Nitek/Tusa Good choice or No?

[jd950]

It's probably too early in the process to buy anything, but I have been doing some research, and if I decide before I need one, I can keep my eye out for sales or for the computer I want to be discontinued and discounted.

It appears to me that the best choice for me might be the Nitek Duo or one of its twins. I would like something fairly conservative (or which can be easily used that way), wrist mounted, suitable for Nitrox in the future, easy to use and with user replaceable battery. Although my near vision is quite good, I want something easily readable. This will be for recreational diving, warm water, not very deep anytime soon, and possibly never. The duo offers more than I need but size seems right.

The Nitek Plus looks good, and is less expensive, but it looks less readble.

I will probably want to get a twin for my son, who is my dive buddy, so the super-expensive computers are not practical. Although air integrated might be nice, they are too expensive at this point.

Any reason not to get the Duo? Any advantages to the twins (Apeks/Tusa)?

I looked at Suunto but they appear less readable and don't seem to offer any advantage. The Gekko might be a contender.

One criticism I read about the Tusa was that to view alternate screens, you have to continue depressing a button, which seems awkward to me.

Anyone want to provide advice or comment on my thoughts?

Thanks for your help.

[Zubi]

Although my near vision is quite good, I want something easily readable. This will be for recreational diving, warm water, not very deep anytime soon, and possibly never. The duo offers more than I need but size seems right.
[...]
Any reason not to get the Duo? Any advantages to the twins (Apeks/Tusa)?
[...]
One criticism I read about the Tusa was that to view alternate screens, you have to continue depressing a button, which seems awkward to me.


I know several people diving with Nitek Duo, haven't heard about problems. One week ago I bought also Nitek. Display is nice, big and easy to read. To view second screen you have to hold the button, but there's nothing interesting... maybe temperature, but IIRC it shows the lowest temp, not current... About advantages of twins - in the past Nitek had many faulty units, but now I think they're all equal. Here (http://scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=180580) Dexter said, that ArchimedeII (another twin) is better than the rest, but I still think, they're the same now :). And you can make/get cheap DIY interface to download data from Nitek, details here (http://daniel.vvtp.tudelft.nl/site/?page=projects-seiko/).

[Jimmer]

I dive a Cressi Archimedes II, another Nitek Duo twin, and I'm very pleased with it. I've had no complaints and it's very intuitive to use and easy to read and get used to.

[Stu S.]

I'm with Jimmer, the Cressi Archimedes II is a good one. Testing, and my experience, indicates it is "middle of the road" regarding bottom time. Leisure Pro is an authorized seller of these, and I got a Cressi warranty from them. If the item has a fault, the "beeper" is not very loud.

[Spratman]

Ditto on the Archimedes 2. I've been diving mine for three years. As Stu said, I have a hearing problem, so when the beeper sounds, it drives the guys I dive with crazy. Someone usually tells me that my computer fritzed.

Most of the dive computer's these days are OEM'd by Seiko, so for the vast majority, it's just a matter of price, not function.

[jd950]

Thanks...that info is helpful. The Cressi looks like a good choice and a good price from LeisurePro...I can't find it locally or elsewhere for that matter. Maybe discontinued. I believe it comes with factory warranty from LP, I keep hearing things about problems with these Seiko computers and wonder if the Cressi has fewer reports due to being less common, but if reliable it seems like a good choice. The Nemo Wide has caught my attention, now, also. A bit more than I would like to spend, but looks nice....

Decisions, Decisions

[Stu S.]

We had a local dive shop that sold the Cressi computer, but it was part of a console set and not a wrist mount. I did not pay any attention to the pricing on it. I believe that the Tusa version of this unit is at our Gander Mountain scuba department for about $300.

[jd950]

Well, LeisurePro is not an authorized dealer so no warranty from there and I beleive the Cressi is discontinued so given the spotty history of the Seikos that doesn't seem like such a good plan. I found one from an authorized dealer for $405.00 but at that price the Nemo Wide looks more affordable.

[Stu S.]

[QUOTE=jd950]Well, LeisurePro is not an authorized dealer so no warranty from there and I beleive the Cressi is discontinued so given the spotty history of the Seikos that doesn't seem like such a good plan. QUOTE]

How do you know this? Please share your experience.

Thanks,

Stu.

[jd950]

Stu:

I'm not sure which part you are asking about, but I'll try to explain. LP freely admits it is not an authorized dealer and offers its own warranty on products. I think they import stuff from overseas and may not even have English language instructions.

I called a local dive shop to ask about pricing and they told me it was no longer available. ScubaToys lists it on their website as no longer available, so I assumed that to be the case. After seeing your question I began wondering and called Cressi. They say it IS availalble and Scuba.com lists it as available, and I believe they are an authorized dealer, so perhaps ScubaToys just doesn't sell it anymore and the local dive shop, who I actually haven't done business with, may have not been entirely accurate with me due to stock on hand they would prefer to move. So Perhaps it is not discontinued?

As to reliability, I based that comment on my research on this forum where I found numerous posts, primarily concerning the Duo and Tusa. I assume since all are Seikos, they would have similar strengths and weaknesses? There seems to be some suggestion that the problems were with the earlier products and the bugs amy be worked out now. I don't know about this and I just want to avoid dropping several hunderd dollars on a couple of computers if their reliability is questionable.

I would say that a computer is one of those things where a factory warranty is really desireable. I am still interested in this model, because it looks like if they are indeed reliable they are a good buy under $300.00. At $250.00 or so, I can swing one for myself and one for my son. At $405.00 from Scuba.com I might be more interested in something else, like the NEMO Wide from ScubaToys.

I hoep I answered your questions. If you have any better information, please let me know.

[ToddK]

I bought the Duo about a year ago, as a replacement for my Suunto Vyper. The big advantage to the Duo is that it handles two different Nitrox gasses, one of them up to 100% oxygen (maybe you won't be using this feature?). My buddy also bought the same computer. The only frustration is that the units sense altitude, and put you into one of about three altitiude buckets for calculating impacts to nitrogen offgassing. The sensors on my buddies computer is calibrated a little bit differently, and since we live near one of the dividing lines between different buckets, sometimes my computer will be in one bucket, and his in another, which can give different offgassing times for the same dive. If you live at sealevel, this won't be a problem.
I really like that the computer gives safety/deco stop count downs with minutes & seconds, rather than just minutes. I also really like that after the dive, the surface interval is immediately shown on the main screen of the computer, which my Vyper doesn't do. The only thing besides the altitude thing that I don't like is that I haven't been able to find a bungee wrist mount for the computer (like what DSS sells for the Vyper).

[Stu S.]

JD,

Have you any experience with the Leisure Pro warranty? My experience was good. I've been diving since '77, and last year was the first time I needed warranty work. Of the two items that needed help, the LP item was replaced immediately. The item I got from a local diveshop took over a month to get right.

I'll be taking a few dives next week with the Cressi computer, and if anything bad happens, I'll let you know.

Happy shopping.

[Dive-aholic]

I have a Tusa IQ700 that I use for my recreational diving. It's a great computer. No issues with it in over 2 years and 200+ dives on it. The advantage to a Tusa over the DR is an extra year warranty and free scratch guard for a few bucks less.

[jd950]

I guess I hadn't really thought about the LP warranty as being a good thing. I suppose on a computer their only option would be to replace a defective one, as I can't imagine they have the resources to replace chips and displays and so on. Perhaps I need to rethink LP. On the other hand, my instructor is now pushing the AI concept hard arguing that the goal should be two hoses instead of three or four. I think that will have to wait a long time, though.

[Dive-aholic]

I've seen AI failures on dives. Wrist computer wasn't receiving any information underwater. Once on the surface, it came back on. I prefer a hose to a simple mechanical spg. At least if the hose fails, I'll probably know it before the dive. Less hoses does not necessarily mean better. My HP hose is short and streamlined. No issues with it at all. Besides, it's a lot cheaper than the AIs.

[jd950]

Thanks everyone, for the help. Scuba.com matched the LP price on the Cressi Archimede II and are authorized dealers offering the warranty, so I believe I got a good deal on it. The TUSA was $140.00 more, so I went with the Cressi. I only purchased one so will either need to look at getting a second one later for my son, or giving him this one if I decide to get something else later.

[WarmWaterDiver]

Scubatoys punted the entire Cressi line some while back, but still sells gear in inventory. They have a post on that somewhere here on Scubaboard.

I and my wife have TUSA IQ-700's - but if I was buying today, the user-configurable PO2 setings feature on the Archimede (2 gas version) would sway me in Cressi's direction. This wasn't available when I acquired our IQ-700's - just the single gas version of the Archimede was available.

Having joined the bifocal crowd, I found a screaming deal on a TUSA IQ-800 I'll try out next week - just arrived in the mail today. Should work fine for single mix dives, which is the majority of the diving I do. Good excuse for more scuba gadget accumulation (as if I really need one).:D