Hi, intrigued and looking for advice

Takeuchi

Hi all.
I'm currently living in the South of England where I do a majority of my diving. I'm a member of a very active club diving most weekends throughout the yearas well as numerous trips abroad. I've been diving for 7 years and I'm a BSAC sports, just been too idle to progress further - enjoying diving too much.
I'm not interested in the politics between agencies and diving methods, always interested to hear peoples experiences and advice but don't want it rammed down my throat!.
My wife and I are seriously thinking about the scr route so I'll be looking for advice and suggestions and do's and don'ts in the future. have tried the Inspiration and also the Dolphin, for the diving we do we're leaning towards the Dolphin.
Cheers all.

Ben Field

Hiya,

Well done for finding Rebreather World!

I'm always interested when people say they are looking at SCR over CCR, the KISS rebreathers have irradicated the price difference that used to exist (not to mention they are as simple as SCR's anyway) and in the UK we have huge access to ECCR in the form on the APD Inspiration and Evolution, I wonder what factors have you considered to reach this choice?
(I'm genuinely curious, nothing wrong with your choice though :-)

My advice would be- Do you REALLY want an SCR?
and secondly- Go try out a Rebreather, see if its for you.

I thought I did and looked at the details of usage, ownership etc and ended up with a KISS CCR, for me it is perfect. (I do a mix of diving from UK lakes and quarries, shore dives, inshore shallow dives, offshore diving with BSAC club members to 50mtrs and deeper gas diving (although not on CCR yet))

I've found CCR is adaptable to all types of diving

BEN

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Beware Fridge Suck

John Langley

I would whole heartedly agree with Ben.
My first Rebreather was the dolphin which I dived standard for a couple of years, then I converted it to the KISS method. I dived it like this for about 6 months, liked it so much I went and bought a KISS from Jetsam.

Regards

J.L.

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www.aqualanddivers.co.uk

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Thank your mother for the dripping.

ajjaffe

Takeuchi-
As a Dolphin Diver, my opinion is a bit biased.

Question you need to ask, is... Why do I want this? As mentioned in an earlier post, KISS CCR is almost the same price as a Dolphin these days. Plus it allows you to upgrade easily to more advanced and technical diving.

If ALL you want is extended bottom time within the NDL, breathe warm wet air, then the Dolphin is fine. As most people here will tell you, if you start with the Dolphin, at some point, you will WANT to do more advanced stuff and then you will have to either buy a new unit or convert the Dolphin.

A Dolphin is a good learning tool, but if you really think you want to take the advantages of diving a CCR, then start with the CCR.

-Adam

Takeuchi

Hi all
Thanks for the offerings so far. Probably best for me to give some more in depth info to explain the position I'm in and which Rebreather would be best.
My wife and I are not interested in pursuing the depth option so stay the shallower side of 35-40m. We both currently dive nitrox and have done so for a few years, generally we do 80ish dives a year predominantly in the UK.
Where we dive mostly getting gas is a bit of an issue and can be pricey due to captive audience etc. We have both started doing the photography thing and having watched 2 divers on scr's getting in close to the action can see the difference it makes. I don't think we could justify the expense of a ccr such as the inspiration due to the diving we intend doing.
Our dive days in the uk generally consist of 2 dive days and think the 3hr (as i'm told) run time of the dolphin would be more than sufficient for our requirements, it's always a ball ache and expense dragging the extra tins around for a full days diving. I appreciate I'm not going to make huge saving financially but the ease of not having to faff around changing cylinders etc on a RIB will be a godsend.
I like the simplicity of the dolphin compared with the inspiration although the hamster cheek scenario of the dolphin upside down would take some getting used to.
I'm a qualified blender and have O2 so filling will be simplicity. I don't think the pre mixed nitrox will be a limitation as the diving we do is relatively shallow so a blown out 35m dive will enable us to dive elsewhere at a shallower depth (in my experience if a site is blown out we tend to end up shallower).
I have to admit to being a bit of a stick in the mud and would ideally like to go for a CE approved Rebreather which I believe the kiss's aren't.

Anymore for anymore, sorry to waffle!
Cheers

Ben Field

Everything you say sounds like a perfect rebreather candidate, SCR or CCR.


But why is CE important to you?
(You are correct, the KISS's aren't CE marked.)

In the UK it makes no difference to diving in a club, or off charter boats, no difference to buy or maintain than other units, simply means it hasn't been subjected to a set of tests which seem to vary in quality and content from CE approved rebreather to CE approved rebreather... but thats a whole other debate!

With the depths and diving you described it would seem to me that you are in the "sweet spot" for MCCR (KISS) and ECCR (Inspiration) but at the max of what the Dolphin is intended for, I really strongly reccomend you have a close up look before splashing your cash

Where about in the SE are you? There are probably some Rebreather World members nearby you can visit if you wanna see the "real thing"

BEN

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nigelh

Like many of the others I'm going to call you on that.
Nobody seems to stay on SCR. It is just a gas extender, requiring just the right mix and right jets for the depth while a CCR rig is just ready to go and dive on call.

I am part of a BSAC club in Sussex, just up the coast, and we have quite a growing contingent of CCR rebreathers now. SCRs would give us the same problem that carefully optomised Nitrox divers do when the weather means we want to change the dive site while the CCRs are just shrug, switch on and dive.

Buying SCR and then realising that it isn't offering you the advantages you hoped for works out expensive.

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nigelh