Waydoo Subnado Underwater Scooter Black and Red Special Version

My initial impressions of the Subnado was that it's solidly built and is made of great-quality material. Taking it out of the box, it had a good heft to it and definitely gave a "tech unboxing" vibe over an "outdoor accessory/toy" feeling. Which is a good thing (to me).Bare-bones assembly was pretty straight-forward, as I didn't have any interest in messing with the (many) accessories this comes with just yet. Just snap on the handle and link up the controller connector (wire running out of the handles) to the contacts on the Subnado. There's some greasing that needs to be done, but I'll get into that later.I was pleasantly surprised at the softness and ergonomics of the handle. It felt good to hold and the grip was comfortable. The trigger placement is great too - the trigger itself is just a tad small, but that may be because this is advertised for use by children as well. I briefly switched it on just to make sure it was in working order, and all looked good, so I set it up to charge.Near the back of the Subnado body is a safety label - it has a few good reminders, which I always welcome on consumer-grade tech… especially expensive and potentially risky (self-injury) tech like this Subnado. Warnings/pictorials include a reminder to ensure to turn off the device before servicing (charging) it, the meaning behind a couple of the non-typical battery indicator patterns, and general safety stuff (e.g. not letting long hair get near the propellers). I originally thought this label was meant to come off before use, but it seems it is meant to stay on. A small thing, but worth noting.As mentioned earlier, there's a good amount of accessories included with this, though to be honest, I haven't felt a strong desire to get into them yet. Some nice ones worth noting include the wrist-mount with hand grip (if you wanted to one-arm it and do a 'superman' across the pool), optional tether, and mounting adapter for attaching this to a pool float.So on grease, I felt it necessary to briefly go over its importance: do NOT skip this step or skimp on the application. There's plenty provided to get a good coat on the necessary areas. Coming from an industry that necessitates some level of gasket or O-ring greasing to help with maintaining a proper seal, I cannot stress the importance of it here. To an extent, the grease helps to cover any tiny openings or voids that could allow water in within the gasket or O-rings, but its main reason is to ensure those things do not get sheared out of position during tightening or mounting. Think of how a rubber band would rub between your hands, bare, vs. being coated in a semi-slippery grease. In one, it'll twist in on itself multiple times, and on the other, it'll almost want to stay completely neutral.In short: use the grease; get good seals. There's only two areas (the port cover for the USB-C port and the controller connector interface), so it doesn't take long to do. With this device costing what it does, the last thing you want is water ingress damaging or ruining it. No manufacturer will cover user-inflicted damage, whether due to an accident or simply neglect. On that note, it would have been helpful for Waydoo to provide more grease. The tube provided is a bit small, and would have been ideal if it was larger (think of a Neosporin tube). Because best practice would be to replace the grease on frequent-access areas (like the charge port cover) every time it is removed, at minimum. Still, the tube is at least good for long-term storage, and preferable to those tearable 'grease packets' that I've seen some other brands provide.Now, on usage: I started off using the Subnado in a relatively small swimming pool, and this thing has more than enough power to zip me across quickly. Probably not a great representation of what it can do "full send," but it's the experience I've had with it by this point (~a week in). It's a lot of fun, has a good kick, and so far, pretty good battery life. I've put it through two rounds of use (probably 15-20min each, but closer to maybe 8-10min of actual, continuous runtime) and it's down to 7 of 8 cells on the battery indicator. If it's like any other type of device with a battery indicator, I take this to just mean that it is working on depleting the current cell.So to recap - the build quality is there, a healthy number of accessories are included, and the functionality is great (so far). Time will tell on the long-term durability. The price is a tad steep at the $500 MSRP, but if you can get it on sale for $400 or so, it will sting a little less.

Definitely impressed me for it's size.Pros: very small but powerful, good battery life-interment use while snorkeling (scoot around find a jellyfish and just float and watch for a few minutes then move on) the battery will last at least an hr. The "turbo mode" three clicks is very impressive.Cons: really only one. The turbo mode previously mentioned will not engage when the battery is less than 4 bars (approximately 50%) so I was about 100ft from the boat going against the current wanting to get out of the water after a hr and all the 2 click (medium) speed was capable of was keeping me still against the current. High speed would have gotten me there. Still had 3 out of 8 bars of battery life. Just let me use it when I want to use it! If it runs out so be it.

This thing was amazing! Until it stopped working! Amazon won’t help! And the Waydoo subnado is impossible to get a hold of? No customer service! I wasted $500 of this garbage!

The device and accessories are good but traveling with it is a freaking nightmare. Be prepared to always have to open your hand luggage and explain the airport personnel what the device is. What were the people who designed this device thinking? The only reason as to why this has to go in your hand luggage is because the battery cannot be removed. Genius!!! If a new version of it comes up in the future with a removable battery we should be entitled to a substantial discount on it to compensate all the hassle.

I bought this for freediving. It seemed like it would make it easier to get down and move around with less oxygen expenditure, thus extending my dive time. But it turns out that controlling it is much harder than I expected, with the result that what I gain in not having to expend energy to swim, I lose expending energy in the struggle to control my arm to aim the scooter where I want to go.I will add that my dive buddy, who is stronger than I am, did not have the same problem I did, so you might find it easier to use than I did.In ultra-high mode, the scooter is extremely powerful, and in regular high mode it's got a fair amount of power. Low and medium are very weak. I did not use it long enough to drain the battery so I cannot comment on battery life.I missed the return window so I'll probably sell it used.Update: After posting this review, I was contacted by the maker, Waydoo, offering me a full refund. They emailed me a pre-paid shipping label for the return, and nine days after I shipped it my credit card showed a full refund. Considering that there was nothing wrong with the Subnado (I am just not strong enough to control it comfortably), and that it was well past any reasonable trial period, this is truly excellent customer service, I am increasing my rating to 4 stars.