Newbie questions about costs

Chii

A crossroad has been reached in life, One path is the safe and humble journy of continueing tod dive an OC system and the other path leads to the dark path of Rebreather diveing.

To this day i done my homework by reading and contacting education organizations regarding costs and suitable units for my kind of diveing. Based on what i know so far i strongly feel that the inspiration is the unit for me.

I have contacted an education organization and learned that the education will cost aprox 1100 EURO and the unit aprox 4000euro fur a used one.

I still know very little about the running cost of a Rebreather, Sensors sorb and service of the unit needs to be done regularly but what kind of cost can i anticipate with RB diveing. Can i do most of the service myself or do i need to send it on a regular basis?

A quick calculation of running costs would be very interesting. (and YES i know that the cost can not be compared to OC diveing)

Mark Chase

Almost any dive costs £15

A fill of Sofnalime is £8, 60bar of 02 out of a 3ltr and 60-100bar of diluent
Even a 90m dive for three -four hours costs about £15 in total.

Dependent on what unit you buy servicing costs from £200 to £600 a year including three replacement cells.

Scrims are replaced about every 10-15 dives for me but thats because on a KISS they often get wet.

First stages need to be serviced and cleaned just like OC.

Weather or not you can self service depends on the unit of choice and your personal ability. I can do anything mechanical so I can fully service my KISS my self. However electronics are totally beyond me so when the Inspo went wrong ti went back to base.

Some units like the Borris MUST be sent in for a service or they refuse to let you dive. I avoid such nanny state units myself. Id say the KISS and rEvo are the two cheapest quality units to buy and run. The Inspo is probably the cheapest ECCR to run.

ATB

Mark

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Is it supposed to make that noise ?

I took my unit to the dive shop and demanded they bolt on every thing that would fit.

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"Doing It Chasey"Hammerhead Eccr Advanced Diving System

Ben Field

In practice the cost of the course can as much as double when you include- travel, accomadation, food, beer/wine/cider and boat/lake fees, also consider you might need to buy some new and different tools (I took this as an oppurtunity to create a whole Rebreather tool chest but then I might have gone over the top )

O2 sensors cost whatever they cost, 3 of them once a year (occasionaly a couple more if you get some duffs or flood) you cannot skimp on this.

Sofnolime costs whatever it costs where you live, you'll get through at least a couple of tubs a year hopefully more.

You have the cost of maintaining, filling and servicing your rebreather and bailout tanks.

Servicing is unit specific- I'll let a Inspiration diver fill you in there.


It all works out rather costly, the benefits lie far beyond- in Gas diving costs, (if you do enough of it) and the simple joy of bubbless diving

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Beware Fridge Suck

tekdiver170

For "everyday" recreational limit diving a rebreather tends to be a little bit more expensive than OC, but with technical diving the savings are quite big (like you said you already know that). Mark saying that shallow and deeper dives tend to run about the same price is right on, but I will say I think he's a little high on his estimate but again I live in the states and not the UK where everything is overprices (sorry guys, but it's expensive over there).

Out in Hawaii (Expensive for US) on my Inspo my costs are as follows:
(All money in US$)

Sorb: $120/40lb pail.
Approx 7 scrubber fills per pail = $17/scrubber fill (4 hour duration in warm water) 3 or 4 recreational dives if diving with OC counterparts.
= approx $5/dive

Dil and O2 (Usually get 4 or 5 recreational dives out of a fill, again with OC buddies)
Dil = $0.10/cf = 19cf = $1.90 = $0.50/dive
O2 = $0.50/cf = 19cf = $10 = $2.50/dive
(but who really uses all the gas in their tanks)

Batteries:
$10/ batt. Replace at least one batt every 15 hours (Approx 10 dives) (what I like to do). = $1.00/dive

These are the easy costs - like everyone said O2 sensors will run $200-$400 depending on CCR unit. Assumed 100 dives/ year = $2-$4/dive

Total cost/dive
Sorb = $5
Dil = $0.50
O2 = $5
Batt = $1
Sensors = $4

Total = $15.50/dive or per hour or diving may be more accurate way of saying it.

I did not include the yearly service fee, varies depending on model of CCR even if it is an Inspiration (Classic vs. Vision) but it's going to run you about $2/hr. if you make 100 dives per year.

I will tell you, I love diving my Rebreather and dive it as often as allowed.

Hope this helps.