Tried Meg, Kiss, Sport Kiss, Inspiration and Evolution. (First Time on Loop)

Monkey

I am going out start this thread out by stating my opinions on the rebreathers I did a pool session with are just my opinions. NOT PERSONAL ATTACTS ON PEOPLE OR THE REBREATHERS THEY FLY. So please do not take my opinions on a particular unit as a personal stab... Its just my opinion and I have been known to be full of crap some times.

Disclaimer: I have already ordered a MEG. so my view might be biased.. but I assure you I was open minded about every thing I played with.

Location: Lakeland FL-Off the wall Adventures.

Rebreathers present: Meg, KISS, SPORT KISS, Inspiration, Evolution, Optima.

GOLEM GEAR: BOV, back plates, scrubbers

Rebreathers Actually in the Pool: Meg, KISS, SPORT KISS, Inspiration, Evolution.

Morning Dog and pony show:

KISS: looked to to be built well ...and so simple it would be a unit I could trust to get me to the moon and back. The Simplicity was ART. hand sets nice and readable

KISS SPORT: Looked to be well built... Light and airline easy... Good Value for dollar. Again Simplicity was ART. Not a expedition grade rebreather (but not supposed to be). Very light. Hand sets nice and readable


MEG: Built like an M1 Tank. Infinitely upgradable, more compact than pictures led me to belive, the Unit I saw up close was a cavers unit that looked like it had gone though a war zone.... and it got the person out alive. only unit that looked over built. APEX 2 hand set was hard to read.

Inspiration/evolution: Space Shuttle complicated. lots of bells and whistles (temp stick, Buzzer). did not like lack of back up hand set. Hand set very easy to read.. it has a death grip on set point... and being able to get factory reconditioned units at 50% of list was a nice if you were on tight budget.

Optima: Guy started out telling us about every thing that was changing on the unit... BIG RED FLAG TO ME.. hand set updates,frame changes, most parts Out sourced. they were not even responsible for Scrubber. this made me feel it was way over priced... and the quantity of changes he said were coming led me to believe the unit was still being BETA tested with users as the Test pilots... there were heavy tool marks on all the Delrin parts, so they looked cheap. Loved the loop volume... loved the scrubber cartrige... felt the Hammer Head was the only fire tested piece of hardware on it.

GOLEM GEAR: Man oh Man are they gonna get way to much of my money... there BOV was engineered and built like Bugatti was in the old day... the feel of there BOV in the hand, it generated LUST.. you could tell that the stuff they build is built the way it is because their live depends on it as well as yours...


POOL TIME: My first time on rebreathers was reminiscent of the first time I had sex... Awkward, things didn’t seem like they fit quite right, there was spit every where, I had no idea what I was doing, and concerned that the other party involved would judge my performance poorly. But I knew instantly I wanted to do it again and again and again...

KISS: WOB SUCKED...HATE THE BACK MOUNT COUTER LUNGS. felt like I was sucking a milk shake through a 45 foot straw...and not the big ass McDonalds ones either. loved the hand sets. unit over all felt good on the body... time under water was not enjoyable... mentally I felt like I could not get enough air.

KISS SPORT: WOB SUCKED...HATE THE BACK MOUNT COUTER LUNGS. felt like I was sucking a milk shake through a 45 foot straw...and not the big ass McDonalds ones either. loved the hand sets. unit over all felt good on the body... time under water was not enjoyable... mentally I felt like I could not get enough air.

MEG: Over the shoulder counter lungs ROCK... felt good to breath... unit did not feel BIG ...the Mass of the unit felt good. hand set was hard to read..
felt like god had given me the ability to breath under water naturally... was in love right away.... wish it had BOV. and to my surprise the over the shoulder counter lungs did not crowd me or make me loose any peripheral vision. balance on rig was great...

OPTIMA: NO OPINION. THE UNIT WAS NOT PUT IN THE POOL. WE WERE NOT ALLOWED TO DEMO UNIT.... (instructor was Sick)

Inspiration/Evolution: unit felt Good.. Work of Breath was neck and neck with the MEG... hand set was easy to use and read under water... it felt as good as the Meg to fly... the solenoid firing more was reassuring... It did feel like it had more drag than the MEG... the Balance on the rig was good to... If I ever own 2 rebreathers I think my second one will be a Inspiration...


Please feel free to rip this apart.... I do not bruise easily..

I also want to thanks the crew at Off The Wall Adventures...they were great.

I fully understand that first impressions can be wrong.... I hope I get another chance to try all these rebreathers again. especially if the set up of the unit hampered my time with them.

BAM

Mark Chase

Quite surprised by the WOB comments on the KISS the one I tried was fine?? I am suspecting the baffles were set wrong for your lungs on the sport or that you had the wrong lung size on the classic.

PS:I dive a Hammer Head inspo not a KISS.

Also the Inspo is available in the older design Classic which has the same functionality as the Meg. IE PP02 and thats it no bells and whistles.
Personally however Id go for the Meg is I only wanted a basic ECCR as it transports much better than the Inspo Classic.

ATB

Mark Chase

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cameron

First diving impressions are pretty hard on a Rebreather. It takes a while to set up and learn to dive the unit properly.

Although the WOB may seem very crappy while kneeling on the bottom of a pool; when the unit is properly placed high on your back, and a resonably horizontal swim position trimmed out, BMCL can be a blessing. Then again some think they suck period

A few freinds who have tried an insp and who have tried my KISS, had comments along the lines of, "It is hard to breath" or "the ppo2 drops fast" In the mean while, the CLs arn't matched to their lung size and the L/min of O2 injection is no where near their metabolism.

Oh well, I guess the "try dives" are still good for getting your hands on the units, if not for providing a fair representation of how they dive.

vidodivr

This KISS has a very small optimal loop volume, so if you perhaps have too much air in the loop, you get chipmunk cheaks and hard WOB. This may have been the situation with the limited time and knowledge on the unit.

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decoweenie

OK, bend over and get ready...



All of these are guesses in the attempt to explain what might have happened, but is a moot point since you have already ordered the Meg. I just don't want (what I personally considered as) misinformation spread since I have owned each of the units you tried, and do not see a different WOB between them.

I don't know which order that you tried the units, but it might make a difference. For example, if you had tried the KISS'es first and still not used to breathing from a CCR since it is very different than OC, then tried the other units once used to the breathing...

However, I still think that the set-up probably wasn't correct for you/your size on the KISS units. As Mark said, the CL size (on the CK) and baffle adjustment (on SK) are very important.

Also don't know how long you were allowed to dive each unit. Most students/new divers do not like their first hour on the unit. Everything is new while the breathing is all different, etc...

And BTW, it is "Work of Breathing"...

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Ben Field

Good to see you had a close up look'n'feel of a range of units, more than most Rebreather divers get I'd wager!

I'm not here to defend the KISS, (it doesn't need my help ) just wanted to say I've dived 4 different KISS rebreathers, both SK and CK. All have felt fine right out of the box, I guess expectation might have something to do with this?

I'm looking forward to trying an OTS-CL unit to see how much "better" the WOB really is!

Interesting post though, thanks for sharing!

BEN

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Monkey

Corrected "WOB"

order of units tried... MEG, INSP, EVO, KISS CLASSIC, KISS SPORT

and 10 minutes on each unit

Monkey

Chipmunk cheaks...... BIG TIME. I felt like Paris Hilton durring Fleet Week..but after I vented gas from the loop it was still hard

Sutty

Something must have been wrong with the setup to get chipmunk cheeks with BMCLs unless you were on your back. In normal swimming position the counterlungs are above your mouth so slight -ve pressure at the mouth. I can only think the total counterlung volume was way too small and/or you were running at max loop volume, or the counterlungs weren't anchored to the bottom of the counterlung case correctly.

Neil

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wedivebc

In defence of the KISS units, I found WOB on the sport kiss to be very position dependant. If the unit was positioned high on my body WOB was greatly reduced. That made it hard to reach the valves so I had to trade position for WOB when diving the SK.

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Dave....

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