Anyone have a MARES Dragon Fly airtrim?

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kauai_diver

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Kauai, Hawaii
Was wanting to know what people think of them. i have a chance to get a newone for 450.00 from a friend. It looks good(the design i mean) and it put togehter well. They usely retail for 799.00 so I would hate to let this go.

Any help would be appreciated.

K_D
 
I really like my Dragonfly and highly recommend it. Suggest that you try it out first before you buy, if possible. If you can get it for $450 almost new - that's excellent!!
 
Thanks for the reply. I have read nothing but good stuff about the Airtrim and will get to dive one this saturday. I am sure I will like it.
 
I just spent my first longer trip with the dragonfly airtrim, and it worked fine. Some nit-picky things: it doesn't like to drain the last bits of rinse water very easily. You need to work the water around to where it can drain. But, on the flip side, it is very easy to rinse the inside by unscrewing the upper manual exhaust valve cover. This is much better than having to put water through the inflator hose mouthpiece. The other thing that isn't so great, but which isn't a big deal with a buddy, is that the shoulder straps twist pretty easily, often twisting a couple of turns. Also, contrary to the advertising, you do need to be a bit cognizent of body positioning to exhaust air from the thing, especially when you're in the "normal" slightly head-up stomach down position and most of the air is in the wings -- in this position, some air trapping occurs. Still, you get used to it. And finally, it's impossible to see that you're actually venting air when you can't see the bubbles coming out. In most cases, you can feel the venting bubbles, but when you've only got a bit left to vent and run into the aforementioned problems with venting positioning, it's a bit more difficult to tell what's going on.

But all that said, I do like it. The airtrim is particularly useful because it's in a fixed place that's easy to find, instead of having to grab around for a wayward inflator hose, and for me, it makes things tidy during ascent too, when you're holding you computer to manage your ascent rate.

-Simon
 
I did 3 dives saturday using one, and I am sold. IRT to venting of rinse water, I hung the bc over the clothes line so that the lower left manual vent was at the lowest point, then I manually inflated the vest with the tube. This allowed all of the rinse water to flow down and settle on that vent and as I pulled the cord, the pressure of air caused it to vent out easily. I did this 3 times and all of the water came out. On the last two times, after I blew it up tight, I moved the BC around to make sure all of the water was down to that vent, then as I said, when pulling that vent, the air pressure would cause the residual water to come flowing out.

IRT the shoulder straps, I put my arm through one side, then clip the other side up before fixing the waist band. This way you are only having to stick your arm through one side and just tossin the uppper strap over the other shoulder and clipping it to the lower mount. By doing this it is easy to get on and the straps won't twist. I find this true of almost any BC though.....

I too like the inflator being easy to find and operate. The BC is extremely sturdy and very comfortable. I will definitely buy one.
 
For some reason, I never thought of clipping the shoulder together, rather than just putting my arm through. Will have to give it a try. I had the twisting problem most often when putting it on with my buddy lifting it. Putting it on sitting down seems a good candidate for the clip-in routine. THanks for the tip!

-Simon
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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