You lost me, what is RTFM? All I know is my bottom time got down to about 4 minutes and yellow block was around my NDL, I know I didn't go into deco because I never have, so it was my assumption that it was being conservative since I got close to running out my NDL? It has happened 3 or 4 times
T, most recreationally oriented dive computers, like Oceanics, have
very aggressive settings out of the box. You can change this, usually, by using "a conservative factor" to increase conservatism (i.e., shorter bottom times). Being aimed a non-technical market, you usually have to read the manual to find out exactly how the computer is doing this (by pretending you are diving at a higher altitude is common and what the Oceanics do).
The Teric, having its roots in technical diving, comes with more conservative settings enabled but it allows you to adjust those. It uses what are called "gradient factors" to allow you to adjust the conservatism. For recreational diving, the only one that really matters is the second number, the GF High. There's a lot of information on this forum about what gradient factors are and how they work.
Really, really boiling it down (and only in a recreational context) the GF High number is what is going to define the amount of bottom time you get. Most recreational computers, being aggressive out of the box, equate to a GF High of something like 95, which is 95% of the surfacing pressure gradient allowed by the Buhlmann model being run by the computer. Your Teric probably comes preset at 80 or 85, which means it is being more conservative, keeping you at 85% of the theoretical limit rather than 95%. You can change that. Whether you should or not is up to you. Those limits are theoretical, not a guarantee you won't get bent and diving to 100% of the limit is generally not considered prudent.
There are plenty of good resources on what gradient factors are and how they work and learning about them is well worth the time investment. The Teric is a great computer and using gradient factors is helpful in taking advantage of its capabilities.
I, too, have an Oceanic computer in addition to my Shearwaters. I really just use the oceanic as a watch and/or bottom timer now, but sometimes I leave it in computer mode just for fun. I'm often into deco (planned) on the Shearwaters while my Oceanic gives me plenty of remaining NDL.
I don't mind doing an extra 2 minutes, I am in no hurry and very lazy, like most good divers.
