New type of scooter

[john j]

My x-scooter is working out well.  I haven't had it deeper than about 225 ft so far, but it's worked very well and I have had no problems.  I was really impressed with the folks at Dive Extras because I called them to order some spare o-rings and although they do sell them, they were glad to give me the o-ring size numbers so I could order them from o-ring suppliers and save money.  I didn't expect them to do that and I appreciated it.  They also asked about how I liked the scooter, how I planned to use it, and told me to call if I ever needed anything. 

I really like the small size of the x-scooter.  It's very agile and when I have it stowed behind me, I barely even know it's there.   I wish it had longer run time for playing around at Wazee, but that's not the application I bought it for.  I'm getting about 40 minutes at full speed.  It's not quite as fast as the Silent Sumbersions.   I got to try a Silent Submersion N-19 a couple weeks ago.  That was faster than the x-scooter and has a longer run time.  They quote 60-100 minutes for the N-19, whereas I am getting ~40 minutes out of my X.  The N-19 is a little bigger and heavier though, and more expensive.   There is the lithium ion battery option for the X, which would at least double the run time, but I believe that battery pack is $1600!  That's more than I want to spend on a battery that will eventually wear out.  I think the X-scooter is a good choice but the N-19 would be good too.  N-19 has a little more speed and distance, but it's larger and heavier too, so there is the trade-off.  The small size and light weight of the X-scooter is a huge advantage on dive boats and when you need to carry your scooter to the entry point.  That was key in my decision to buy the X.  My application is deep dives off of small trailerable boats.  For that I needed a deep depth rating, light weight, small size and a relatively short run time was plenty.

I'm considering getting the long body kit for my X-scooter which would allow 2 battery packs to fit inside the scooter and the runtime would double, but I admit, that would only be a toy, not a necessity for me right now.

The attached picture shows my x-scooter in the front, an N-19 behind it and then a couple of larger lead-acid powered Silent Submersions.