Competition in the CO Analyzer Market?

[DandyDon]

For real competition we need to see competitive pricing, while the specs we need remain untouched (=+-1ppm error in the 1-10ppm range). My candidate is the Pocket CO 300S, albeit I don't know how much would a sensor replacement cost.

The analox for me is a budget no-go (european prices on device, replacement sensors and service... sums up like 100$/year) .

I started with the Pocket CO, even worked with the company some in their development of the Scuba model. It can work.

I found that I had to keep in bagged at all times as humidity and other vapors can mess up readings.

I don't care of the Scuba model really. The bag they developed is a pain to me. I just used a one gallon, freezer quality zip lock, preferably with a slider handle for fast & easy closing, and a new bag for every day as they tended to leak after some use.

3 minutes per tank a long time when you are testing every tank, every dive, for several divers. About 97% of tanks tested in one study were fine so you get bored testing after a while unless you hit one of the other 3% early.

I got one wet. Not water resistant like the Analox, but they gave me a discount on the replacement - about $100 I think is their current replacement policy.

Their calibration kit is $39 plus shipping - mainly a can of 100 ppm CO and clumsy instructions, and the last can arrived empty - had to be replaced, then the one year old unit failed to calibrate. It's $79 plus shipping for them to do it, but that does include a new sensor if needed.

 

[rjack321]

Just a small off-topic question...so for the Analox CO analyzer, the bump gas is not necessary? Can I just expose the analyzer to just regular environmental air to calibrate it at zero?

I guess that air quality is different between locations, but the bump gas is set at a certain level, so if you're unsure of your environmental air quality, the bump gas is useful.

The Analox has a knob to zero the reading, in practice its not used much.

Bump gas is to confirm that the sensor is actually responsive to CO, not calibration. Most CO analyzers are not calibrated at 10ppm. They are (unfortunately) calibrated at 50 or 100ppm. One point calibration isn't great but multipoint calibrated units aren't really worth buying for diving use where you are trying to check if there's any CO at all.