D3 Reliability Poll

[unirdna]

I finally ordered myself a D3. Obviously, I'm very excited. But I'd also know what kind of reliability to expect. I browsed all the old threads, and read a lot of good, and a little bad. So instead of guessing what to expect, I'll just put it to the poll.

For those who own one, please share your experience.

Ted

 

[Bill]

Aloha Ted
I'm probably not a normal customer but, since you ask. Had to be the first to have one and finally got it from Singapore at premium price plus the most overpriced shipping company. They volunteered to pay $15 duty and charged another 15 to cover the cost of collecting it. The next week, Blue Water Hunter (at the bottom of my street) had them for a better price. How's that for a start?
The computer is great except it doesn't always turn on when it's supposed to. Easy enough to switch to free before important dives or turn it on during the dive. With the count up/down and one second sampler, I was glad to trade my Mosquito in.
It's been spoiled with a bath in warm, fresh water as soon as I get out and never used with out the guard. The battery change was a piece of cake. Great little toy. It'd be a hard choice between the D3 and my C4's (oops, just kidding).
Bill

 

[ash]

No problems with my D3, I think it's an excellent unit.

I am very careful to rinse it thoroughly in fresh water after an ocean session. The first battery change was done recently and it was cheap and easy.

Ash

 

[AltSaint]

My D3 was the first piece of freedive equipment I bought, and I have been very pleased with it.

Only dislikes are:

a) The velcro sports strap, and
b) The dive alarm isn't loud enough

I also have just changed my battery after 1 year. I'm probably the only person who has made this mistake, but I thought the battery cover needed several turns to unscrew it. It doesn't. After turning about 30 degrees, it can't go any further, and needs to be lifted out.

 

[Alun]

i've had no problems with mine either, and don't know anyone who has had problems.

i knew the velcro strap was a bad idea, so i ordered mine with a Mosquito style elastomer strap for no extra charge... much better.

 

[Jon]

Ted,

You were with me when mine died- started reading 18' before we even hit the water. Acutally, that was the same day I let you use my Stinger and that one died at the same time.

Aqualung replaced my D-3 and I haven't had any problems with it since then. I also had the batteries changed on the Stinger and have had no further problems with that one.

Jon

 

[bluecape]

Hiya Ted

Have had absolutely no problems with my D3. Have to agree with Alun on the velcro strap issue however, I changed my strap to a standard badger dive strap, and is now great. My D3 is so user friendly, I am able to take in any info I need on a dive in a few seconds, ie, max. depth, temprature, max bottom time etc etc. (And you can obviously choose what you want to be reading on the face all the time.) My first action when leaving the water is to rinse my D3 in fresh water, I really believe thats key to avoiding hassles down the line.

Have fun !

Jeff

 

[Alun]

that's a point....

i always dive in freshwater and never rinse my D3 (don't really need to)...

i wonder if salt water freedivers tend to have more problems than fresh water freedivers?... that may explain the different experiences people have had.

 

[Jon]

My D-3 has only been in freshwater. My Stinger has been in both. My first D-3 gave me more problems than my Stinger ever has.

My Stinger is actually the second-generation dive watch from Sunnto. My first one, the Spyder, gave me LOTS of problems and I upgraded it to the Stinger as soon as I could.

Dive computers are like everything else, the first couple of generations always have more bgs in them than the later ones do.

I know that I have whined about my Sunnto Solution dive computer on here befrore, but it was the biggest P.O.S. that I ever bought! It gave out on me more times than I can even count- and I can count up to 21 in the shower. IT was sent back 4 times and replaced twice. Later generations of the same computer didn't have nearly the reliability problems that mine did, and mine was used in fresh water 95% of the time.

Jon

 

[fjohnson]

just a word of caution on using the plastic cover/magnifier that comes with it.. the only time my mosquito got a scratch on the face was when something (maybe a grain of sand) must have gotten under that cover... I never use the cover anymore... and no more scatches either. replaced batteries myself on the Mosquito.. no problems and it has another full season on it.. no problems at all with the D3 either. good choice in my opinion.
Did have some faulty readings one time with the mosquito but figure it must have been that the fella wearing it had it too tight around his meaty wrist.. (didn't kick in until deeper depths) never had trouble since, and this was almost a year ago. Instructions are to wear it loose enough to slip your finger under the strap.
Fred

 

[Bill]

"21 in the shower"

Good one Jon. I guess I've always been digitally challenged in more ways than one. For a long time I could only count to 10 but, when my daughter went to kindergarten I learned how to get to 99 on my fingers. Now they teach you to count to 1023..

Aloha
Bill

 

[Uli]

Depth and time alarm not load enough

Hi,

I had read in some thread that the dive alarm is not very loud. I bought the D3 nonetheless, because I thought if one wears the D3 on the hand used for equalization, the distance ear-watch will only be 20 cm or so, and this way one simply cannot overhear the alarm. Wrong! :naughty
(Only if the D3 is held next to the ear, I was able to hear it through a 5 mm hood. Otherwise I have normal hearing btw...)

I wrote to Suunto, whether one is supposed to implant the thing in the middle ear, but never received an answer.

Suunto would never get away with an alarm like that if it was a computer for SCUBA. It seems that only we freedivers are stupid enough to buy it anyway (out of lack of alternatives).
:duh

I like the dive profile feature, though. So not everything is bad.
But never ever rely on the dive alarm. :naughty

Cheers
Uli

 

[Chefkoch]

I have a Mosquito since last December, and I'm not at all pleased with its reliability.
The depth sensor seems screwed up, it often reads 10-25m of depth while I didn't even plunge into water.....
Then again it sometimes shows 0.0m while im at the bottom of our pool (5m).
I've sent mine back and hope it won't take too long untill I get a new one.

 

[Longfins]

I had this problem a while back when my D3 would stop turning on automatically to freedive mode when I make a dive - I would have to put it into freedive mode manually beforehand otherwise the dive would not be recorded. After playing with this and that I removed the battery, grounded the contacts, and reinstalled the battery. The problem went away and hasn't recurred since. It may have been some residual charge on a capacitor that did not discharge properly.

Anyone had a similar problem and want to try this trick to see if it works?

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

A couple of data points ...

I got a Mosquito a year and a half ago and dived it regularly for a year. Last spring shortly after achieving a depth PB in a Performance Freediving clinic (but a trivial depth to most of you), it abruptly gave up the ghost. I took it back to the store where I bought it and had a new replacement in a week.

Meanwhile I bought a D3 around that time (six months ago) and have been using that rather than the Mosquito. I did notice that one pushbutton acted up for a little yesterday after I used it in gauge mode on an infrequent scuba dive. However, after rinsing it thoroughly it's back to normal.

I think the Mosquito may have bitten the dust in part because I got a little lax on post-dive freshwater rinses. I now religiously pop the D3 into a small tupperware tub of water right after getting out of the water.

Having used the standard watchband on the Mosquito and trying the neoprene strap on the D3, I actually have to say I like the neoprene. I'd be interested to hear what kind of problems or hassles people have had with it.

 

[ash]

Originally posted by Frank O'Donnell
Having used the standard watchband on the Mosquito and trying the neoprene strap on the D3, I actually have to say I like the neoprene. I'd be interested to hear what kind of problems or hassles people have had with it.

I ordered mine with the neoprene strap because I wanted to keep the D3 on my wrist if one of the strap pins broke.

The neoprene strap just seems to move around a lot. Get it tight enough that it doesn’t move and it feels too tight on my wrist. Get it just right on the surface and it's way too loose at depth when the wetsuit compresses. Set it at depth and it's too tight again on the surface.

It's not terrible to deal with but it is a bit of a distraction and an irritation in what is otherwise a good instrument. Some may not notice this movement at all?

I think I'll be replacing it with the standard strap in the future and making a plan to ensure I keep the D3 if a pin lets go. The pins are very strong compared to a normal watchstrap but if one of those tiny screws worked itself loose...bye bye D3.

Ash

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

Originally posted by ash
I think I'll be replacing it with the standard strap in the future and making a plan to ensure I keep the D3 if a pin lets go. The pins are very strong compared to a normal watchstrap but if one of those tiny screws worked itself loose...bye bye D3.

I was in a dive shop that carried some kind of after-market strap that claimed to overcome the problem of a pin coming off on a dive watch. Unfortunately I don't recall the brand or product name, or much of any detail on how it worked.

One diver friend who's partial to bungee cord to affix wrist instruments is thinking of taking the pins and strap off his Mosquito entirely, and seeing if he can thread bungee cord through the holes that the pins normally seat into.

 

[ash]

Originally posted by Frank O'Donnell
I was in a dive shop that carried some kind of after-market strap that claimed to overcome the problem of a pin coming off on a dive watch. Unfortunately I don't recall the brand or product name, or much of any detail on how it worked.

Howdy Frank

I have used that sort of strap before (if we're on the same wavelength) on my Citizen dive watch and I have one at the moment on the Casio I use to time my swimming sessions.

It runs the strap under both pins, so that if one pin comes off or breaks, the watch is still fixed to the strap.

The only hassle I have with these straps is that they don't stretch like the rubber strap that comes with the D3. I figure I'll just glue a length of material between the 2 parts of the elastic strap when I get one, so I'll end up with the same effect in terms of keeping the D3 on my wrist.

Call me paranoid but I know of too many people who have lost their watches on a dive or in the water

Ash

 

[Bill]

That chewing sound you hear is yours truly working on a piece of humble pie.
Thanks for the hint Fred. After reading your comments it dawned on me that my problems started when I reversed my wet suit top and put the nylon on the inside. I guess that that plus a too tight strap was all that was wrong. I rolled up my sleeve and put the D3 on my bare wrist, a little loose. It worked just like the book said today.
Ain't this forum great.
Aloha
Bill

 

[Alun]

"The pins are very strong compared to a normal watchstrap but if one of those tiny screws worked itself loose...bye bye D3."

solution.... yes, get the elastomer strap. then make a little neoprene sleeve for your D3 - out of 3mm neoprene.... basically a cylindrical piece of neoprene which fits snuggly over your D3 and is about 3" wide. you then cut a 1" circular hole in the sleeve which is positioned over the face of the D3. the sleeve protects your D3 strap and will keep it on your wrist even if the strap were to break somehow...
i hope i've explained that clearly.