Used Dolphin for 2,000 US$

mabuhaydive

Hi SBW divers,

I am unexperienced yet with SCRs but need to be trained with it and need a rig due to work obligations. I have my eyes on a 2004 Dolphin with all the accessories for 2,000 USD. Is this price reasonable? Any recommendations?

It will be used primarily for depths up to 5 ata in tropical saltwater.

Thanks and any reply would be greatly appreciated.

Mabuhay Dive

PADI MSDT 479226

wedivebc

I have seen plenty of them for around $1500 on ebay. Does it come with oxygauge? That would make it worth more.

__________________
Cheers,

Dave....

Man is the only animal burdened with the knowledge he will eventually die

RebreatherNut

Welcome to Rebreather World!

RBN

__________________
"One minute to go, Luck-meister! Then I'll be down on you like a buzzard on a gut wagon." - ALF

mabuhaydive

Hi Dave, Thanks for the info. The cost 2K includes 4 tanks, a computer, dosage insert for 32%, oxy 2 and some more. BTW Dave, I was in BC during the summer of 2005 and stayed for a night at Burnaby. That was after I stayed at Winnipeg, MB for 3 weeks. How's diving in BC? I've heard there are lots of commercial diving there in the harbor? Is this right, eh?

mabuhaydive

Hi RBN, I've seen that you dive with a Dolphin and a Ray- what's the difference between them? I've heard that Ray has been discontinued production by Drager. Does it mean there's going to be issues with spare parts? My ex-boss here in Pattaya says Aqua-Lung will be severing ties with Drager starting 2008 and that dealership won'e be exclusive anymore. How true is this.

Also, I was quoted 2000 Euro for a brand new Dolphin. Is this a good price? Seriously I am pondering of getting a used one with all the accessories such as oxygauge, tanks, 32% dosage insert, etc.

Can you please advise the regulations for sending tanks by airfreight. Do you need to bleed them 0 bar or does the valve needs to be removed?

wedivebc

Sounds like a good deal to me. I live minutes away from some of the best cold water diving in the world. I don't know about Burnaby but Nanaimo diving is awesome. I plan on stopping in Pattaya next year. Might just look you up.

__________________
Cheers,

Dave....

Man is the only animal burdened with the knowledge he will eventually die

seppu

hi
to expensive
32% is not importent.
oxy2 is a piece of crap.
buy one without elektronik and by a revodream.cheap and easy to use.
gruss sepp

RebreatherNut

Well, the Ray was intended for the Sport Diving market, with the idea of depth around 20 meters. That is why the Ray comes standard equipped with a 50% dosage. Of course, other dosage jets are available as option. The Dolphin has a larger scrubber and the first stage has a fixed IP. Also, the Dolphin is more robust etc.

You are correct, Draeger has discontinued producing the RAY and Aqualung will stop distributing Draeger Parts sometime in the near future. I am not worried about spare parts, someone will distribute them and they will be available out there. As far as RAY parts goes, many parts such as O-Rings etc. are the same that are used with the Dolphin. A good source to look up drawings and parts is: W+S Water Safety Europe GmbH - Online Shop - Seit 1999

Sending tanks via airfreight is no problem at all, empty the tank and remove the valve. All you have left is a "piece of metal".

In my honest opinion, save up some cash a few months longer, skip the SCR step and go straight to CCR. Plenty of good used Sport KISSes and other used CCRs available starting in the $3k range.

cheers,
RBN

__________________
"One minute to go, Luck-meister! Then I'll be down on you like a buzzard on a gut wagon." - ALF

Freef

The OP said the Rebreather would be for work and down to 40m [5 ata] so perhaps a CCR is out of the question. SCR units will be as suited for the depth range specified and there may be a problem with getting O2 where they live, but pre mix nitrox may be available.

I'm off the soapbox now.

The Dolphin would be a good tool for dives of up to 3 hours on the loop between scrubber fills. The disadvantage compared with CCR is that the decompression obligations are the same as they would be on OC for the fO2 in the loop.

The advantages though are longer duration than OC, far simpler unit than CCR, thousands in use, parts easy to get from Tecme and the rest and so on.

Aqualung are [I hear] bringing out their own Rebreather, and so will sever ties with Drager. I don't know how this will affect the UK market as the inporters [Apeks] are owned by Aqualung.

The 32% jet is required for diving to 40m if you stick to the standard gas and jet combination, mixing and matching won't really help due to the vO2 variability of the user.

As for the pO2 monitoring system, anything is better than nothing.

The Ray is no where near as useful as the Dolphin, although home builders like them.

There are non-Drager units out there as well, Submatix and Azimuth for example, and if you haven't done any training these could be worth a look. If you have done the Dolphin course then that may be the best way to go to avoid the extra expense.

As for cylinders, a DIN valve on a 5 or 10L can be converted with an adaptor from Tecme Tauchen - Cave, Nitrox, Rebreather Ausbildung, Tec Ausrüstung, Reisen part no A0020 on the 'Adaptors' page. You could also consider converting the first stage connector with A0001.

That would mean you don't have to worry about transporting the tanks.

__________________
David.

Currently owner of two differently sized ankles.