Cheap Scooters

[FishDiver]

I just returned from Kona where I meet a local family of four divers. The father and I became friends and naturally discussed the local dive areas.

He was wildly enthusiastic about the X-Treme X-160 dual speed aqua sea scooter. They owned four of them and he claimed they were reliable, good battery life, etc. In addition they only cost $199. They use them only for recreational dives.

Does anyone have any experience with these? I am curious to hear reviews, positive or negative.

[budman44904]

I wish people had responded to your request, I'm interested in the X-tream scooter as well.

[horsediver1]

I have had mine for about 5 years use it about a dozen times each season, scoots along good, I bought the extra amperage battery and get 65 -70 minutes of use per cycle. The only down side is you have to shut it down to navigate via compass as the magnetic fields when running are strong enough to lock your compass.

Haven't had one bit of problem, price was right I use it for scoping rock bars and sunken islands in fresh water, or if I am going out quite a ways from shore Air consumption is cut by over half extending my dives.

[DeusVerto]

They're using sealed lead-acid battery technology by Ruisen Battery of PRC. That's why they're cheap and they weigh 20 pounds. Who'd have thought?

I do note that they have a 30-day warranty (!) on everything except the battery and the gears. I guess at 200 bucks, if it fails, throw it away and buy a new one.

I never thought about the magnetic fields...good observation.

[dgreenh]

I have a couple of them. For what I use them for they work just fine, I have had no problems at all. Now if I needed a DPV for something mission critical I would spend a lot more money and get a good one. For cruising around and sight seeing underwater, these have been no problem. Just remember to never let something tow you farther out than you are willing or able to tow it back. Stuff Happens, even to the expensive DPVs.

[budman44904]

Thanks for the input.
Did you use them right out of the box, or did you have to do some mods?

What is your maintenance routine? Or, tips.

[a22shady]

for 200 they seem interesting especially if they work as others have stated

[horsediver1]

Right out of box charge battery full, try to run battery to empty, the memory will be a longer run time as the design of the battery is of a deep cycle type. The only check to perform is make sure all the o rings are siliconed.

[DeusVerto]

The energy conversion in a battery is a chemical reaction. Sometimes you have to "stir up the slurry" to get anything near the maximum capacity out of them. Certainly NiCads and NiMH batteries need several charge/discharge cycles when they're new (or been unused for a while) to get good capacity.

Almost universally, the chargers that the manufacturers supply with gear like this range in quality from barely adequate to abject junk. Don't feel bad; the cordless power tool industry is notorious for this too. If you really want to treat rechargeable batteries right, go to the R/C hobby vendors and buy a GOOD one.

My cordless drills, weed-whackers, dust-vacs, and flashlights all get the good juice. I am now in the habit of immediately throwing away the chargers that come with most cordless items.

For NiMH and NiCad, I use this one:

TowerHobbies.com | Great Planes ElectriFly Triton EQ AC/DC Charger

For Lithium Ion, Lithium Polymer, or Lithium Phosphate (A123):

TowerHobbies.com | TME Xtrema LiPo Charger/Wattmeter

[fdog]

By all appearances this is a knockoff of the SeaDoo. My experiences with such knockoffs is that they have a lower performance than the original SeaDoo model.

You can find test results here: Tahoe Benchmark 2009

There's an adage: you get what you pay for... in this case, (based on personal experience over a surveyed course) I would rather swim, as it would be simpler, more reliable, and roughly the same speed.


All the best, James