Oceanic Veo 2.0 - Personal Dive Computer - Battery Life


When I first got into diving selecting the best computer for my needs was probably one of the harder decisions to make. Why might you ask? Simply put there are to many choices! In a way that's good because it promotes competition and drives technology forward. On the other hand, when there are so many good choices out on the market, it makes you reluctant to purchase since you want to get the best bang for your buck.

I knew from the get go I didn't want or need anything fancy. My search criteria was pretty simple. First it must be a basic computer that reports depth, time, and deco status. Next it must be able to perform gauge mode. I wanted a computer with a pretty liberal algorithm. Last, I wanted an optional PC interface so I could analyze my dive profiles at home. After many hours of research and comparing I finally broke it down to two computers. The Oceanic Veo 2.0 and the Suunto Vyper. I ended up going with the Oceanic Veo 2.0 because of it's Dual Algorithm feature.

Ever since I completed Open Water I've been diving like a mad man! I've only been certified for 6 weeks and I already have 46 dives under my belt. At about week 4 I noticed the battery symbol illuminated and I thought that was interesting since Oceanic claims that the Veo 2.0 is capable of 300 dive hours on a single CR2450 battery. Those 300 "dive" hours of battery life are estimated on a full-capacity battery with the following usage. Oceanic claims 7 days per week, 2 dives per day, 1 hour dive time, 2 hour surface interval, and 18 hours from the last dive to the first on the next day. That pretty much sums up my dive activity if we substitute Oceanic's 2 dives per day with my more realistic 1 dive per day with an occasional 2 dive day on the weekends.

Looking through my dive log I'm no where close to 300 dive hours. If I had to roughly guess I'd say I'm at about 50 hours of dive time as of today. For the next two weeks I continued to use the computer curious as to how long the battery would last. I decided to finally replace it as I'm starting to do more night dives and want to use the backlit LCD feature. The Oceanic Veo 2.0 will not allow the backlight to be used if the battery is running low.

Replacing the battery is an interesting process. It involves using a special key to unlock a retaining ring. After removing that you then have to remove the water tight plastic seal. This gives you access to yet another battery retaining bar and an o-ring. Oceanic claims in their instruction manual that no tools are necessary once you remove the initial retaining ring with the provided key but I can report that this is not true. I'd like to believe that I'm mechanically inclined but there was no way in hell I was going to remove the water tight plastic seal without the help of a pointed object, in my case a jewelers screw driver. Oceanic warns against this in bold print but I'm telling you, there was no way this seal was coming off without the help a pointed object. I was extremely cautious not to damage, scratch, or mar any of the components as this needs to be water tight after all is said and done. Remember do this at your own risk!

The Oceanic Veo 2.0 comes from the factory with a Panasonic CR2450 3 volt battery made in Indonesia. I replaced it with an Energizer 2450 3 volt battery made in Japan. I'm curious as to how long the new battery will last. I'm hoping for 300 hours of dive time but we'll see. In reality I'm guessing I'll see another 50 hours of run time. Make sure you lubricate the o-ring with a silicone grease as recommended by the manufacture when reassembling the computer. I used some o-ring grease from my underwater camera maintenance kit and after the first dive I'm happy to report no leaks. We'll see how long this new battery lasts. Happy diving!

Oceanic Veo 2.0

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