We finaly did it! We finally made a decision and put $$money$$ down on an evolution, make that two (one for my wife). This was after four months of daily reading, trying out various units, asking lots of question on RBW, visiting every store within driving distance that is into rebreathers (we have three
) and talking about rebreathers to my wife until she was pretty much rethinking the whole marriage thing
.
I thought it had come down to a used inspo or a meg. The inspo in the end seemed too big for our needs, boxy, heavy and felt combersome in the water water, albeit in a swimming pool. The meg was hard to turn down, such a nice kit and a devoted following, but no integrated deco electronics. Though I’m told they are on the way, they will likely drive the cost of the meg up to match that of the evolution.
This was not the direction I thought we’d go but in the end it came down to the electronics. My wife and I are recreational divers, we like to keep it simple and compact…one screen and a red and green light and a relatively small kit should allow us to do what we love most, check out the critters up close and personal and take lots of amazing photographs and venture off into the depths once we are ready. The vision electronics just won me and my wife over, seemed to set the evolution apart from the others for the kind of diving we want to do. The temp stick and intelligent injection both were particularly appealing to me. While we have every intention of paying close attention to our stats and making sure the unit is working properly while we are diving, we are looking forward to it’s automation.
The smaller size of the bottles and scrubber just didn’t seem like a draw back since we are not planning on doing super long dives. Also, as far as bigger units and more capacity, it’s not like a bigger unit means a smaller bail out bottle since size of bail out is determined by depth not dilluent and oxygen bottles size. The small size, light weight and improvements on weighting over the inspo are also plusses. We ordered it fully loaded with nitrox/trimix software, which should keep us clear of the reported software bugs/patches and give us lots of growing room. We sprung for an extra set of bottles for each, figuring that with two full sets of tanks we can go just about anywhere for a lot of diving and not have to worry about refills. Also, as far as modularity and flexibility, after seeing the travel frame, I realized that if I really want modularity I can mix and match canister and tanks between the evolution and inspiration on the travel frame down the line to get more extended range.
So, now, the waiting and dreaming begin. About all I can think about is us in our kayaks, paddling, out for a weekend camp/dive expedition in the san juans or northern gulf islands with everything we need for the weekend on our kayaks. I can’t help but think that the virtual silence both above and below water will feel so serene and provide many close encounters we won’t forget. FREEDOM IS CALLING!
G
The runners up:
The meg:
The Pros: I really like how well built and versatile the meg is, taking a wide range of bottle sizes and scrubber canisters with no back cover; really, all of them should be designed this way in my opinion.
The Cons:
We would need to purchase an additional VR3’s or equivalent per unit and then have two screens to go back and forth between or wait for the new electronics to come out…I don’t want to wait and the cost will add up to about the same as the evo.
My wife was particularly apprehensive about the small size of the company and the reliability of the electronics and felt that it was really best for tec divers who want a lot of capacity, to pretty much dive the rig manually and use the electronics as back up. It didn’t help my impression that folks from inner space bailed on the rebreather try out at the last minute, haven’t answered my email or even list themselves on their answering machine. From the meg fest atmosphere of RBW it is apparent that their product is good enough that they don’t really need to try very hard to reach out to new customers. Without being able to try out the unit or readily contact that company I fell pray to the fears that going with a small company, run by one main guru just might actually have it’s draw backs as the AP valve enthusiasts proclaim.
A used Inspo:
Pros: lower cost, a well established company, lots of units out there.
Cons: big, boxy, no integrated deco (unless you upgrade$$), also non-versatile…unless you put it on a travel frame, which I just might do with the evolution.
The Optima:
Pros: This unit felt the best in the pool. Really nice harness system, obviously benefiting from years of oc tec production. Really nice fit, I liked the ideas behind the design for the most part…it’s built on what has been proven for the most part.
Cons: I couldn’t get past the high operating cost due to the pricy extendair scrubber canister and lack of granular adapter option...the affordable price would soon be outweighed by the money you would spend on the canisters. It seems that the chance of caustic cocktail is just not that high any more with the new designed/reliability of the rigs on the market now, so the fact that the canisters lower that risk just doesn’t impress me enough to overcome it’s cost.
It’s very new on the market, not had all the bugs worked out, though I have only heard of a few, like the housing on the HH electronics corroding (though I hear that has been fixed). If I were shopping a year from now, who knows, this might have been my pick.