Well, just about three years ago, I picked up a Suunto Gekko from our LDS at their annual sale. It was a former rental unit in a console with the SPG and compass, and the Dive Shop takes pretty good care of their gear. On a dive trip the following October, it whacked out and decided I'd descended to over three hundred feet, and stayed down for almost a thousand minutes. The Dive Shop couldn't repair it, and because it had been a rental unit, it wasn't covered by the manufacturer's warranty. Our LDS made it good, though, and exchanged it for another Gekko.
Before our trip to Hawaii a few months, my wife got herself a console with a Gekko in it, and so, a couple of weeks ago, I was going to show her how to retrieve her dive data from it. She sat down with hers, and I sat down with mine, to go through the logs (I'd already recorded my dives, but figured it would be easier for me to talk her through it while looking at mine). Dang if mine wasn't responding at all. I thought maybe it was a low battery, but when I looked at it today, it hadn't shut itself off automatically like it was supposed to, and was recording another unbelievably epic dive.
I took it over to the Dive Shop, and they confirmed this was another case of the depth sensor failing and causing the computer to lock up. Apparently, Suunto recently figured out that exposure to pool chemicals can cause irreparable damage to the sensor, which becomes a failure waiting to happen. Having not known this previously, I'd used my reg set-up for our workplace Scuba Club's refresher course a few months ago.
I could have bought a new Zoop, which should have snapped right in place of the Gekko in the console, but our LDS is having a big sale right now. The Zoop would have been around $300, but the Aeris Atmos AI was down to $450. I dithered a bit on the money, before my wife asked if we had plenty in the account to cover it. She then told our LDS guy to ring it up.
Yeah, I'm blessed with an incredible wife.
And a new air-integrated computer, too. I'll get to use it when we go to the Big Island in a few months. We're planning on doing the Pelagic Magic dive with Jack's Dive Locker over there.
Hopefully, my wife's Gekko holds up better. At least we know now, to keep it away from the pool.
Before our trip to Hawaii a few months, my wife got herself a console with a Gekko in it, and so, a couple of weeks ago, I was going to show her how to retrieve her dive data from it. She sat down with hers, and I sat down with mine, to go through the logs (I'd already recorded my dives, but figured it would be easier for me to talk her through it while looking at mine). Dang if mine wasn't responding at all. I thought maybe it was a low battery, but when I looked at it today, it hadn't shut itself off automatically like it was supposed to, and was recording another unbelievably epic dive.
I took it over to the Dive Shop, and they confirmed this was another case of the depth sensor failing and causing the computer to lock up. Apparently, Suunto recently figured out that exposure to pool chemicals can cause irreparable damage to the sensor, which becomes a failure waiting to happen. Having not known this previously, I'd used my reg set-up for our workplace Scuba Club's refresher course a few months ago.
I could have bought a new Zoop, which should have snapped right in place of the Gekko in the console, but our LDS is having a big sale right now. The Zoop would have been around $300, but the Aeris Atmos AI was down to $450. I dithered a bit on the money, before my wife asked if we had plenty in the account to cover it. She then told our LDS guy to ring it up.
Yeah, I'm blessed with an incredible wife.
And a new air-integrated computer, too. I'll get to use it when we go to the Big Island in a few months. We're planning on doing the Pelagic Magic dive with Jack's Dive Locker over there.
Hopefully, my wife's Gekko holds up better. At least we know now, to keep it away from the pool.
