| Re: Scrubber times
One thing my instructor told me time and time again about CCR diving....don't do it on the cheap!!! When the scrubber life is over.....it is over.
I remember reading info about Olympic quality cyclists successfully getting 5 or 6 hours useful operation out of them....but I've also been told that they are pretty much like a light switch...either on or off.....If it turns off while underwater, that may present a problem.
From my own experience, diving an Optima, I had to(elected to) violate the stack time on my scrubber waiting on a dive buddy that decided to venture deeper and with a fresh scrubber. The diver knew that I had about 60 mins scrubber life remaining at the start of the dive. In any event, I overstayed my stack time waiting for him and at 70 fsw the mouth piece starting vibrating....that was it, enough....for sure it got my attention. All kinds of things were going thru my mind....do I bail out to OC? Do I stay on the loop and believe the info I read on the internet about the extended life of scrubbers? (the underlying thought is that the manufacturer must have a built in safety margin). Fear and the task loading of the HUD flashing red and the vibrating mouth piece did make me ascend, but I didn't bail out....but should have.
My future dives on CCR will fall within the safety parameters of the gear I've been trained on. That was a good lesson for me. Perhaps these types of shared experiences will be helpful. |