Curious About User's Experiences With Mares Aliikai

[scuba_guy62]

Don't do any diving up here anymore, used to dive for the job (river and lake in zero vis..you know the drill) some Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay. All diving now confined to tropical locales and some California.

 

[TimorDiver]

Hi,

I just want to say that I have had the Aliikai for about a year now. I dive in the tropics and only use 2 kg, actually, I only use the weight pockets to keep my toys such as magnifying glass and safety sausage! In fact, my only complaint about the Aliikai is that there is not enough pocket space provided!

My overall impression of the BCD however is that it's not designed to take more than about 2 kilos per pouch, plus an additional 2 in the back pockets. It may be that this BCD is not really designed for cold-water diving. Also most back inflated BCDs are not recommended for diving with many weights because the diver will roll onto their front... The weight pockets spontaneously dropping would be a good thing in that case... I would recommend your wife to use the pockets on the back as well as the integrated weight pockets, if she doesn't already, and see if that helps.

I do agree with your wife though - it is by far the most comfortable BCD I have ever tried! It seems perfect for warm-water diving. On the other hand, have a look at the ScubaPro Libra - my buddy dives with this one and it seems much more robust.

Best!

Bree

 

[wolfegirl]

I had the same problem; inexplicably, lost one weight pocket in Hawaii (May 2010) on a not very deep dive. Since it was the first dive of the trip, I had no replacement and dove the rest with an old-fashioned weight belt.

When I returned home, had to purchase 2 pockets, which were longer than the original. Then, while on a dive in Belize in Feb. 2012, one of the replacement pockets fell out and landed on the bottom. I was simply diving along, horizontal pretty much and started to rise!! I dumped my air immediately, stopped ascending, saw the weight pocket on the bottom and was about to make a go of it when my buddy came along and got it for me.

This could have been a disaster -- we could have been on the Blue Hole that day, at a much greater depth...

I have since decided to place weights in the back / tank pockets and use ONLY one weight in the side pockets...even though the replacement, long, pockets are big enough to fit two weights. If it weren't for the fit and comfort of the BCD, and the option to place some weight outside of the pocket, I would consider replacing this BCD. Next trip is Jan2013...

I see Zak's checked my profile since I posted this thread, but as yet he's not commented. Not that I expect there's much he'd be able to do. The BCD that broke after 11 dives was replaced without any issue at all by the dealer. As for the weight pouch that fell out at the end of the dive (that was a head scratcher for my wife & I... it was 'click' secured and re-checked prior to splash), since we wanted to continue diving after it occurred we were kind of stuck. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't purchase a single pouch, but (and REALLY, I'm not flaming Mares here) I figure if it happens again, we have a replacement on hand.

Mares seems to be a respected name out there, and although MY diving equipment choices haven't included their products, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that our experience has been outside the norm. My wife loves the fit & feel of her BCD and overall her experience has been positive. However, after the weight pouch thing on a brand new REPLACEMENT Aliikai, I'd be lying if I said she wasn't looking over the Zeagle Stiletto when we were buying new weight pouches.

Again: 2 new weight pouches = a two-tank (nitrox) dive. Do the math.

The purpose of posting this thread was to solicit other diver's opinions about their Mare's Aliikai BCD and the MRS+ weight system; If other divers have experienced failures. The lack of traffic tells me 1) my experience is an aberrancy, 2) not many folks have purchased an Aliikai, or 3) SB members who check the Mares forum either missed this thread or simply didn't care to comment.