Taking care of an Inspiration Classic

Pierre Farrugia

Hello all,

After all my grumbling due to having my handsets cracks and getting them repaired, now I am looking a way to prevent such problems in the future! I tought that I pampered my unit but this does not seem enough. This is what I do, any ideas are welcome.

When transporting my rebreather, I always place it at the back of my pickup, upright, with both handsets clipped to handle. Unit is then clipped to railing, same in a boat, and normally this is a hard boat (slow speed)with a fixing point! Underwater handsets are fixed to inner lungs D rings. In my garage it has it's own shelf, and with a rope secure to it's handle so it does not fall. Normally handsets are eased down. Head open so moisture can come out!

An other important issue is moisture travelling down the handsets hoses, to tell you the truth I never heard of this before and knowing that handsets are at ambient pressure with head, it's logical.



Also looking at the pic above and having this problem of battery usage for more than a month and a half diving and doing more than 8 deep dives, if the water was coming from the so called crack, there should have been more water in (I think) and could have been visible trough display as my friend had!
Do you store your unit with handsets clipped above the unit ? Do you have any good suggestions to prevent this? Anyone had water in handsets, but with no cracks?

__________________
Pierre Farrugia

My wife told me " If you don't quit diving I'm going to leave you"
My reply " God, I'll miss you"

www.atlam.org www.divemed.com

Barrie Law

Hi Pierre,

Sounds to me like you have it cracked

I think you have covered all the bases and short of keeping the thing dry you should not have any further problems

The only thing I would suggest is to hang your electrics with the handsets being at the highest point rather than lying the whole thing flat as this will encourage any moisture out of the hand set leads when being stored.

Do not however leave the head dangling and being supported by the hand sets only, sit the head flat onto a shami or water absorbent mat and extend the handsets above the head, secure hand sets by hooks leaving some slack on the handset leads.

I did not see a recurrence of my moisture problem after I adopted the above practise and removed my electronics head asap after diving to allow it to dry out, keep it face down to discourage moisture from entering the hand set leads.


Regards

Lord M

Being new to Rebreather's and knowing the amount of diving I do I decided to keep my handsets and scrubber head in a room in my house that has a dehumifier. It dries out overnight after just a bit of swabbing to get the bigger drips. It should also gradually suck any water out of the cables if left for a few days or more. I couldn't think of any reason why I shouldn't put it in this room, as water is not a friend to electrics.

jradomski

leaving the sensors exposed to a dry enviroment will significantly reduce their life.. the electrolyte will give up moisture to the enviroment and dry up prematurely.. sensors are rated at 50% RH..

__________________
Joe Radomski
CCR Trimix Instructor Trainer
ANDI Instructor Trainer Director #10

All posts are personal opinions and DO NOT reflect any affiliated agency unless specifically stated.