Rebreather setup and tear down time?

bourskov

Hi...

As said before, it takes a little longer, but I don't think it is that much longer...

I prefer to prep my unit the night before a dive (if possible) and it takes about 30-45 mins. depending on the need the change lime, fill cyls and so on.

On the actual divesite/diveday it takes about 10 mins longer, than turning on you OC system and checkin' it... Thats my expirience on an Inspo Classic and on my Boris...

As far as the weight concerns, I think my Boris with a thick backplate weighs just as much as my double 12's... (But it's easier to "shake" a 2 or 3L cyl to mix a trimix, than a set of 12L's )

Anyway, I think one should not think so much about how long it takes, but more like "Do I want to dive Rebreather or not?!"... I personally would rather take my RB to the beach than OC... Even though it's "faster" with OC.

Cheers
Bo Urskov

silent running

There was a poll about this awhile back, so search if you like.

The problem with this question is all the variables:

Do you fill your own cyls?

Do you dive locally, or travel?

What kind of dives do you do? Do you do really deep, long CC dives which require lots of planning and extra equipment like BO rebreathers or lots of OC BO? Or shorter, recreational type dives?

I only dive in warm water and travel to get there, so I spend an hour a week before putting together the unit, making sure it works and doesn't leak. Then I have to pack the unit and sorb which take another hour or so. At the destination, I put it all back together from scratch, including the harness, ziptieing the cables and other dangly stuff that is attached to things that come apart for travel, packing the scrubber, filling back gas and BO, analyizing-about 90 minutes if the dive opertor is together and has good space for me to work.

So that first travelling dive takes alot of prep time-3 1/12 hours, but once that's done, I only need 15 minutes in the morning to put in the scrubber, cal, quick pressure check as I can see the scrubber seals clearly through the transparent Prism scrubber bucket and I don't disassemble the loop everyday while diving multiple days in a row.

Every other day, it's 30 minutes to do all that, plus pack a new scrubber.

After each week of diving, I clean my loop, but only because I have drains on each CL which I drain the moisture out of after each dive, takes 15 seconds, nice feature.

So, if I took out the travel part, it would be about 1hr for every 10 hrs of diving, which breaks down to 6 minutes per hr of diving. Lots of important things to pay attention to in those minutes, but worth every minute to me...

Jimmer

Well so far it all sounds pretty reasonable with nothing that really puts me off. I spend a lot of time diligently setting up and maintaining and inspecting my OC gear as it is, so I don't think CC would be that huge of a step.

Gilles

On a trip to Truk lagoon this year, as a sole Rebreather amongst a group of OC divers, I missed the first dive of the trip due to the time I needed to assemble all from scratch.

I also had to spend an extra 30 min or so per day prepping/sorbing/checking.

From then, I enjoyed nearly twice the bottom time, less than half the deco time, and generally had a much better and safer (IMHO) experience visiting the UW museum of Truk.

__________________
Gilles
http://www.dirrebreather.com

Russ

30 to 45 min (not including fills but filling is shorter than OC)

0 Between repetitive dives assuming you don't have to replace the scrubber (3hrs of duration or more depending on the unit)

20 to 30 min For cleaning after a trip which I tell people is the same as when people use to rinse out their BCD's

The sacrifice time wise is if you have to abort a dive to fix a problem which hurts more as it's usually from a lack of preventative maintenace: old cells, first stages, old batteries or O rings. Because of this most people will spend the extra time beforehand making sure everything is right before a trip.

Russ

Abbo

Over the last few months I have done a lot of diving with OC divers. That involves a long trip to the dive site, a scramble to fit a bunch of dives in, then a scramble to get it all packed away for the trip home. The rebreather starts completely broken down and stowed in an airline cabin bag. If you're diving every weekend you take a LOT less time setting things up. You get used to an order of doing things that makes the routing and the checking easier. The equipment has all been checked the night before, the scrubber filled, the sensors calibrated: there really isn't that much to do.

It always amazes me that I can put it all together, and get my gear on, in pretty much the same time as an OC diver takes with his kit. Perhaps I have been diving with a pretty dreamy bunch of divers, who spend a lot of time chatting and messing with their kit. Many of them are not diving regularly enough to have a routine, and they're often using borrowed kit that they're not used to. That said, for that 30 minutes I must, of necessity, be a little anti-social: I can't afford to be distracted. For almost 5 minutes of that I'm pre-breathing the unit, so I can't talk. But most of the other guys talk enough for five. After dive one I'm set up: I don't need to change tanks - all I need to do is a positive and negative test and pre-breathe while they're all running around like headless chickens.

If I'm diving deep then there may be only one dive a day, and everyone spends a lot longer prepping and checking, because there's absolutely no hurry. A lot of the time spent with the rebreather at home or before a big dive is not strictly necessary: if you're not the kind of person who likes tinkering with equipment then it may not be for you. I, for one, admit I find it hard to walk past my diving equipment laid out drying without messing with something. It's a compulsion, I'm afraid.

sensor330

20-30 mins if assembling from scratch and only about the time it takes to put the BP, harness, and regs on a doubles set up it I we're multi day day diving with the same sorb.

Janos

I have a KISS and I'm the same as Dave and Rich. Maybe a little bit longer. It's certainly quicker than going to get my OC tanks filled.

However on a recent Red Sea liveaboard with the club, all I had to do was prep the unit and get fills each night ready for the next day. This still took an hour or so. But the OC guys didn't have to do anything other than take their regs off their tanks as it was all filled in situ. Lucky gits.

Janos

__________________
You can lead a horse to water but you can't climb a ladder with a large bell in both hands - Vic Reeves
www.hellfins.com/shed

otterboy

I'm relatively new to the scene (less than 50 hours on a copis meg).

I'd say it takes me a solid hour to build the rig up from pieces lying all over the dive bench, and maybe 15 minutes to tear it down.

I usually do all the prep, except for the calibration the night before, and then cal the morning of before loading it in the boat (or truck if it's a shore dive).

I'm getting better, and when things settle out, it'll probably be closer to 30-45 minutes when I nice and comfortable with the workflow.

mriopel

On my o2ptima about 1 hour to set up and check the day before the dive and maybe 10 min on the boat to double check again. and about 20-30 min to tear down and clean. But I stay down longer than the oc guys and see more than they do and my deco time is some what less than there's . So in the long run I say Rebreather save you time. Just like air vs enriched air in NDL limits. More bank for the buck.



Mike