Teric Review

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I and my wife have used Oceanic Atom 3.1, Oceanic VT4 and a low level Suunto. because my wife now needs reading glasses, she could not use a wrist DC, and relied on her analog gauge. As a present before our month-long dive trip to the Red Sea (we are there now), and because she is the best wife/dive buddy anyone could ever ask for, and because she saw the Teric in action on another diver in April, I got one for her for our big trip. When it arrived, I was so jealous that, even though I was perfectly happy with my Oceanic Atom 3.1, I ordered one too. the Teric is literally the best DC since sliced bread!

1. Setup was a snap. Paired over bluetooth with my laptop and Shearwater cloud. Updated the firmware without a hitch. The menu is amazingly well-organized, and there is no need to go through all sorts of weird contortions and settings to set the default gases, colors, display size (big for my wife or standard for me). All are accessible by pushing one button and then scrolling up or down for Dive Settings, Gas, Bluetooth, Watch, Settings, etc. Completely intuitive. With my Oceanic, which was not bad, you had to press one button and hold it down until the second set of obtuse menus appeared, then scroll through things like "Set F", "Set U," to try to set your nitrox levels, etc. Not intuitive at all. The Teric has customizable format home screen, where you can put the info that you like, such as GTR and SAC, but by pushing the function button, you can switch between several screens with much more info. Updating the firmware is a snap. Just fire up Shearwater Cloud, turn on bluetooth on the watch, wait for it to be recognized by the laptop, and click "update firmware." Of note, the new firmware update allows you to get rid of "TTS," i.e., Time To Surface (not gas time remaining, but literally, how long it would take to get to the surface at 30ft/min), which to me was completely worthless. Works perfectly. TTS is now relegated to a back screen. For those who track their ascent rate, it shows in arrows in the upper right corner, along with the actual ft/min. rate. the arrows change from white to yellow to red depending on your ascent rate, making it easy to quickly see. Colors are changeable, and there are also built in color schemes. Brightness of the screen can be changed on the fly, High, Medium, Low and Off. I find that Medium works for me in all conditions.

2. Underwater. Fantastic. Everything you need. Paired immediately with my transmitter. Underwater, the display was fantastic and easy to read. I turned off all beeping alarms, and left just a couple of vibrating ones, which are easily felt through my 3 mm gloves. The compass works great, and is easily accessible by pushing the Function button (although the button can be customized for something else. The compass can be hidden so that it shows on the outside of the display so you can always see it without it blocking the display. I have now started using the compass all of the time and it has unerringly got me back to the boat when my wife and I were not with the group and visibility was not great, just by following the "dot." My wife has hers set like a disco, with pink, yellow, neon green. She has no problems reading the display at all and was the envy of everyone! I also like the way it displays "Safety Stop" in yellow with the countdown, and then says "Safety Cleared" in yellow when it is finished. Just little touches that are so cool.

3. Battery life. I find that using it for 5 dives a day, and then as a wristwatch, after a couple of days, I got down to about 26% battery, which is clearly displayed. Using the wireless charging station, on regular charge, it charged up from 26% to 70% in about an hour during a surface interval. On Quick Charge setting, it fully charged to 100% in about an hour. I found that each dive took about 4-5% of the battery, so there was plenty left at 26%. It worked great as a wristwatch as well. If you forgot your Teric charger stand, it supposedly is compatible with other Qi wireless chargers. The Teric comes with a nice compact and stiff hard case with foam inserts for travel, that holds the watch, charger, USB cable for the charging dock, and even a pair of screwdrivers for changing out the strap if you want to customize it (I got a pink strap for my wife).

Final thoughts. If you want the best, I really can't see how you can get any better than the Teric. at $1095, it is pricey, but how much more than another comparable DC? $400? For the amount we spend on diving and dive gear, its a drop in the bucket. With the killer display, fantastic functionality, ease of use, great visibility and logical menu structure, it is THE DC to get. I can't say enough great things about it! Spend the money and get the Teric. You will not be sorry that you did.
 
Does anyone know the procedure for long term storage? Would I need to charge it every so often, or can I turn it off and place it in its box until needed next dive season?
You can shut the Teric off completely and put it away. I am not sure if the battery use goes to literal zero, however, or whether there is some small residual use. Best off turning it off in the menu, and then making sure that you charge it or check it every 4 months or so until you know whether the battery is being drained. Shearwater cautions that allowing the battery to drain completely can damage the battery. $75 and a trip to the factory to change the battery, which with normal use is supposed to last about 5 years.
 
You can shut the Teric off completely and put it away. I am not sure if the battery use goes to literal zero, however, or whether there is some small residual use. Best off turning it off in the menu, and then making sure that you charge it or check it every 4 months or so until you know whether the battery is being drained. Shearwater cautions that allowing the battery to drain completely can damage the battery. $75 and a trip to the factory to change the battery, which with normal use is supposed to last about 5 years.
It does still discharge slowly in storage when shut off. I checked mine over 2 months and it went from 100% charge to 64% charge (stored turned off with AI setting turned off as well).
 
You should recharge every 4-6 months when not in use.

You should never go that long without diving. hehe
 
Having now clocked 50 dives on the Teric in the Red Sea, I still think that it is the best DC I have ever seen. two other divers on the liveaboards had Terics and both also spoke highly of them. A couple of minor annoyances that I noticed, but are default settings that are easily changeable, as is almost everything on the Teric. First, the default setting for the end of the dive is 1 minute. Thus, when I "turtled" during a night dive and went back down, it registered as two dives on the dive log. Changed the End of Dive Delay from 1 min. to 5 min. Problem solved. Also, if you go deeper than 100 ft. in OC Rec, the Teric by default requires a 5 min. safety stop. I went to 103 ft on two dives and was required to do a 5 min safety stop. At the time, I didn't know why the Teric was telling me to do a 5 min safety stop, and I was concerned that I had misbehaved. The default setting is changeable, but now that I know that I wasn't a bad boy, I left it as is. One additional good thing is that if you are in REC mode and you go into DECO or miss a safety stop, you are not locked out for 24 hours. Never happens to me, but something to consider if you mess up and don't switch gases from air to nitrox for example . . .After 50 dives with it, I am still a fanboy of the Teric!
 
I and my wife have used Oceanic Atom 3.1, Oceanic VT4 and a low level Suunto. because my wife now needs reading glasses, she could not use a wrist DC, and relied on her analog gauge. As a present before our month-long dive trip to the Red Sea (we are there now), and because she is the best wife/dive buddy anyone could ever ask for, and because she saw the Teric in action on another diver in April, I got one for her for our big trip. When it arrived, I was so jealous that, even though I was perfectly happy with my Oceanic Atom 3.1, I ordered one too. the Teric is literally the best DC since sliced bread!

1. Setup was a snap. Paired over bluetooth with my laptop and Shearwater cloud. Updated the firmware without a hitch. The menu is amazingly well-organized, and there is no need to go through all sorts of weird contortions and settings to set the default gases, colors, display size (big for my wife or standard for me). All are accessible by pushing one button and then scrolling up or down for Dive Settings, Gas, Bluetooth, Watch, Settings, etc. Completely intuitive. With my Oceanic, which was not bad, you had to press one button and hold it down until the second set of obtuse menus appeared, then scroll through things like "Set F", "Set U," to try to set your nitrox levels, etc. Not intuitive at all. The Teric has customizable format home screen, where you can put the info that you like, such as GTR and SAC, but by pushing the function button, you can switch between several screens with much more info. Updating the firmware is a snap. Just fire up Shearwater Cloud, turn on bluetooth on the watch, wait for it to be recognized by the laptop, and click "update firmware." Of note, the new firmware update allows you to get rid of "TTS," i.e., Time To Surface (not gas time remaining, but literally, how long it would take to get to the surface at 30ft/min), which to me was completely worthless. Works perfectly. TTS is now relegated to a back screen. For those who track their ascent rate, it shows in arrows in the upper right corner, along with the actual ft/min. rate. the arrows change from white to yellow to red depending on your ascent rate, making it easy to quickly see. Colors are changeable, and there are also built in color schemes. Brightness of the screen can be changed on the fly, High, Medium, Low and Off. I find that Medium works for me in all conditions.

2. Underwater. Fantastic. Everything you need. Paired immediately with my transmitter. Underwater, the display was fantastic and easy to read. I turned off all beeping alarms, and left just a couple of vibrating ones, which are easily felt through my 3 mm gloves. The compass works great, and is easily accessible by pushing the Function button (although the button can be customized for something else. The compass can be hidden so that it shows on the outside of the display so you can always see it without it blocking the display. I have now started using the compass all of the time and it has unerringly got me back to the boat when my wife and I were not with the group and visibility was not great, just by following the "dot." My wife has hers set like a disco, with pink, yellow, neon green. She has no problems reading the display at all and was the envy of everyone! I also like the way it displays "Safety Stop" in yellow with the countdown, and then says "Safety Cleared" in yellow when it is finished. Just little touches that are so cool.

3. Battery life. I find that using it for 5 dives a day, and then as a wristwatch, after a couple of days, I got down to about 26% battery, which is clearly displayed. Using the wireless charging station, on regular charge, it charged up from 26% to 70% in about an hour during a surface interval. On Quick Charge setting, it fully charged to 100% in about an hour. I found that each dive took about 4-5% of the battery, so there was plenty left at 26%. It worked great as a wristwatch as well. If you forgot your Teric charger stand, it supposedly is compatible with other Qi wireless chargers. The Teric comes with a nice compact and stiff hard case with foam inserts for travel, that holds the watch, charger, USB cable for the charging dock, and even a pair of screwdrivers for changing out the strap if you want to customize it (I got a pink strap for my wife).

Final thoughts. If you want the best, I really can't see how you can get any better than the Teric. at $1095, it is pricey, but how much more than another comparable DC? $400? For the amount we spend on diving and dive gear, its a drop in the bucket. With the killer display, fantastic functionality, ease of use, great visibility and logical menu structure, it is THE DC to get. I can't say enough great things about it! Spend the money and get the Teric. You will not be sorry that you did.
 
well said, I agree with this review. The Teric is that good!
 
I have been diving the Teric on a dive vacation in the Keys all week this week. Doing everything from deep wreck dives to shallow reef dives. It has been flawless. At least 2 dives everyday and sometimes 4 dives in a day. My old computer would have been going off with alarms of O2 toxicity (which has happened) cause of so many dives, even when something isn't wrong. But the Teric, has been flawless. 1 alarm so far, cause I broke my low tank pressure alarm I had set, as I reached the surface. I would highly recommend the Teric or any Shearwater products in a heartbeat. No dropped communication with the transmitter either. LOVE my Teric!!!
 
I broke my low tank pressure alarm I had set, as I reached the surface.
You might consider setting the reserve level to a value that includes the amount to ascend and do a safety stop. The GTR (gas time remaining) will then be the time you have at that depth until you have to leave. Basically a countdown to when the fun ends.
 
You might consider setting the reserve level to a value that includes the amount to ascend and do a safety stop. The GTR (gas time remaining) will then be the time you have at that depth until you have to leave. Basically a countdown to when the fun ends.

Yeah, it was. But I missed the perfect timing by a few seconds. The alarm buzzed about 30 seconds before I hit the surface. I see it as a "testing the alarm" scenario. LOL
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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