Charles Hood tests the Mares Nemo   |
Mares Nemo air dive computer • £449.95; with compass module: £499.95
I’m a big fan of gas-integrated computers for recreational diving. It’s simply one less gauge to monitor, and one less potential point of failure – having all your diving information on one display is a good thing. So when Mares announced that it had added gas integration to its existing Nemo computer, we just had to test it.
To recap, we tested the standard Nemo back in April 2007 and liked it. It is simple to get to grips with: to access the computer’s settings, you simply scroll through a top-level menu until you reach the desired parameter, then the plus and minus buttons select the sub-menu. It’s easy and quick to learn.
In essence, the Nemo Air is exactly the same, except with the gas integration added. The gas information is displayed on the left side of the monitor in a small separate section and tells you the current cylinder pressure, how much remaining breathing time you have at your current breathing rate, and current gas consumption. In line with other Mares computers, it uses the Mares-Wienke Reduced Gradient Bubbles Model (RGBM) algorithm, which takes into account the phenomenon of micro-bubbles in order to prevent their formation. During a side-by-side comparison of eight dives to a maximum depth of 30m and up to an hour in duration, I found the no-stop times to be almost identical to the Suunto RGBM algorithm.
The display itself is fairly typical of the computers on the market and displays no-stop time, current and maximum depth, temperature and stop information including countdown of both deep and safety stops. When you reach you reserve gas pressure, it displays a huge ‘DANGER’ alert right across the bottom of the unit – this is somewhat unnerving, but if it prevents a single person from running out of gas, it can’t be a bad thing. Other features to note are user-replaceable batteries, nitrox capability (up to 50 per cent), a 60-hour logbook, plenty of audible alarms, and altitude and freshwater settings.
In practice, this is a good all-round computer that is easy to set up and use. My only gripe – and this is true of many other computers currently on the market – is that if you set it to ‘air’ and take it on a dive, then subsequently want to dive with nitrox, you have to wait until it completely clears, often up to 48 hours, until you can do so. I recommend that anyone who regularly uses nitrox should keep this computer in nitrox mode all the time, using a 21 per cent mix for air diving.
For travelling to and from a dive site, the computer can be disconnected from the high-pressure hose with a simple quarter turn of the bayonet fitting. This allows you to protect it from bangs and knocks – especially useful if you are RIB diving, or when carrying it in hand luggage when travelling overseas, for instance.
With an optional compass, the console is a bit on the chunky side so needs to be kept under control underwater. This can be achieved quite easily by attaching a snap hook to one of the two fixing loops, and ensures that you don’t bash any coral.
Back on dry land, I examined the logbook function, which shows a vast array of information including your average gas consumption. If you wish, you can examine the whole dive in 20-second intervals. In reality, the Nemo Air should be called the Nemo Gas, as it monitors more than just air alone.
DIVE says…
A good gas-integrated all-rounder that is easy to use
Value 7
Performance 8
Contact
Mares • 01539 724740 • http://www.mares.com