Checklists

What it is

Checklists is a free tool for the routines you run around a dive: building a rebreather, final checks before you splash, the team check, rinsing gear afterwards. You can write your own checklists from scratch or start from nine built-in presets. Steps can carry a timer (for holds like a negative pressure test) and a text field (for values like cell mV readings), and everything you check off is saved on the spot, so a half-finished build survives closing the app.

Rebreather Forum 3, the industry’s consensus meeting on rebreather safety, called checklist use the single most important action divers can take to improve safety. It also found that many divers stop using checklists after their first fifty hours or so. This tool exists to make keeping the habit cheap.

The presets

The tool starts empty; what you see first is a short guide card and a button to browse the presets. The catalog under Create Checklist → From a preset holds nine templates. Creating from one gives you an ordinary checklist: rename it, edit it, delete it. The catalog always keeps the original, so you can take a fresh copy any time.

Preset	What it covers
Predive safety check (BWRAF)	The recreational buddy check: BCD, Weights, Releases, Air, Final check
Open-circuit tech predive	Analyze and assemble, wing and regulator pressure tests, head-to-toe team match
JJ-CCR preparations on land	Full build: supplies, assembly, system checks, positive and negative tests, calibration, pre-breathe
JJ-CCR shortly before diving	Final checks at the water: valves, ADV, DSV, leak test, setpoints, pre-breathe
JJ-CCR after entering the water	Surface checks after splash: bubble check, displays, equipment
CHAOS (GUE)	GUE’s rebreather check during the pre-breathe: Controller, HUD, ADV, O₂, Symptoms
GUE EDGE team pre-dive	The spoken team check: Goal, Unified team, Equipment, Exposure, Decompression, Gas, Environment
Tech dive plan review	Talk through the plan: mission, logistics, narcosis, gas, decompression, oxygen, thermal
Post-dive and cleaning	Pressures and scrubber time used, rinsing, disinfecting, drying, batteries

Running a checklist

1. Tap a checklist on the Checklists page.
2. Check steps off as you complete them. Each check stores a small timestamp (“2m ago”) so you can see when you did what.
3. Each section is a card. Its left edge and header icon show its state at a glance: grey when untouched, blue while in progress, green with a check when done.
4. The bar at the top shows one segment per section, sized by the section’s step count. Each segment fills blue as you work and turns green when that section is finished.
5. Tap a section header to collapse or expand it.
6. When the last step is checked, the app confirms the checklist is complete.
7. Reset (at the end of the list, or the ⋯ menu) clears all checks, timers and notes after a confirmation.

Progress persists across app restarts. Reopen the app and the checklist is exactly where you left it.

Timers and notes

A step with a countdown shows the remaining time and signals when it reaches zero, with a vibration. Countdowns follow the wall clock, not the app: if you close the app mid-count, the time keeps running, the same way your pressure test does. A step with a stopwatch counts up and leaves the judgment to you. Both keep their last value until you reset them.

When a countdown finishes while you are in another app or have the phone locked, Dive Kit sends a notification naming the step (for example, “Negative pressure test finished”). Tapping it opens that checklist and highlights the step. If you are already looking at that checklist when the countdown finishes, the notification is skipped (you see it finish on screen instead), and any earlier alert for it clears when you open the checklist. The first time you start a countdown, the app asks for permission to send notifications; if you decline, timers still work on screen, just without the alert.

A step with Notes gives you a place to write values you would otherwise put on a slate: cell millivolts, gas analysis, cylinder pressures. The field is always labelled “Notes” and grows to fit several lines, so a longer entry wraps instead of scrolling sideways.

Checking a step locks its features so a wet thumb cannot change them: the timer controls disappear (the final time stays visible) and the note becomes read-only. Unchecking the step brings the controls back.

Creating and editing

1. Tap Create Checklist, then Start blank or From a preset.
2. In the editor, give the checklist a name and an optional description.
3. Add sections to group steps. Move a section with the up and down arrows; remove it with the bin icon.
4. Add steps inside a section. Drag a step by its handle (the ≡ icon) to reorder it.
5. Expand a step to edit its label and details, switch on a timer (countdown with a length, or stopwatch), or switch on Notes.
6. Save commits everything. Leaving without saving asks whether to discard.

Editing a checklist that has progress (checks, notes, or a running timer) asks you to confirm first, because editing resets that run.

To duplicate a checklist (for a second unit, a different site, a teammate’s variant), pick Duplicate from a checklist’s ⋯ menu, give the copy a name, and it opens in the editor.

Behaviour and limits

• Checklists live on your phone and work fully offline. There is no sync or sharing.
• The app stays on the boat. Memorize in-water checks before you splash and check them off afterwards.
• Editing a checklist keeps the run state of untouched steps. Steps you delete lose their check marks; a step whose timer settings you change gets its timer progress reset.
• Deleting a checklist made from a preset never touches the catalog; you can recreate it any time from Create Checklist → From a preset.