Backup puter help

I've got a Oceanic Veo250 and really like it a lot. I'm thinking about a backup, but am having troubles making decisions.

First, I can't decide if I should buy another computer from the same manufacturer. I'm leaning towards doing so only because they would be on the same algorithm and use the same batteries.

Second, the Veo250 is nitrox compatible. I am not nitrox certified, but plan on being very shortly. So, should the backup computer also be nitrox compatible? The reason I ask is because there is a significant price difference between, say, the Veo250 and the Veo100.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

The only reason I have two computers is because I acquired the second one considerably cheap and was buying it on behave of my dive partner at the time, who ended up not diving much after getting certified.

A backup time piece and depth gauge should be enough back up.

Should you end up buying a second computer, it's probably best to have both be able to use the same decompression models and gas mixes.

Wiz

Thank you for the reply!

Any one else care to chime in???

First, I can't decide if I should buy another computer from the same manufacturer. I'm leaning towards doing so only because they would be on the same algorithm and use the same batteries.

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It will hardly matter if the algorithm is the same if one is doing Nitrox and the other is doing air.

When I bought my first Nitrox computer I kept using my old air computer as a backup for awhile. For the air computer to be useful as a backup, you pretty much have to continue to dive the air computer while on Nitrox, at least enough to keep it from getting bent. So I would up doing deco stops sometimes to keep the air computer happy even though of course I wasn't really in deco. Passable but not ideal. I did this only because I already had the air computer, I wouldn't have bought an air computer as a backup to a Nitrox computer.

So if you're going to be diving Nitrox with any regularity, and doing profiles that take advantage of the extra time, I'd buy another Nitrox computer. Otherwise, maybe air would be good enough, although I wouldn't buy an air computer anymore period, unless maybe I got a used one really cheap. It depends how much you're concerned with losing bottom time. If I were only doing a couple dives near home on the weekend I probably wouldn't bother with a backup at all. I got a backup because I travel and don't want to lose any dive time. For profiles that really take advantage of a computer, the watch/depth gauge/table routine isn't super useful as a backup as you will generally be off the table anyway.

Thank you very much. That sounds like solid advice :cool2: