Exact difference between a Dolphin and the older Atlantis?

felixsimba

Hey
Anyone out there care to take a shot at outlining the exact differences between a Dolphin and the older Atlantis and are the parts interchangeable? If not which ones are not. I only dive Dolphin and have never encounter an Atlantis but notice someone is trying to sell some Atlantis parts which I do not know whether I should buy as backup parts for my dolphin. Thanks a million.

camerone

At the risk of missing a few, I'll start with what I remember.

I had an Atlantis that I "upgraded" to a Dolphin.

The Atlantis canister is vastly different, and should be avoided at all costs. They never quite sealed properly, as the plastic was too flexible, and they were very prone to problems. The Dolphin scrubber is a lot better - if you can believe that...

The counterlung bags are of a different material, and the Dolphin included a flowmeter, which made orifice checking easy. The Dolphin ones are a lot more rugged.

The flow jets are identical in flow, but slightly different in construction. The new Dolphin ones seal with a second O-ring on the outside of the jets and a larger/longer cap. They're cross-compatible, however, between units, as are the hoses.

I've heard that there are two different diameters for some of the hose pieces, but I've found them to be compatible across the two (breathing loop, P-port connections.) The fittings (nuts, clamps) are a little more color coded on the Dolphin than the Atlantis, but if you don't care, it doesn't matter. The bags come with nuts, IIRC, so they should be usable as a set, although, again, I'd avoid the Atlantis breathing bags.

The BC has undergone several revisions between the Atlantis and various Dolphin vintages.

The Atlantis and earlier Dolphins used a different first stage regulator (piston, I believe) than the newer Dolphins, which have switched to a diaphram setup, IIRC.

That's about it for differences, that I can remember. Wacky hose threading, the basic shell, the dosage unit mechanical design, etc, is all the same, or it was for me, anyway.

WRT spares -

A spare flow-block ("dosage unit") would also be a good thing, as you could either swap it in, or just cannibalize orifices from it when you get the inevitable clog on a liveaboard week... this would be my #1 choice of spare parts...

Another breathing loop hose and a spare mouthpiece would be a good thing to have, although the Drager parts seem to have a really bad habit of drying out if they're not used, which causes the check valves to warp, necessitating replacement. Also, the Drager mouthpieces are anything but service-friendly with their clamps/zip tie setup...holding on to a spare one (assembled) may not save you anything if you find it doesn't work when you need it. When I used to dive a Drager, I was always fuming about the second rate engineering that went into the mouthpiece design...

A spare first stage and hose set could be useful; I would even suggest getting a TecMe replacement for the nut to convert it to standard DIN, so you could use either a special Drager valve, or a standard DIN cylinder, which might make travel a lot easier...much safer solution than an inline fitting adapter.

Hope this helps somewhat...

felixsimba

Hi Camerone, thank you so much for yr most informative reply.

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Mikel-Deko

Hi

You have a very very good explanation (in Spanish) with very good pictures. Thanks Jordi Mateo.

http://www.hmdiver.com/museorb/dolphin/diferencias.html

Enjoy

Mikel-Deko

montyg

The fittings on the counterlungs where they go throught the shell are very heavy chromed brass in the Atlantis as opposed to plastic on the Dolphin. You can use Dolphin breathing hoses with original Atlantis counterlung connectors.

The inhalation bag on the Atlantis does not come standard with a spare p-connector for an Oxygauge. You have to cut a hole and install one yourself if you want that. I think when the Atlantis was made by Uwatec the intention was for you to use the Aladin Air Z O2 with sensors in the breathing hose, not in the counterlung.

The male part of the p-connectors between the Atlantis scrubber and breating bags attach to the scrubber by o-ring and screw thread on the connector's body.

On a Dolphin the male part of the p-connectors between the Dolphin scrubber and breating bags attach to the scrubber by o-ring and retaining screws.

This difference in the scrubbers is important when contemplating injecting oxygen at the point between the exhalation bag and where the gas enters the scrubber because you have to specficy what scrubber you have to Tecme or whoever makes those when you order that part!!!

HTH

rgds
monty

denzel

I'd kick the bugger selling that!

Serious, (I'm the one selling the atlantis gear) the scrubber seals perfectly, and always has. The ones that don't seal, do that imo due to repetedly overtightning, not due construction failure.
The biggest difference between the dolphy and the atlantis scrubber is where the male p-port end goes into the CL. On the dolphy scrubber you can replace that male bit, on the atlantis you can't.

The inhale lung comes with an extra p-port.

Hoses and mouth piece not on the list.

Yeah, ask away...

denz.

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red3171

Will the Dolphin scrubber work in an Atlantis I? I was told the dimensions are not the same and there are fitment issues. If it would work with the Atlantis gear, I would probably get one.

How involved is it to convert an Atlantis to a Dolphin? I am more interested in the improvements they made rather than aesthetics. What is a rough cost?

Thanks,
Red

camerone

I essentially replaced scrubber and bags, plus the fittings to clamp things down to the bag.

I retained the shell and BC. I used the same first stage, hoses, dosage block, and orifices.

It's very overpriced to make the transition. I think I spent a bit over $1200 for it, IIRC, plus the cost of doing a rebuild on the regulator, block, and mouthpiece. It's been a few years since I did that, so I'm a little fuzzy. However, I got the Atlantis for free, so it wasn't a bad deal in the end to make the unit a lot safer to dive. It'll be a nice platform to make into a mCCR when I get bored with my eCCR (like that'll ever happen ) Plus, I'd have to pry it away from my girlfriend, who took a liking to it...

red3171

Thanks Camerone. I already have the bags from the Dolphin, but I'd like to get the scrubber and probably all the fittings that you upgraded on yours.

Thanks,
Red

RebreatherNut

I have also upgraded my Atlantis to a Dolphin. I bought a new dolphin scrubber canister (fits perfectly in the Shell) and then I replaced the Atlantis breathing bags with the dolphin breathing bags and now I am good to go.

I had bad luck with the Atlantis canister, that sucker always had somewhere a leak! But that is history now.

Best,
RBN

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