h2ophotopro

Has anyone tried the new Extend Air cartridges for the Inspiration?? One of the guys at my shop just upgraded his unit to this system. Sue is nice and easy to set up, saves time, and isnt much more expensive than using standard absorbent. Although the scrubber life is technically rated to 2 hours, word is most people are getting 4 hours.

Seems to be worth it, I might have to make this leap!

ROB DAVIE

Mike,

There are some very serious issues with the criteria that the company used to test those cartridges.

The company will not stand by anything but the two-hour official statement, yet they are always willing to give you the "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" routine on the side.

That, and the increased cost make me walk away from them. Caveseeker knows more about their test protocol. I would suggest you give him a PM.

Rob Davie

schford

I'm interested in hearinf about the test protocal - spill the beans Stef!

DoubleTop

You been around the red-light districts again

I thought they had better psydonym names than "Sue"

DT.

caveseeker7

I almost missed that one ROFL.

Mike, nice Freudian slip there, now I am wondering about Sue. ;)

At DEMA Micropore had flyers at their booth with a test graph for the cartridge used in the Dolphin with their cannister. CO2 concentration of 0.5% was reached at about 210 minutes.

Test protocol was 40 lpm RMV, 1.35 lpm CO2 injection, 1 ata and 13 degrees C (55.4 deg F).
That's nowhere close to your rigs CE (40 RMV, 1.6 CO2, to 11 ata, 4 degrees C) rating.
They consider this to be the NAVY standard, although from PRISM and SM1600 test data the temperature should be lower (4.5 degrees C) and ambient pressure higher (60 ft. minimum, I've seen 190 ft. and 300 ft data, too, for mixed gas RBs).
Temperatures are okay at best for our waters, about the as a yearly average I guess. Although I've seen mid 40s F locally. The 1 ata is nonsense, we're divers, not firefighters. I for one like to dive deeper than bathtub limits. And consider the Dolphin dumps around 25% of spend gas before the scrubber.

Also, from what I gather from correspondence with DiveRite Express, it makes a difference is a Micropore cannister is used rather than an adapter. That might explain the negative feedback from DSD using the cartridge in Inspirations.

As for the price, I don't know what SSA peddles sorb or cartridges for.
MSRP for the cartridges are $120 for a box of 4, so $30/each.
That's $15/hr per website, $10/hr per test data or $7.50/hr "wink-wink-nudge-nudge".
Sodasorb MSRP is $99 per pail (37lbs.) or $2.68/lbs., you can do the math for the Inspiration.

For the PRISM's 6lbs. scrubber it's $16.08/fill or $3.22/hr (at its rating!).
That's anywhere between more than twice and more than four times the price
for at least 20% less time with an insufficiently tested product ...

Crazyduck

Stefan,

Great information!

Just as a FYI to everyone- I would be very careful with the “nod, nod, wink, wink” of this product. I have a friend who was hit HARD with a nasty Co2 Hit in the Caribbean with this product.


If memory serves me right he did the “nod, nod” and exiting with a screaming headache. His profiles were well within normal Dolphin limits. Depth was good, standard Dolphin setup, with standard flow jet, his only error was running the scrubber over on time. He was not a happy camper about the incident and clearly expressed it. I am not sure by how much he overran the canister but from memory it was not much and he was very disappointed.


Dive safe, Andrew

h2ophotopro

This is all good info. I am not one to "test the limits". So I think if its rated to 2...going to 4 is a little bit far.

Thanks for the details Stefan.