DIVE COMPUTERS

Computers are Cost Effective - Save You Money
It has long been recognized that a multilevel dive profile (spending part of a dive at a deep depth and the rest at a shallower depth) is far safer than a dive to a single deep depth. By using a computer while following a multilevel dive profile you will increase your allowable bottom time at the same time that you are increasing your personal safety. For instance a dive to 100 feet is limited to 20 minutes of bottom time according to the PADI Recreational Dive Planner. If you take this same dive and convert it to a multilevel dive you can increase your bottom time to over an hour. When you take into consideration the cost of going out on a dive boat, it does not take a mathematician to see that today's dive computer pays for itself in just a few dives.

Computers Increase Dive Safety
When you dive on the tables you calculate your dives as if you spent the entire dive at the maximum depth of that dive - regardless of how much time you actually spent at that depth.  When you dive with a computer it will calculate your depth throughout the dive.  Not only does that give you longer bottom times, it give you a more precise accounting for the amount of nitrogen you absorbed during the dive.  Consequently, the bottom times that a computer gives you are more accurate then the approximation that you get from the dive tables.

Types of Dive Computers:

No-Decompression Computers: Air or Nitrox
While at one time the air only computer was the most popular, today with the surge in popularity of Enriched Air Diving (Nitrox), computers that can calculate both no-decompression times and oxygen exposure (necessary when diving with Nitrox) are the norm. These computers offer all of the advantages of the air only computer but can also be set for various mixtures of Nitrox.

Air-Integrated Computers
Computers that encompass both a no-decompression computer and a computerized submersible pressure gauge or SPG are called air-integrated computers. These computers calculate not only no- decompression time but also remaining airtime based upon your current depth and air consumption. The extra information gives the diver an extra edge in both dive planning and dive safety. Air-integrated computers are available in models that either have a high pressure hose or are hose-less. 

The hose-less air-integrated computer uses a transmitter to send the information to a wrist or console receiver. The lack of a high-pressure hose adds to greater dexterity on the part of the diver.

Regardless of which air integrated dive computer you select you have an extra degree of safety. You are much less likely to run low or out of air since the computer monitors your air consumption for you and even offers alarms to warn you should you start to run low.