Any ladies try AquaLung Lotus i3 or Soul i3?

[jodylynn007]

Yep I agree with Toddy above, I have a Pearl i3 also that I use for my warm water vacation diving (I use a backplate/wing for cold water at home) and I absolutely love it... so comfy and secure and easy to operate the i3 lever.

I did have an o-ring go in my inflator though on vacation once and couldn't figure out at the time why air was leaking from the connection point down there (it was the last day of diving so I didn't worry too much, just used a rental and took it into my shop at home upon my return). The shop opened it up, checked it out, and replaced the o-ring at no charge. I also have had some of the rubber chip off of my inflator handle, rough handling at the dive shops or shoving into my gear bag I suspect is the culprit. BCD itself though has stood the test of time and did even do some cold water diving with me in the beginning before I moved over to a backplate. It's a great BCD.

 

[Nettie-NZ]

I know this thread is a bit old, but mainly adding this comment for anyone's reference later. I have a Lotus i3. Love diving in it. Very comfy. I'm short, but curvy and I find the Lotus i3 incredibly comfortable.However there are some buts! If you are doing Rescue Diver training or beyond (DM etc) the i3 system can pose some difficulties with the techniques being taught. It is very difficult to demonstrate skills when in an i3. I did my DM course using my Lotus and there were lots(!) of times I wished I had a traditional inflator system.So for personal diving - yes it's great! But if you are doing courses for higher levels of rec diving - make sure you have access to a more conventional BCD.

 

[kmurray719]

I know this thread is a bit old, but mainly adding this comment for anyone's reference later. I have a Lotus i3. Love diving in it. Very comfy. I'm short, but curvy and I find the Lotus i3 incredibly comfortable.However there are some buts! If you are doing Rescue Diver training or beyond (DM etc) the i3 system can pose some difficulties with the techniques being taught. It is very difficult to demonstrate skills when in an i3. I did my DM course using my Lotus and there were lots(!) of times I wished I had a traditional inflator system.So for personal diving - yes it's great! But if you are doing courses for higher levels of rec diving - make sure you have access to a more conventional BCD.

You can switch out the manual oral inflator for a regular inflator for instruction. We do it for all our rental/pool BC's.

 

[Nettie-NZ]

I'll have to look at doing that! Thanks

 

[Nettie-NZ]

Actually I'm finding another reason to put the inflator on as well - drysuit. I'm just learning to dive in a drysuit and it's just going to be a lot more intuitive to use the regular inflator with the drysuit than the i3.
I had my first OW dive in a drysuit over the past weekend. Pool session in the drysuit went fine with the i3 but add some rough surface conditions and I struggled to vent my drysuit to descend on the OW dive. So for at least the short term I'll be putting the regular inflator on until I get the muscle memory working well for the drysuit venting.

 

[cashew]

For those of you with a lotus i3, where do you attach your dive light? my husband can fit his small light in his pocket (he has an i3 dimension), but i can barely fit my z-knife in the right-side zippered pocket, let alone a flash light.

 

[kmurray719]

For those of you with a lotus i3, where do you attach your dive light? my husband can fit his small light in his pocket (he has an i3 dimension), but i can barely fit my z-knife in the right-side zippered pocket, let alone a flash light.

I attached a small bungee loop around the bottom of the shoulder strap, clipped the light off to the shoulder d-ring and slid it through the bungee to keep it streamlined. Basically the same thing a lot of people do on a backplate harness.

 

[Shvonne]

I have the pearl i3 and love it. The inflator is fantastic! The regular inflator hose never felt natural to me, I don't even have to think about the i3, I just do it. I just finished rescue last weekend with no issues and I took the drysuit course a few weeks ago, no problems. I don't have a regular buddy, so I frequently dive with people I don't know, I always make sure to show and have them try the i3 and show them the manual inflator. Most are curious about it, have seen or heard about it, but not up close. I highly recommend it.

 

[batts]

Also wanted to add some feedback for future reference. I have a Lotus i3 and have been diving with it for 2 years. Love it in every way and wouldn't want to go back to a conventional inflate system. The BCD is extremely comfortable and the inflator is so much more intuitive than the buttons on an inflator hose. Hope this lasts for many years to come. But even if it were to brake, I would replace it with the same BCD.