Are Suunto Zoops super conservative?

[loady]

No idea. The manual says three settings of conservative-ness. I'm not a math guy!

 

[Umuntu]

Two weeks ago I dove both the mares puck pro and suunto zoop novo, at the same time on 17 dives.
I was on nitrox, from 28-32% O2.
That's what the boat provided.
The mares has three algorithms from more liberal to more conservative. I found that on all three, I had much less no decompression time then on the Suunto. With both computers set to the same mix and both on my arm each dive, the mares was reading up to 25 min. Less time no deco time. That's strange because I've read that Suunto has a very strict conservative algorithm. Is this normal? Should I send the mares in for an evaluation? Or could the Suunto been on the liberal setting?

Mares is more conservative than SUUNTO.

SUUNTO and TUSA are the most liberal implementations of the RGBM algorithm among the major manufacturers. As shown on the chart below.

Source: http://www.oceanicuk.com/dual-algorithm

 

[tursiops]

Mares is more conservative than SUUNTO.

SUUNTO and TUSA are the most liberal implementations of the RGBM algorithm among the major manufacturers. As shown on the chart below.

View attachment 438905

Source: http://www.oceanicuk.com/dual-algorithm

According to some other threads, that chart is not showing what you think it shows.

 

[KenGordon]

Two weeks ago I dove both the mares puck pro and suunto zoop novo, at the same time on 17 dives.
I was on nitrox, from 28-32% O2.
That's what the boat provided.
The mares has three algorithms from more liberal to more conservative. I found that on all three, I had much less no decompression time then on the Suunto. With both computers set to the same mix and both on my arm each dive, the mares was reading up to 25 min. Less time no deco time. That's strange because I've read that Suunto has a very strict conservative algorithm. Is this normal? Should I send the mares in for an evaluation? Or could the Suunto been on the liberal setting?

NDL is a terrible measure of conservatism. It only reflects the current likely leading tissue and then because of how limits are approached it over emphasises differences.

Quite a lot of what you see written about dive computers is complete rubbish. Read enough posts and you will find that each brand has particular people who are fans and particular people who hate them. Suunto is a particular whipping boy.

It is vey unlikely your computer is faulty. It is much more likely that people you have read have exaggerated the behaviour of Suunto computers.

 

[tursiops]

As stated in one of the other threads @loady has posted in, he should look at the altitude settings of his Mares.

 

[scubadada]

Two weeks ago I dove both the mares puck pro and suunto zoop novo, at the same time on 17 dives.
I was on nitrox, from 28-32% O2.
That's what the boat provided.
The mares has three algorithms from more liberal to more conservative. I found that on all three, I had much less no decompression time then on the Suunto. With both computers set to the same mix and both on my arm each dive, the mares was reading up to 25 min. Less time no deco time. That's strange because I've read that Suunto has a very strict conservative algorithm. Is this normal? Should I send the mares in for an evaluation? Or could the Suunto been on the liberal setting?

If they were both set on approximately the same setting, i.e. most liberal, I would think they would be pretty close in NDL, as both are relatively conservative deco algorithms. One explanation for the Mares being more conservative is the altitude setting. This might happen in two different ways. If the pressure sensor is faulty, it may be registering incorrectly if the adjustment is automatic. If the adjustment is manual, it may simply be set incorrectly. For the former, if you have a table of NDLs in your owner's manual, you can check the computer via the planning function to see if the NDLs match. I had an Oceanic ProPlus with a faulty pressure sensor and the NDLs no longer matched the table, considerably shorter. For the latter, you can just check the setting.

 

[tursiops]

One explanation for the Mares being more conservative is the altitude setting. This might happen in two different ways. If the pressure sensor is faulty, it may be registering incorrectly if the adjustment is automatic. If the adjustment is manual, it may simply be set incorrectly. For the former, if you have a table of NDLs in your owner's manual, you can check the computer via the planning function to see if the NDLs match.

I don't think the Puck Pro manual has such a table in it.

 

[scubadada]

I don't think the Puck Pro manual has such a table in it.

I believe you are correct, I don't think any of the RGBM computer manuals have any NDL tables, not sure exactly why. I'm only familiar with Oceanic, they have table for both DSAT and PZ+ in the back of every manual. I can only guess they do not want folks comparing their NDLs with other algorithms. First dive NDLs at the most liberal setting would be extremely easy to list.

 

[Umuntu]

According to some other threads, that chart is not showing what you think it shows.

I have read those other threads.

I have also seen the post where a certain poster claims the graph (a previous version with a typo) as his own work.

Its a single dive profile showing NDLs. I can't help it if some readers are too thick (or pretend to be) to understand a fairly simple single dive NDL graph.

If you want a multi-dive comparison, look at the following article. About 8 years old, but still largely valid.

A sense of algorithm


.

 

[scubadada]

I have read those other threads.

I have also seen the post where a certain poster claims the graph (a previous version with a typo) as his own work.

Its a single dive profile showing NDLs. I can't help it if some readers are too thick (or pretend to be) to understand a fairly simple single dive NDL graph.

.

Agree, the details of the graphic are obscure, but the relative performance of the algorithms is clear and consistent with other sources