CK and Sofnolime dust

David Pye

Hi chaps,

I was taught to try to fill the scrubber from a good 6-12 inches to try to give some of the dust a chance to blow away, which it does.

I have no doubt that inhaling the dust is pretty bad for my lungs, so I do my best to try to do this. However, I've noticed that a nice film of white sofnolime dust ends up inside the head after a weekend's diving, so I assume it also ends up in my lungs.

Any suggestions about how to avoid this? My unit was bought secondhand, and does have a pair of scruffy-looking scrims that sit at top and bottom of the plastic/metal mesh assy, but don't seem to be doing their job.

I did consider sticking a vacuum cleaner hose on the centre and try to 'suck' some dust out of the stack that way before diving the scrubber.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

David

Jonathan

Hi David,

Have you consider trying spherasorb instead - there's much less dust in it.

Primarily began using it over here (west Ireland) as it was more easily available. Following that I find it much nicer to pack as there's much more uniformity in the size of the granuals.

Cheers,

J.

RichClark

I use cut down Inspo scrims in the upper mesh spider, this prevents most of the dust transferring. I also use spherasorb and as Jonathan says, it's much less dusty.

Cheers

Rich

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JS1scuba

David,

I began "double pouring" my Sofnolime about 20 dives ago. It made all the difference. I went to the supermarket and got a 2 quart plastic mixing bowl and drilled about 20 small holes in it. Now I pour the sorb into that first -- bounce is up and down a few times then transfer to the scrubber toob. Dont bounce it too much or you create more dust. Just enough to shake it off. I find virtually no sorb scum at the bottom of the trap anymore. The crap that accumulates on the walls of the tube washes off with a small scrubber pad.

Cheers

JDS


PS - i am about to try the RebreatherWorldSorb and will see how that goes. It's equivalent to the 8-12 but should be ok.

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Craig69

I discovered 'double pouring' on a recent trip because I didn't have space to take a full sorb container so decanted fills into air tight cereal containers.

As well as making the scrubber easier to fill it also cut the dust down a lot.

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lizardland

That's what I found too, only I use 5L water bottles from the supermarket, about 60p each (and you get 5L of water free ). It holds just enough for a couple of KISS fills.

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JimG

I cut out donut shaped circle from a vacuum cleaner filter and put it on top of the sorb, below the screen. Its a white material, and catches most of the extra dust. Also, when I fill the canister I run a fan to blow away the dust as it is being poured.

RobPot

What he said!
Plus an Inspiration scrim in the bottom mesh - no build up of dust anywhere in the head.

zbskii

Snofolime is way less dusty than dragersorb or sodasorb. Sphearasorb is the best; I've used all 4. Snofolime is the best balance of price and performance for me.

One trick I've used is to rinse the inside of my inhale hose with water, then dump it out. All the fine dust sticks to the inside of the damp hose that way.
-Brett

Marc

Hi guys,
I noticed the same thing (only done my course recently and this is my first CCR). As a biologist, I also don't like the idea of alkaline dust on my lungs...I like the idea of adding the scrims as some of you have done.

Three questions:
1. Do you place the scrims in between the mesh and the sorb or do you add them on the other side of the mesh?
2. How often do you replace them?
3. Last one, maybe silly one, but does it increase WOB?

Thanks for feedback.
Cheers, Marc

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