to about five degrees.

Hardly £100 well spent.

I have reverted to using a normal magnetic diver's compass, which is more than adequate.

 

[chiara]

A small watertight box for keys.

I managed to sell it to a gadget-craze buddy of mine for half the price I had paid for it, but at leat it isn't there anymore.

 

[dkerr]

What a piece of cr#$p! Got what I thought was a good deal on ebay and have regreted the purchase after only a couple dives on it. By the way, 12 dives and the cumberbund is already ripping out.

 

[JamesK]

A dive knife. I have used it on one dive, and never again. I now use a small z-knife, or shears.

 

[The Chairman]

I have several that just lie around dormant. You know, I think I will toss them today! You just can't beat a good butterfly clip.

 

[JimC]

6 inch leg knife.

What a waste of money. :/

 

[metridium]

Mask with angled viewing panes at the bottom. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but in practice it created an illusion of water pooling in the bottom of the mask.

 

[jonnythan]

The $30 POS SSI DiveLog binder. All my other things, thankfully, seem ok...

 

[Rick Murchison]

Signalling devices that consist of a big ball bearing in a tube - you shake it side-to-side to make a "clack-clack-clack" sound to signal your buddy. All they ever did was give the Lovely Young Kat appoplexy because I never responded to it. I'm not sure why it never stood out from the background noise, but suspect it sounded too much like shrimp "popping" - so even though it was loud enough to hear, it wasn't distinctive enough to be heard.
Rick

 

[buff]

6 inch Titanium dive knife.....waste of money for diving but a God send on land. When I opened this Xmas "gift" I thought "If I need to use this to defend myself U/W I would rather swim from the thing attcking me than fight it"

It does have a thousand and one uses on land, though. Cut boxes, cut bike handlebar grips, cut drywall. It never ceases to be useful.

Worse than the knife is the useless AL80 tank. And I bought two of them. All I use them for is to check if the LDS is vigilant on annual inspection and hydro testing.......they are, and I pay for it. I never use the tanks. If I dive locally it's easier to rent tanks-closer to the dive sites. And if I dive on a trip I don't go lugging my AL80s on a plane. So they sit in the basement, waiting to explode.