Loop Drying, between dives?

Ben Field

Hi All,

Just back from a weeks livaboard around the Scillies and Southern coast of Cornwall and Devon. A great time was had by all, including 4 Rebreather World members, 2x CK, a Vision Inpiration and a Boris.

Everything worked perfectly all week, with the exception of one Vision battery dying, but that was no big deal.

One topic of debate was what to do with the units between dives.

Previously I've always popped the exhale hose off and drained out the lung butter then left it sealed. The Inspo diver was getting regular cell warnings on No.2 despite proper storage of the unit, it was suggested that he leave the loop open (breathing hoses disconnected from T-pieces) to "dry it out" this seemed to help and the warnings went away.

Between dives the units got dried out properly but not disassembled. At the end of the week I tore my CK down completely, both CL had a very small amount of water in them, condensation only I think so not "much" to warrant additional drying?

Had the usual soup in the bottom of the scrubber at each scrubber change and alittle clumping, all in all very happy with the KISS on multi-day trips just curious on the drying front?

BEN

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Sutty

I've never had much water in the lungs (Kiss Classic), but to activate the adv we need to completely empty the lungs, so this may empty them of water too. The exhale lung's water would then end up in the bottom of the scrubber, the inhale lung would empty into the head I guess.

Neil

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jqn

I did a week liveaboard in Malaysia, and given that it was the tropics, I did not want to leave the loop open to dry. After each dive I would carefully dry everything I could with a towel and then reassemble the unit. Seemed to work just fine that way -- no sign of a problem.

Jerry

s/k #99

silent running

Hello Jerry, which liveaboard were you on and where did it go? -Andy

silent running

Hello Ben, I have drain stems on the bottom of my CLs, very similar to the kind on a safety sausage. Inbetween dives I inflate the loop with my mouth, keeping pressure up to where the OPV is about to blow and I open the drains and out comes whatever water there is. Almost always there is more in the exhale CL and if there is a lot in the inhale CL, I know the loop is leaky. My scrubber bucket is transparent plastic so I can also see if there's an unusuall amount of water in the bottom, as well as being able to check the scrubber seals themselves. This all very helpful and time saving as I can easily tell if everything is normal without disassembly.

At the end of the day, I pull off the scrubber bucket and let the sensors and loop dry out some more, before sealing/bagging up the unused scrubber cartridge for the night and loosely fitting the bucket back on so as not to allow any critters inside the loop.

That's my routine and I don't have to disinfect, disassemble the unit or do neg/pos tests more than once a week, and I do all my diving in the tropics. No moisture related performance problems or illness yet in 9 years. -Andy

jqn

Andy,

I was on the Rec N' Tec boat out of Tioman to the Repulse, Dutch Subs and Company Wreck.

Jerry

ScubaDadMiami

I am surprised that some innovator has not come up with a hose drier with a user-cleanable hyperfilter (so that we are not just blowing dust back into the hoses). It seems to take days for my hoses to dry out after cleaning, and it seems that I can never get my counterlungs completely dry. (Perhaps this is because I keep my unit in an air conditioned area--which I hope acts to keep the bugs away.)

I have an awesome drysuit drier (DryGuy Long Ranger - Tall Boot/Wader Dryer: CozyWinters), and this will dry my suit in an hour or so. So, it would be nice to have some equivalent for the hoses and counterlungs.

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Howard Packer
IANTD CCR Instructor
Miami Beach, Florida
CCRDiveTraining.com

silent running

Thanks for the reply Jerry. So how was it doing those dives with an SK? It is nice and small, did you do any penetrations, how much bottom time did you manage?

And I know this is like asking about the color of the leaves during deer hunting season, but how was the fish life on the wrecks? -Andy

decoweenie

Andy,

I know you are asking Jerry, but having just dived there just a couple of weeks ago. And also one of the first group diving the Dutch subs years ago when they were first discovered, I believe...

The KISS (either one) would be perfect for those types of dives. I wished I still have my KISS units with me the whole time - especially the SK to travel and penetration.

On the Repulse, another group did 75min BT (54-57m) and ~3:30 total RT. Since a couple of us only managed to rent 2L tanks, and with low O2 pressure, we were doing only ~50min BT and ~2:30 total RT (conservative of VR-3 of the slowest buddy)

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silent running

Thanks for the info Phi, makes sense. Those damn 2lt tanks are the limiting factor w/o a booster. My Evo buddies had to bring extra 02 tanks on the boat to get in 3 dives a day on our last land based trip. Can 3lts be used with the SK?

Sorry for the hijack folks...