Shearwater Teric vs. Perdix

[applecorps]

Hi applecorps.

If you are the photo pro that I’m thinking of, we’ve met before on the big green boat in Jupiter, and you showed me around your studio. I don’t recall if Shearwater recommended the specific charger that I acquired, but I’ve been using a basic one under the Choetech brand for about a year now with no problem.

Cool! Question: Does the Choetech work the same as the cradle from Shearwater or does it provide a trickle charge at all? I'm looking for a charger that will not allow the Teric to discharge while still sitting in or on the charger. Many thanks!

 

[OceanEyes]

I don’t really know the answer to your question applecorps. I use the Shearwater cradle while I’m at home, and the Choetech when traveling. (One less item to pack.) I just took my Teric off of the cradle an hour or so ago, but will use the wireless pad the next time I need to charge it and observe the battery status on the Teric, and see if I notice any drain after charging completes.

 

[applecorps]

Thanks! I'm going to try the Choetech. The cradle permits or causes the Teric to lose battery charge level once the green light starts flashing and the actual charging is complete. Don't know if that is a defect in the cradle or not so it would be good to know your experience before I make any assumptions.

 

[azstinger11]

So just to add something to this. My wife and I both have Terics. We used a Belkin flat charger. Both of our Teric batteries ended up malfunctioning (my wife's Teric battery ended up getting puffy enough to distort the case) mine never got puffy but a single day of diving would take the battery from 100-15% battery life. Shearwater ended up replacing both Terics with brand new ones, they initially did a battery swap on them both but both Terics ended up with malfunctions shortly thereafter (depth/temperature sensor failure on both, with 2 very different failure models). When we talked to Shearwater they said the initially battery issue was very likely caused by the flat charger. Apparently they have a list of ones they sort of unofficially recommend but outside of that list it apparently isn't really recommended (which I think is counter to what the instruction manual says). I don't recall the exact conversation but it was something to the effect that the flat chargers were more or less designed for cell phones and were just putting out too much of a charge too quickly which had some rather terrible consequences for the small Teric battery. That more or less jives with what I know of the subject but I'm certainly no expert. In the end they highly recommended only using the included charger.

With the new Terics I haven't seen any odd behavior using the supplied charging cradle.

 

[applecorps]

Interesting. I, too, had a Teric that would not completely charge and Shearwater replaced it immediately. My current Teric works very good but, as I said before, discharges while properly resting in the charging cradle, once the solid green light (charging) turns to flashing green light which supposedly means that it's fully charged. When I brought this to the tech dept, they acknowledged the problem and claimed that, eventually, the "firmware" problem would be updated resolving that problem. However, they had no idea when such an update might be released. In the meantime, I have to place my Teric in the cradle the morning that I'm diving in order to get it up to near fully charged prior to leaving my home. I've told Shearwater that this problem is likely widely known and can't be good for their marketing efforts. Still waiting for it to be resolved.

 

[Larryjd1]

You wrote: "When I contacted Shearwater, they wrote me that they were aware of the problem and recommended a wireless charger to purchase." Please tell me which wireless charger Shearwater recommended. Thanks!

Here is the direct wording from the email Shearwater Support sent me:

"We are aware of the seating issue with the Teric charger, if this is an issue I'd suggest purchasing a third party charger such as the one in the following link:
https://www.amazon.ca/Wireless-CHOETECH-Certified-Compatible-Qi-Enabled/dp/B00C40OG22"

When I wrote back to them asking why I should have to buy a third party charger rather than them sending me one that worked properly, the response I received was:

"The issue you are describing will not be fixed with a replacement, it is simply the way that the Teric sits in the cradle especially if it is seated on a tilted or uneven surface."

Again, I had the same issue that the charger would flash green before my Teric was fully charged. Once I used the rubber band to hold it in place during charger I have not had a re-occurence.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I have a Petrel2 and a Teric. Been using them together for a few weeks. I'm starting to prefer the Teric, I like the layout and ease of setup and gas switches better. The Petrel has a bigger screen. Not sure if I'll keep both or not. I'm only using the Teric as a dive computer as a have a smart watch and it wont do the things above water that will.

 

[applecorps]

Here is the direct wording from the email Shearwater Support sent me:

"We are aware of the seating issue with the Teric charger, if this is an issue I'd suggest purchasing a third party charger such as the one in the following link:
https://www.amazon.ca/Wireless-CHOETECH-Certified-Compatible-Qi-Enabled/dp/B00C40OG22"

When I wrote back to them asking why I should have to buy a third party charger rather than them sending me one that worked properly, the response I received was:

"The issue you are describing will not be fixed with a replacement, it is simply the way that the Teric sits in the cradle especially if it is seated on a tilted or uneven surface."

Again, I had the same issue that the charger would flash green before my Teric was fully charged. Once I used the rubber band to hold it in place during charger I have not had a re-occurence.

Thanks. I'm going to try the CHOETECH charger at the following link. Again, my primary complaint is that the Teric actually discharges fairly rapidly when left in the cradle after a full charge and with the green light blinking. I had assumed that it would maintain the near full charge as any "trickle charge" would tend to do. Will let you know after I try the CHOETECH charger:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013AB620C/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[outofofficebrb]

While Shearwater has great customer service, the potential battery charging issues or battery failure/issues of the Teric on a trip would make me really nervous because there’s likely nothing you can do about it while out there no matter how good their customer service is. I spend a lot of time and money on my trips and am usually on a liveaboard most of the time I dive. Given the differences I shared between the 2, I still believe I made the right choice for myself getting a PAI instead of the Teric.

 

[applecorps]

While Shearwater has great customer service, the potential battery charging issues or battery failure/issues of the Teric on a trip would make me really nervous because there’s likely nothing you can do about it while out there no matter how good their customer service is. I spend a lot of time and money on my trips and am usually on a liveaboard most of the time I dive. Given the differences I shared between the 2, I still believe I made the right choice for myself getting a PAI instead of the Teric.

Good point. At the same time, I never travel without at least one backup dive computer.