I own a couple of SeaDoo bombardiers (the $350 model) and while it does the job of towing to-and-from a dive site quite well, it doesn't do a very good job of moving sand (my opinion). Sometimes I think I'm better off hand-fanning instead.
In all fairness to the manufacturer, they do the job that they were designed for quite well (i.e. towing divers). Battery life is advertised as being up to an hour depending on water temperature, age of batteries, etc. My experience has been that the batteries will actually last a bit longer than this if they are charged and completely discharged on a regular basis. One other tip here is that the batteries that SeaDoo sends with theses DPV's are the same style of batteries that are used in a standard computer UPS. So, as a money saving tip, don't buy the extra batteries for this model. Buy a couple of UPS batteries instead. They last just as long and are more affordably priced. The only difference is the connector, which I have replaced on my units with a connector from a local electrical supplier (Radio Shack, computer store, etc.)
For moving sand with other units I will defer to the other more knowledgable members of the forum that have experience with other models.
Hope this information helps.
Mike