The dreaded question?

lost-diver@hotmail.co.uk

Hi..

let me spend five seconds telling you who I am. I'm 18 years old and I love diving UK style, and I;m taking the big leap.

I now want to invest in a rebreather but have never used one what do I have to do to find out which one I should buy eventualy.

I know this is the unanswerable question but I need to know how I work out which rebreather peforms well as an all rounder.

I have heard about rebreather trial days in the red sea but I'm unsure if these will be any good. Does anyone have any experience with them.

Kind regards
Ben Curtis

gwilson

Try Deep Blue Diving

Bit closer than the red sea.

PaulTG2

Hello,

Any of the diving rebreathers available at retail will probably work well for all around diving. You can probably get training, where you want, on any that have been on the market for a reasonable amount of time. Training and maintaining proficiency will be the most important aspect of how safe you will be diving a rebreather. They can all keep you alive and they can all cause you to kill yourself.

While different rebreathers might have slightly better features for one type of diving over another, but most can be configured for most typical types of technical diving. If you are doing extreme diving (extremely cold, deep, long, gue expidition, etc) then the selection process becomes a bit more critical.

Although the passionate debates on Rebreather World might suggest otherwise, it seems to me that the issues in the main differences between rebreathers come down to simple personal preferences.

About the only consistent thing I see is that people who start diving SCR convert or move to CCR at a fairly predictable rate.

Read about the various issues of safety, failure, WOB, configuration, etc and decide what you believe/want and then find a rebreather with that configuration. Alternatively, find what the people you plan on diving with and dive the same rebreather so you can learn from their knowledge and expertise.

-p

puddleduck

Hi Ben
You are right there is no answer to your question.
I have spent 3 years deliberating your question and am a newly certificated CCR diver. Next year, with hours under my belt and lots of help and advice from other divers I hope to move from being a C card holder with delusions of competence to a ccr diver who is not a risk to others or myself. The switch from O/C to CCR is a big step; Until you have tried a rebreather you won't understand. Imagine going back to doing your openwater course and having to forget everything you know about how to dive.
Read everything you can, talk to every diver you see with a box on thier back [ If you are UK based the Cove is a great place in the winter to meet rebreather divers and despite the fact they look hard and have the equilevent of a hardware shop of bits dangling off their D rings they love to talk, usually after the dive!] I did and learnt masses.
The red sea dive experience I have no first hand experience of but I have a couple of mates who have done it and feedback very positive. The one proviso was that they felt that a couple of hours on a unit was not long enough to feel anywhere near comfortable with it. The next day they were trying something that dived and breathed differently and it was back to square one. Great fun by all accounts but they are still undecided as to go ECCR, MCCR or SCR.
Do your homework over the winter and think about how you want to dive, what you expect from your unit and how much time you are prepared to give up from "real diving" to become competent and safe on the unit of your choice.
I am going to be at the cove over the winter, relying on the goodwill of others, getting the hours in and dreaming of competence with a view to real dives in the summer.
Pm me if you want to dive a cold quarry with a ccr diver with no delusions of their ability at the moment but a clear vision of how they will dive next summer. I will probably be looked after by a divers on a variety of other units so you will see some of the differences between them.
Happy researching.

Mark

PS Puddleduck is a reference to happy days at Gildy. I will be there I keep telling myself.

__________________
As I lay in bed last night gazing at the stars I thought if I hadn't bought the rebreather I could afford a roof.

lost-diver@hotmail.co.uk

Thank you everyone for the replies so far.

I am tempted to go and do an Inspiration rebreather course because of the fact I currently know people who use the unit.

What are the downfalls of chosing this particular rebreather.

I like the 3hour scrubber time but every thing i read on the net is just raving good things, there isn't anywhere that compares each rebreather in turn.

Any help much appreciated.

nigelh

That's what I did.

Courses at beginner level are very unit specific because you need to be able to take it to bits and then know why you didn't get it back together right.
Above that I see less justification for being strongly unit driven.
Not very trendy but you can usually borrow the bit you just dropped over the side from somebody as they are getting to be common as muck in the UK. Three in my BSAC club and BSACees aren't the most eager grabbers of technology.

I like the ol' yellow box and I'll defend it as as good as the rest but even I can't claim it's seriously better. It's rather like buying 150bhp sports motorbikes: you have to be a very special person to discover the differences let alone exploit them. I also like the way I phone AP and the stuff is on my desk next day. OK so I break things. I'm like that.

__________________
nigelh

tibby

Hi Ben,
As others suggested above the key is to read as much as you can on the subject before making a choice. A good start is Mastering Rebreathers by Jeff Bozanic and articles here on Rebreather World. A rebreather experience helps but don't let yourself mesmerized or discoureaged by the first unit you try.
If you haven't yet, I strongly suggest you take an Advanced Nitrox class, it'll be a huge help in understanding what you're buying.
Good luck,
Tibby

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Does the voice of reason change when you add helium to the mix?...hmm

Mark Chase

Its not a bad unit its just a sod to travel with and IMHO they need a few mods.

The Classic desperately needs a HUD and the Vision desperately needs a forth cell type monitor to cover the arse of the single hand set.

They both need travel frames, BOVs and a decent wing and harness.


Having started out on a Classic Inspo then moved to an all singing and dancing Hammer Head Controller (simila functions to the Vision) I now dive a KISS.

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I now feel its best to start out on a MCCR like the Revo / KISS or Copis Meg and then move on to ECCR units like the Vision, Hammer Head, Sentinel etc etc.

I would also say having done business with AP I would opt for the New Sentinel ECCR if I were going for a full on unit straight away. Technically its better than the Vision and its still UK based.

Are you in Kent?

If so and you'd like a go on a KISS you can have a play on my one down Layborn one Saturday so you can compare it to a Vision. Proper Vision try dives are easy to arrange with instructors. I am not an instructor but i can keep you alive in Layborn

ATB

Mark Chase

__________________
Is it supposed to make that noise ?

I took my unit to the dive shop and demanded they bolt on every thing that would fit.

Join my elite diving teem and get a Tshirt

"Doing It Chasey"Hammerhead Eccr Advanced Diving System

Wol

I have had a inspo classic for about a year and half. - It does worry me not currently having a hud (had a badexperience of battery bounce awhile ago which could have been very nasty) - also having recently read the compiled fatalities report that the have been about 57 fatalities on ap units out of the 8000 or so sold - - I would seriously consider a kiss especially with the new hud offered by delta p. I have heard that the unit is also easier to learn than an inspo. Also could be a good choice with the exchange rate the way it is. That said I do like diving my inspo.

GarryL

I've been diving open circuit trimix since 1999 and made the switch to rebreathers a bit late for a technical diver, only 2 years ago. I chose a second hand Inspiration Classic then for a number of reasons:
- I wanted something with a low cost as I wasn't sure what sort of rebreather I really wanted
- units were relatively cheap and plentiful in very good condition
- they are easy to fix with very good support in the UK
- most divers I knew had either Classics or Visions then so, importantly, there was a really good support network of mates to cover all those questions not covered by the training
- although not the sexiest unit around, the Classic was doing some very serious dives (and still is)
- there were lots of trainers around with plenty of experience on the Inspiration and the training had been refined (lots of early rebreather deaths could be attributed to poor learning and skills)

I used my Classic for 2 years and, did some fantastic dives on it. It was the perfect introduction to rebreather diving for me. I've now moved on to a Meg as my needs have moved on but my point is when you are starting out, I would stick to a unit (not necessarily the Classic) that is already in wide use.