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D3 Reliability Poll

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

What's your D3 experience?

  • No Problems :D

    Votes: 39 68.4%
  • Problems - but now I'm satisfied :)

    Votes: 6 10.5%
  • Problems - I'm quite unsatisfied :(

    Votes: 7 12.3%
  • Proud owner of a $220 paper weight :vangry

    Votes: 5 8.8%

  • Total voters
    57
There is also a very long strap that comes with some of the Uwatec depth gauges. I abuse it for my diving watch and it is by far long enough to use it over the drysuit so I guess it should work for a D3, too. It can be bought as spare part too. It might not be very cheap but it is the best solution I came across so far. As soon as I get my Scanner working I'll post a pic.

Veronika
 
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A dive buddy who is concentrating on no-fins has taken to putting the D3 on top of his head inside his hood and this seems to work well for hearing the depth alarm! He did 60m+ last week using this approach.

Andy
 
That's right!! ....although it is an unofficial record remember, I wouldn't take anything away from the record holder's success under record rules, conditions, and more importantly pressures/stress. Great effort though and hopefully we will see him have a go at the record officially this year.

Andy
 
Yeah I know what you are saying.....hopefully he'll pipe up himself to talk about it as he is an active DB member......not for me to say who it is sorry, but I am really excited for him
 
Andy,

Give him our regards! I can understand if he wants to keep it under wraps for now...

Looking forward to another WR attempt in unassisted. In spite of the fact that I can't dive unassisted very well, it just seems like the purest form of freediving. It's so inspiring to watch!

Cheers,
Aaron
 
I have been looking at buying a D3 - I read this then decided to write to suunto :

++++++++++++++++++
Hi
I am considering buying a D3 but have been reading about various issues during my research on the web. It would seem that the following issues apply :

1 - the alarm is not loud enough
2 - the light is not strong enough
3 - the Velcro strap is poor
4 - there are reliability issues, for example :
[ame]http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?s=2130eecbfac367d9ede6a07411[/ame]
71938a&threadid=39050

I was wondering if you were addressing these or were thinking of bringing out a new and improved version of the D3 ? Or should I buy a Mosquito instead.

Your strapline is "Suunto - Replacing Luck" - I am hoping that the D3 or Mosquito will be reliable !

I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Ed
+++++++++++++++++++++++

This is one reply :

=========

Dear Ed,

The Mosquito and D3 use exactly the same platform so there is no difference between them in the physical characteristics. The only difference is that D3 obviously does not have the SCUBA modes.

The question you raise regarding the volume of the buzzer and the intensity of the backlight are not something that I can advise you on. The best thing to do would be to go to your local dive shop and look at a unit and determine for youself whether they are suitable for your needs as this is a personal judgement. As far as I am aware we have not had any complaints about the backlight brightness and I personally have never had a problem hearing the alarm even while wearing a hood.

We no longer supply the D3 with the neoprene/velcro strap as the standard in UK - it comes with the elastomer strap that is fitted on Mosquito.

The returns on D3 are very small although of course as with all products from any manufacturer there are always individual cases which we try to address as quickly as possible.

I hope this helps.
Regards
[name withheld]


++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Thought it might interest some here ...
 
I just bought a D3 and so far an very happy with it! I wear it on my wrist of the hand that I'm equalizing with and I can hear it very well even through the 6.5mil hood of my Supercomp suit.

One thought for those of you that cant hear the alarm. I was talking to Kirk Krack last week at our competition that we had here, and he said that Mandy wears her D3 on her upper arm so that while diving it's right beside her ear.

Mine came with the polymer strap and a strap extender... maybe they are listening!

Aaron
 
I can hear my (new) mosquito 95% of the time. I have yet to miss an alarm on a target dive, I think I missed one or 2 on recreational dives.

I do wear a hood. And I actually wear the mosquito on my none-equalizing hand (would've changed if I didn't hear it).
I wear it directly on my skin (fold the end of the sleeve of the suit), and not too tight, that might be the reason that I hear it, maybe neopren dampen the alarm a bit.
I compared my alarm to an older mosquito which the owner of complained to never hear it just incase it's battary or age dependant, but they sound identical in strength.

Maybe it's possible to find some metal piece of some sort and connect it to the mosquito/d3 and get a better resonance... I'll leave that for the desperate though.

I am very happy with my mosquito so far.
 
"Mandy wears her D3 on her upper arm so that while diving it's right beside her ear. "


mandy_after_cbnf.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: portinfer
Try deeper blue shop. the link is at the top most of the page. :)

Edit: I guess it was 220$ when the thread was posted. Euro went up quite alot sicne then, but I'm pretty sure it was 220$ at some point in the past.
 
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what was the website of suunto? I want to read the manual for the proerties of the watch before buying it.

By the way how many dive it stores in it? and can you erase them manually?
 
Murat - it is http://www.suunto.com/suunto/main/index.jsp or just use the suunto.com url.

I bought a Mosquito and am very happy with it - like Michael/DeepThought I wear it on the skin in a dip between the neoprene. Works well for me but like th eidea of Mandy above wearing it high up on the arm - might not work for blokes...
Cheers
Ed
 
  • Like
Reactions: Murat
Ed, you are supposed to use the extension strap for that. I don't think Mandy is anorexic. :)

Though it might not work with that either, didn't really check.
 
Thanks portfinder, i already found it and my d3 came with english manual. However there are some things that i could not understand about the memory system. I wonder if its 1st or 2nd generation and e-mailed suunto to ask them what is all about but they told me that they don't have specific generation for d3s. According to the numbers on the back of the watch mine produced at 2003 12th week.:confused:
 
D3 keeps resetting

My D3 is about a month old.... every time i go diving it resets the time/date and log.... recently it started to reset when i was not even in the water.

Its a fantastic instrument when its working !

regards

Nesim
 
Nesim - are you rinsing properly ? Salt water dries with bad consequences. The salt crystals dry out and form concrete like accretions.

Need to keep the watch wet from when you finish diving - ie out of the water put it in a jar or water (fresh or salt) until you can get it home.

Once home fill a bucket / sink with cold fresh water. Place the watch in it and swoosh around vigourously for at least 60 continous seconds. Pull plug, repeat.

I press the buttons too as I think that this helps with the movement of water.

Once it is rinsed like this - dry it with a T-shirt / towel and leave to air for a long time (a few hours - water can take ages to dry on the button undersides etc).

This should help. Failing that it might be worth considering a Mosquito. I read the reviews of the D3 and decided on the Mosquito for this reason.

Hope this helps - Ed
 
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