Quote: (Originally Posted by
lizardland)
A Rebreather is only as good as the user.
Quote: (Originally Posted by
nigelh)
My personal view is that safety on a rebreather is largely down to attitude.
First of all when doing such comparisons we have to assume that the competency level of divers is similar – one can’t suggest that on average mCCR and pSCR divers are more competent than eCCR divers or that their training is better.Or that the "worse" track record of eCCR is only due to "diver error" or to bad or unsafe divers. My experience in RBs is very limited as I have been diving a pSCR for less than a year. So I cant claim to be an expert but here is my 2 (euro)cents: Before buying my unit though I did a lot of reading / searching. Comparing the main 3 categories (pSCR, mCCR, eCCR) my conclusion was that the “worst” safety record of all categories goes with eCCR and especially some specific brands. The number of accidents seemed unnaturally high…compared to the other types or even as a statistic compared to the number of units sold. During the last few months that my experience is (slowly) increasing and after discovering and reading through all of Rebreather World I have confirmed to myself that eCCRs (and specially some specific brands) have an increased risk versus other units and versus mCCR and pSCR. The last couple of days reading http://www.rebreatherworld.com/rebreather-accidents-incidents/7374-always-know-your-ppo2.html and the responses of INSPO divers it is seems to me that a large part of accidents with the specific units has been related to Design Error, Not enough safety checks and Unit malfunctions (that now seem to be fixed???) On the other hand pSCR have serious limitations but like mCCR have an excellent safety record. And you can’t say that they are “rare” because in specific applications (long and deep cave explorations) they have a great record (GUE single RB80 WKPP exlporations , EKPP dual RB80 explorations, Casati dual RECY01 dive at -184m cave dive etc etc…) Finally I think that eCCRs are improving rapidly (improving the designs/fixing faults, new units) and in the long run will dominate the market. As an electrical engineer in the industrial controls area (up to SIL 3) I have come to trust electronics – but only the electronics that have had a LOT of money in design and R&D a couple of years of testing and large number of installed base so all possible bugs have been identified. And we still find bugs after many-many years of “normal and good” operation…