Shearwater Reliability

[Marie13]

Perdix AI. 3 years and about 200 dives. No issues at all.

 

[scubadada]

...I’m waiting for someone to come in with thousands of dives lol

That's my Oceanic VT3, 10 1/2 years old, 1,533 dives, 1,612 hours, works perfectly

 

[wedivebc]

I’m really appreciating all these numbers, thanks all and keep them coming.

I’m waiting for someone to come in with thousands of dives lol

Before someone logs 1000 dives on a Shearwater they come out with a newer product which you will upgrade to and you will either sell your old computer or just keep it on the shelf. I currently have 4 Shearwater computers around here. It would take me a lifetime to get 1000 on them all.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I have three Shearwater computers. A Predator, a Petrel 1 and a Perdix AI.

With about 600 dives on them I have never had a failure. ( I have zero dives on the Perdix at this point)

 

[broncobowsher]

Petrel, 2014, batteries and one screen protector.
Petrel, late 2017 (got first of 2018), same as the original.
NERD 2, known as the NERD killer. We went back and forth trying to figure what was happening. Best I came up with is my old laptop would corrupt the NERD when linked. Since I quit linking to this one laptop it has been good for 2 years now.

 

[NAM001]

I know this dies not answer the letter of the question but I have dove shearwaters for over 10 years from preditor to petril 2, and have had no FALURES.

 

[NAM001]

I have 159 dives on the Perdix, and so far 0 failures.
It is my primary computer, and I dive with also a depth gauge and a back up plan.

The transmitter instead, had failed me many times, and it is one of the reason why I'm not using it anymore.

hI RABE

what was the failure on the xmitter (assuming the AI)?? did you find it dead shortly after changing batteries and a long surface time? That was the issue with my 4 AI xmitters. I quit using them long ago because of the problem. I discovered the cause, with mine, when I was playing with my computer and saw I had AI input coming in when the reg was in the bag. Removing the dust cover resulted in a poof of air from the reg and then it shut the AI xmitter off immediately, and had no problem with it untill the next dive. . I found that you have to give the reg plenty of time to vent off as the cold reg warmed up it triggered the psi turn on point. All my other failures was accuracy of 300psi off after a seasons diving. furtunately it read low as I remember.

 

[ATJ]

Ai failes sometimes. But reconnects after about a minute. So no problem.

That's not a failure as such just out of range.

The transmitter is still transmitting but the computer misses a few broadcasts because it is out of range of the transmitter.

It's like being on a road trip and no longer being able to pick up a radio station - the radio station hasn't failed.

 

[rabe]

hI RABE

what was the failure on the xmitter (assuming the AI)?? did you find it dead shortly after changing batteries and a long surface time? That was the issue with my 4 AI xmitters. I quit using them long ago because of the problem. I discovered the cause, with mine, when I was playing with my computer and saw I had AI input coming in when the reg was in the bag. Removing the dust cover resulted in a poof of air from the reg and then it shut the AI xmitter off immediately, and had no problem with it untill the next dive. . I found that you have to give the reg plenty of time to vent off as the cold reg warmed up it triggered the psi turn on point. All my other failures was accuracy of 300psi off after a seasons diving. furtunately it read low as I remember.

This is very interesting, but I don't think it applies for me.
I dive during the weekends only, and between dives usually there are 5-6 day of SI: during this time, the regs get rinsed, dried up and then carefully stored. Hence, plenty of time to "vent off"...

An example of my situation is this one:
Weekend #1: transmitter works perfectly
Weekend #2: transmitter does not work
Weekend #3 and #4: transmitter works again
Weekend #6: geuss what? Transmitter doesn't work
Etc...

 

[Still Kicking]

To be honest, the issue with Shearwater is not if the unit has a problem, but how the company handles it if you do.

(Having said that, if a computer craps out mid dive, that's a PITA but you should have a contingency plan. It's the main reason I don't dive AI. If I know my gas status, I can wing everything else pretty well, and if I want to keep diving I have my trusty Vyper in my butt pouch. It's the Timex of dive computers even though my Perdix is much cooler).

Has anyone gotten the runaround from SW? I've never heard of it. Bruce, Richard and Co. are rockstars when it comes to customer service.