Dive Rite Nitek He computer

I am in the market for my first computer and the recent price drop of the Nitek He has me considering that computer. I am currently a recreational diver and would like to expand into technical wreck diving maybe within a couple of years. It appears that the Nitek would be the last computer that I would need to buy, even if I do go into trimix and decompression diving. Does anybody have any experience with the Nitek? And to you current tech divers, do you use computers? And if so, in what way? Do you back up tables with computers or back up computers with tables? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

IndySCUBA:

I am in the market for my first computer and the recent price drop of the Nitek He has me considering that computer. I am currently a recreational diver and would like to expand into technical wreck diving maybe within a couple of years. It appears that the Nitek would be the last computer that I would need to buy, even if I do go into trimix and decompression diving. Does anybody have any experience with the Nitek? And to you current tech divers, do you use computers? And if so, in what way? Do you back up tables with computers or back up computers with tables? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

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I have the Nitek He. I use it for tech diving. However, I was taught in Trimix class to make written manual calculations for my dives and to use the computer either in gauge mode or as a backup to a written dive plan.

I would suggest looking at wrist watch size computers that can handle two nitrox mixes. These would be the Suunto Stinger, D6, D9 and Mosquito; The Apeks pulse;The Nitek Plus.

All of these computers, I believe, can be used in gauge mode.

As said prior computers are used by a large group of extended range divers, as gauge mode,bottom timers and so on and then they wear several,that said I love my Nitek.
But do as taught cut tables for all your dives-Depth and BT as if your computer pukes you don't!and after a few times on same dive sites its second nature.
Dive safe,
Brad

Please excuse the disclaimers, they are pretty much par for questions like this. If you go the tech route you will get the low down on the hows and whys of proper dive planning in each and every class. Unless you are really, really dense or suicidal, you will in due course see the logic in always doing the planning and in essence regarding the computer as the backup.

Where a good multigas computer really shines is in getting you to the surface very quickly in the event you call the dive early - earlier than any of the contingency plans you cut. A Nitek HE would be a good choice in that regard.

As an aside, divers that do rely on computers to do technical dives use two of them with one as the primary and one as the backup to cross check them against each other and to ensure they still have deco information in the event one dies. However thorough dive planning is still required to ensure the gas planning also works as you absolutely do not want to put yourself in a situation where the computer says you have deco left and the SPG's all say you are going up now.

I dove with the He for several years both recreationally and on tech dives using trimix, you can see it on my arm in my profile pic. For recreatioanl diving using either air or nitrox the computer is just as good as any other computer out there. For technical diving involving decompression and and trimix I found it a little to conservitive for my tastes. I would cut tables using V Planner and dive using them and a bottom timer and have the He as a backup incase something went wrong and I needed to bail out ASAP, I was always bending the He. My tables would give a 10 minute stop at 20 feet where the He would give me something like 18 minutes at 20 for the same dive even though I hardly ever spent the entire dive at the depth the tables were cut for and V Planner was set to a +2 conservitisim factor. I was also locked out for 48 hours once because I forgot to program the gas mix before using the He in the pool during a training session. That sucked and something other tech computers won't do.

All in all the He was a good computer and I wouldn't recommend against getting one but I recently sold mine and switched to the VR3. I liked the ability to reprogram the VR3 during the dive and the fact that it is upgradeable with nothing more then a phone call, a credit card and entering a PIN number. I know it's way to expensive for someone getting into technical diving, unless you just won the lottery, but IMO I think it's a better computer then the He.