What You Need to Know About the SeaDoo DESS Key Security System

We get a lot of questions here at Jet Ski Plus about SeaDoo’s DESS Key Security System. Many of our customers want to know what DESS stands for, while others want to know how they can get a new DESS key programmed or why SeaDoo even made DESS keys at all. Here’s what SeaDoo jet ski owners ought to know about its DESS Key Security System.

In the mid-1990s, SeaDoo began to manufacture jet skis with the DESS Key Security System. The DESS Key Security system, or Digitally Encoded Security System, is a lanyard containing a computer chip with a unique numeric code that the owner connects to the dess post on their jet ski in order to be granted access to start and operate it. In other words, it works just like your car’s key fob, allowing you to enter your car, or jet ski in this case, so you can start the engine and drive it. Like your car’s key fob, the DESS key (lanyard) will only work on your jet ski and no one else’s.

Why did SeaDoo decide to manufacture jet skis with the DESS Key Security System? Because before the mid-1990s, anybody could hop on any jet ski and take it, no DESS key required. So, SeaDoo decided to distinguish themselves in the marketplace with this added security feature.