whats a good depth guage

[zmanzimp]

im going to get a computer eventually, but until then i need a good depth guage and was wondering who makes good depth guages, and what to look for in a depth guage. are they all pretty much the same? what do you use? Is there a DIR approach to depth guages?

 

[Doc Intrepid]

UWATEC markets a bottom timer which provides time, depth, water temperature, a log of the last ten dives, and a few other basic data. At ~ $115 or so, its a pretty good, reliable device. Its DIR, since you asked.

OMS markets the same thing, the difference is that it has an OMS logo on it.

Either will serve you well...

 

[zmanzimp]

would it be better to have a mechanical depth guage, or are digial ones ok? which is more reliable?

 

[rescuediver009]

I suppose the digital ones are less reliable in theory, but Ihave never seen the bottom timer fail. The advantage however is that if your computer craps out, the bottom timer will still track your bottom time so you can still do your no-deco or deco time for that matter. The OMS/UWATEC one also has an ascentrate indicator for wheny our primary dies. if ever.

 

[DeepTrip]

would it be better to have a mechanical depth guage, or are digial ones ok? which is more reliable?

If you're going to buy a dive com, I reccomend to have an analog one. Agree with rescuediver009, I've yet to see a bottom timer failed, but I still prefer an analog one for backup.

As for selection, I choose the smallest possible one. I'm using Aqualung mini combo and I'm happy with that.

 

[ShizzA]

I was actually wondering the same thing as zman. I'm planning on getting a computer a bit later, but in the time being I need to get a decent depth gauge. I want something analog, but haven't been able to find information on specifically which analog gauges I should be looking at buying.