Meg or Sport Kiss

zbskii

I know they're *very* different beasts, and the meg costs about 2x as much, but it seems like a lot of people are ditching their kiss's for megs on the board. Chatting with my divemaster, he said the KISS is only for advanced users, and I should consider a meg or an inspiration. Opinions?

Pelagian

I think your DM has that the wrong way round.

By design there's less things that can go wrong on a Sport/classic KISS than on an eCCR.

The Meg will give you more options and the loop and canister design are better for deeper diving than the Sport KISS which is designed for Sport depths.

The downside is the training while having similar training times will encompass more failure modes on the Meg.

I dive both, but I only own the Meg, for me it is simply the finest unit out there.

If you don't intend to dive deep than the SK is a great option and upgrades were(at least before Gordon passed away) being created to allow the unit to grow with you into deeper diving.

Howeverf if you intend to dive deep the Meg is a stunning piece of kit and will take you far if your ready and trained for it.

Cheers

Seb

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wedivebc

Speaking as someone who has moved from KISS to meg let me say this: the kiss is a fine rebreather, well made and functional for what it is. The down side to the kiss is that it requires manual operation, which is not to say that you should not be constantly aware of your PO2 with an electronic unit but my favorite form of diving is overhead. Wrecks and most recently caves. In the event of a total blackout due to silt or light failure the kiss will not work for long without my intervention. This was the primary reason for the switch. Another aspect of the meg that I like os the lower work of breathing due to the couterlung position. The meg is rated to 500ft as opposed to 150 for the sport kiss. The meg is a more expensive unit but I feel it is much more solidly built and will survive much more of the abuse I am prone to giving my dive gear.
One plus side to the sport kiss at least is it is very light weight and travels well.
I guess you have to decide what your needs are but I don't think either unit is a bad buy for the money.

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Cheers,

Dave....

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

caveseeker7

Just throwing this in quickly, for a while now the Sport Kiss has been rated to 50m/165ft.
If you look through the forums you'll find discussions regarding the possibility to get trimix training on the Sport Kiss as that depth rating seems to be too shallow for agency requirements.

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Cheers
Stefan



"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.'!"

Ben Field

I know NOTHING about the MEG....

What you buy will depend entirely on what you are going to use it for.

If you want to dive less than 50mtrs, if you want a very light, easy to use unit that can be setup (including filling the scrubber and all the checks) in about 10minutes, can be packed into a plastic shopping bag its so small!, one that has a simple reliable oxygen addition system, simple electronics and a Bailout DSV as standard..... then the SportKISS will be perfect.

If you want to dive deeper than 50mtrs, need hands free operation and want a "tough" rebreather then the MEG, Inspiration, Boris etc is the end of the market you need to look.

None is "better" than the other, they where just designed for a different market.

Your DM friend is wrong I'm afraid, rebreathers don't have to be used for technical diving, in fact they are really rather useful for looking at fish....
(or so I heard )

BEN

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louisrankin

I own both the sports Kiss and classic kiss they are fantastic piece of kit and very reasonable priced. I believe they are ideal unit to learn to CCR dive on, also the sports kiss can go deeper than 50meter see thread: -

http://www.rebreatherworld.com/kiss-sport-kiss-rebreathers/1496-max-depth-sport-kiss.html

The Meg is also a fantastic piece of kit; it is very well made well but cost about twice as much. I believe you should choose a CCR that will suit your diving saying that I would love a Meg and may buy one if nobody markets a good reliable product to convert my Classic to an ECCR.

Louis

Ben Field

That thread also explains why its a bad idea legally and for your insurance...

I have heard from Jetsam (in person) that they won't be changing depth ratings based on new scrubbers or CL's (if/when they release them) the SK is a Sport depth rebreather- end of.


From another angle- consider your location- if the unit is built in North America what is their support for spares going to be like if you live in Europe or Asia... this I'm sure is one of the reasons why the Inspiration is so popular in the UK, you can get them on the phone, parts can be ordered overnight (well apart from software patches ) and if needs be you can drive to their factory!

BEN

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louisrankin

Most of my diving is in the 65m range and I more than happy to dive the sports kiss deeper. Why is a bad idea legally to dive deeper other than life insurance if you have got it. How do you obtain life insurance for a rebreather that has no CE mark in the UK?

Louis

Ben Field

You would have thought these two things are inextricably linked... they are not- My house is insured- it is not CE marked, I can insure myself- I am not CE marked.

However the courts don't care much for breaking even the most tenuous roles either.... you kill or bend someone diving outside a manufacturers limit (same for my house- if I use it beyond its design spec, like by holding a party for 300people on the roof and someone gets hurt) either way I would be in trouble.... going beyond even common sense is enough for a judge, stupidity is not an excuse, although utter ignorance might be

FWIW of all my dive gear the only things to have CE marks are- mask, OC regulators, backup torch and knife..... so by using my backplate, DIY harness, old tanks, american torch, scratch built D rings etc. Am I already well out of bounds?... yet my insurance didn't ask me about any of that.

From my discussions with BSAC regarding insurance for myself and my clubs activities it would seem even their narrow 3rd party insurance holds up to all manner of dodgy behaviour (solo diving, cave diving, diving beyond your qualified depth limit etc) but when a court gets involved you are screwed if you break basic known guidelines.

End of the line is Jetsam say 50mtrs, by all means go past that, we all know its been done but be aware of the ramifications.

FWIW I know a few people who do infact questions the SK's scrubber for depth but as yet (to my knowledge) ones not been dunked in an ANSI machine to try it... if you have one and Jetsam don't object I'm sure one of the users would offer theirs for testing- I'd like to know what my SK is capable of for one.

BEN

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Beware Fridge Suck

louisrankin

Ben,

Is nice to see that sometimes you are not worried about legality and insurance if you are covered or not covered and use your own judgement

Louis