You missed my point... if you're presented with 2 products, one required expensive preventative maintenance and one that doesn't, which one would you choose? that's rhetorical, I'm definitely not interested in debating it.No, I wouldn't. I know my life support equipment requires routine inspections and servicing to function properly. It is used in harsh conditions (I dive cold Northern California waters so say at 114 feet depth or so the water can be as low as 45 - 49 degrees Fahrenheit) both cold, freshwater (Lake Tahoe) or saltwater. That is just my regulator and not talking about other things like my tanks, BC, etc. My life depends on it. No different than a car needing oil changes every x miles or months or new tires.
The Trident is a measuring device pulling in tank water to sample, then regents, then measure and test. At the surface it seems somewhat easy I guess but think about how you do your tests manually then try to automate that so it is repeatable, consistently, time and time again. They need to how long the tubing is, how accurate the drops of regents are, the waste line, line quality, dirt, dust, what have you. Why wouldn't you want the unit looked at periodically? It doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
How often do you replace your regents? Change the battery if you use a Hanna checker? Do regents expire? How accurate is your test if you repeat the same test back to back to back or say 4 times a day? What is your level of accuracy when done manually?
How do your vials look after say 6 months of testing? Do you clean your vials? Do you replace them? I hear when people say they are surprised about the service or scheduled maintenance or maybe even feel it wasn't mentioned. However, I really struggle when people ask why it is needed or that is a deal breaker for the unit.
I don't own a trident. My tank isn't ready for it. I do own an Apex. I may buy one though down the road. Based on my understanding of how it works, the cost of regents, the results so far and feedback from beta users, I am at peace with it all. It makes sense to me. It will be interesting thought to see how it does perform now with the retail launch and new users. I do think the next two weeks will be interesting on the Neptune forums which I will be reading and paying attention to. That is where all the good and more useful information will be.