Oceanic Gauges - depth reads wrong!

I have brand new Oceanic gauges & my depth gauge reads 60ft when I am only down 50ft. Some safe safey margin - I say @@@@ rhymes with rap. What do I do?

I'm new to diving - is this acceptable?

Send it in. If you have it under warrenty then the repairs or replacement should be free.

Andrew, that is not a built in safety margin. Not sure how you arrived at the difference, but if it is indeed off, get it repaired or replaced.

Hi Andrew - I also responded to your same question in the Oceanic Forum...

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We have a service program that deals with this very specifically. If one of our products should have a problem within the first 30-days of purchase through an Authorized Dealer - that dealer is able to swap it out over the counter and contact us for an immediate replacement. Depending on their current inventory level or own policies, they may opt to return your product to the factory and provide you with a the replacement that we provide. If the product is outside this 30-day window, it qualifies for warranty service, in which case it does need to come back to the factory, either via the LDS or directly. In that case, should the dealer replace it over the counter for you, he would be out as a serviced gauge would be returned to them.

I would recommend that you contact Kevin Kidd at Cross Country Parts - our Canadian distributor. I have no doubt that he will help determine what the problem may be and facilitate service and/or replacement through your LDS or provide a solution himself.

Kevin Kidd
Cross Country Parts
kevkidd@telusplanet.net
(403) 235-5454

My g/f's Tusa read 83' at my computer's 100'. I sent it back, got a new one, and now it reads 104' at my 100'. I compared that deep dive with 5 other dives (and it was a wreck on the sand and we all went to the sand to see this huge grouper; so we were all at the same exact max depth). Her's read the deepest, mine was in the middle, and the shallowest person's read 95'.

Thus, between 7 divers, there was about a 9% delta between deepest and shallowest. I was REALLY surprised the delta was that high; I would've expected no more than 2-3%

Does anyone else have any similar stories?

so much for a new diver to learn, figure out, & get a handle on!

I've only comparred Oceanic to Oceanic. When I had a VTPro and comparred it to my wifes ProPlusII at the drain in a 12 feet in swimming pool the VT read 11 feet and her PPII read 12.

Sometime later we comparred again at about 50 or 60 feet (can't remember) and the difference was olny 2 feet and I don't recall which way.

At some point I switched to a ProPlusII and the last time we comparred was last weekend while standing side by side on the deck of the Oriskany and guess what... both read 133 feet.

The varience you're getting is unacceptable. BTW: you didn't say how you were determing the depth difference.

One of my local club members worked in an automotive lab and would test all our depth gauges for us. He did this to help out his friends. He's now retired and living in Florida so I've been wondering if there's another place to get this done.

He tested the gauges against the known correct depth in his lab. He'd test each gauge during descent and ascent with a max depth indicator. He'd then do the same tests with the max depth indicator out of the way. The graphs for these for situations were then provided to each of us. Very handy information to have!!!!

It was amazing how much a variance there was. & how prevalent it was. I found it very interesting how different the readings could be on one gauge between ascent and descent.

My first depth gauge read nearly 10 feet shallower than normal. Be glad that your girlfriend's (new) depth gauge is reading deeper as that is much safer than reading shallow.

Paula