Quote Originally Posted by a64pilot View Post
Not to be argumentative with you, but once is not enough to establish a pattern, As long as I only have one scooter, I won't allow myself to get into a position to where loss of it would be anything more than an annoyance, probably be that way with two of them too.
Anything man made can fail, can in fact be counted on to fail eventually, even SLA battery scooters as there is more to a scooter than a battery, the reed switch and or the motor could fail, actually with a brushed motor all it would take would be for a brush to stick, shoot even the prop could fall off. I'm pretty sure my failure wasn't actually the battery, but an electronic failure, but that has not been absolutely established, yet. I carry a spare mask, and a bunch of lights and a complete separate source of breathing gas, why not a spare scooter?
I'm not smart enough to calculate it, but it, but if one assumes scooter failure to be a 1 in a 100 event, the odds of having both scooters fail on one dive is calculable. Is that a word? Then determine just how much of the dive would be at risk if the scooter failed anyway. BTW, when mine failed, even if I had been by myself and had lost 1/2 of my remaining gas, I would have made it out.
Point is I guess, I'm not willing to get into the water with 200 lbs of scooters in the hope that their big old batteries increase the level of safety.
SLAB batteries in scooters have gone the way of point and condensers in automotive ignition systems I believe.
Doesn't mean that they don't work though
Apologies,this went off thread and it is my fault. A seperate thread to discuss the merit of certain battery technology,and incidents would reside on its own well and not hijack your thread. Your original desire to find a scooter for back up has good safety concern,and you might find what you want in an 18 amp/hr scooter. Makos/DV100s have lost their desirability to the Gavins and SS,but when I had one it served well with no failure as long as you don't take it too deep. They trimmed and towed well,and the best part is you could probably find one in the $700 range. Good luck.