Rebreathers Australia

ForTheFight

Is anyone familiar with Rebreathers Australia (http://www.rebreathers.com.au/) and their products. I am intrigued by the design but cant find much information.

Thanks

dan@scuba-training.net

This spring I trained Curt as an Inspiration diver and got to use his Stingray.

Let me say this: This is the finest MCCR I have ever used. This little machine "handles" ("swims" ?) like a dream. It is hydrodynamically very "clean" and compact.

The best part of this MCCR is that the center of buoyancy and the center of gravity are very close together, making it very stable about the pitch axis.

The unit's small size gives the diver a great deal of agility about all axis and the flat bottom makes it easy to stow aboard a dive boat.

The cylinders are mounted in the case in a "valves up" position. This contributes greatly to weight and balance solution. Opening and closing the valves while wearing the Stingray is just like shutdown drills with manifolded doubles.

The case is very rugged with no sharp edges and no delicate items that would break off easily.

Due to the Stingray's homebuilt origins, all of the parts look to be very field serviceable. It looks like a trip to the local plumbing supply store would yield all of the parts necessary to do a complete overhaul.

The spirally-corrugated breathing hoses are nice and the scrubber canister is very easy to clean and inspect. (I would consider adding a "scrim" to each end of the scrubber to get some of that electro-static protection against dust Martin talks about...)

Diving in South Florida on the regular cattle boats I was able to wear 4 pounds of lead (about 2 kilograms) on a conventional belt with a 1mm wetsuit and a 3mm hooded vest. NO TRIM WEIGHTS NEEDED! When your ballast is just right (in warm water, with a thin suit, etc.), the BC is really not used much, if at all. (Yes, I am an Alpinist at heart.)

Because the unit feels like a small (but wide) scuba cylinder, you could use a more "recreational" BC. (It feels like the old Twin-45s on your back)

The unit employs a Jetsam mouthpiece and electronics. Some Drager fittings are used on the counterlungs. Excellent choices.

Cons:
If you are not mindful of keeping minimum loop volume on ascent, the counter lungs crawl out of the case. It looks kind of goofy but is no problem.

As with any MCCR, the system is depth limited at the point where the intermediate pressure of the oxygen first stage and the ambient pressure achieve unity.

It takes a few dives to get your nominal oxygen flow rate to match your metabolic rate (as with any MCCR).

Decompression must be calculated conservatively, as you would with any MCCR.

Gas capacity: The unit is set up for 13 cubic foot aluminum cylinders, so sharing diluent with someone else is really out of the question. Carry a bail out cylinder!

Acquisition: The challenge will be to get the units delivered at a reasonable cost and within a reasonable time span.

My summary:

The Stingray is a great little machine! It will not replace my Inspiration, but is a great addition to my quiver of RBs. Of all of the systems I have used (Inspiration, Megladon, KISSes, Dragers, Prism and Mk15) this is the most compact and "fun" to swim with in the water. The design is elegant and workmanlike at the same time.

A Stingray owner could add all sorts of pneumatics and electronics and increase the depth and gas capacity of the machine, but why ruin a great machine? (Kind of like adding a roof luggage rack and cargo trailer to a Porsche 911) (Get an Inspiration or Evolution instead)

ForTheFight

Thanks for that overview. I am going to talk to Curt and see if I can see one in action. The overall design appeals to me...I am not sure it would sway me from an Optima...but you never know.

E

sadave

I first met Erol in the late 90's, when he walked into my shop looking for P-Ports, and other bits'n'pieces. We were a drager dive dealer, but I'd never heard of anyone wanting "parts" from the breathers... Ended up chatting with him for a while. And kept chatting, and some more chatting, and then a bit more... A week later, I was in his shed, admiring his handywork.

Yep, I was hooked.

Kerry "Tubby" McKenzie, I first came across on Diveoz, can't remember when, but quite a few years ago. For a bloke that looks like Don Burke (sorry, only the Aussies will get that one!!! ) he sure did seem to know a bit about those magical boxes of death...

People have called his early designs lots of things, including "agricultural" but they are always "functional"... His dolphin CCR website spawned a myriad of copycats and other homebuilt projects. He and Ron Micjan can definately lay claim to being the "fathers" of the Dolphin CCR projects (disclaimer, they may not have been the first, but they were definately the best known / most copied!), and up there in Internet lore with Dave Sutton.

So what's this whole pointless ramble on about? Rebreathers Australia is a company run by two former homebuilders from Waaaay back, who have refined their products to the point that they can no longer be considered "homebuilds" (wasn't Gordon Smith a homebuilder?)

I've dived the Abyss, and seen the Stingray first-hand, they are both clean, compact units. WOB on the Abyss was sensational, as long as you didn't go inverted (why would you want to, unless you were Tom Cruise, saw an IDA diver, and wanted to foster "international relations")

If something small, compact, easy to maintain, but with limited duration (only limited compared to some of the units with larger scrubbers) is what your after, go for it.

__________________

Bazza

Guys ... check to see if they are still in business. The last chat I had with Errol he was talking about canning the project due to cost problems .... shame really but a hard fact of life I am afraid.

regards Baz

sadave

I'm off to Townsville tomorrow for the weekend, I'll try and look Tubby up.

Will keep ya's posted.

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curt

Hi, Guys!

The good news is that Rebreathers Australia is finally ready to bring the Abyss and Stingray to market.

As ForTheFight says, there hasn't been a lot of info available, particularly since Tubby had to take his server off-line. That's changing now - I've just put our new site on-line, and we are just days away from setting the price for both units.

I have my prototype Stingray (thanks for the nice review, Dan!), and a production-model Abyss is on its way from Australia now (this one is bound for the DEMA show, but will be available for sale immediately after).

Baz - we are still in business, and it's an exciting (and scary) time for us.

cheers...

__________________
Curt Harpold
US Representative
Rebreathers Australia
http://rebreathers.com.au/

dive2dive2000

Hi Curt,

Welcome to Rebreather World and good luck with your new venture.

Could you please explain the diffrence between the way your units, the Kiss, and Charlie Johnsons http://www.gorilladiving.com O2 flow valves work?

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Safe Diving,
Martin

curt

Hi, Martin!

I'll give it a go.

I haven't had the chance to see Charlie's valve in person yet, but it looks interesting.

The KISS O2 system uses an orifice, and the flow rate is adjusted by changing the IP of the O2-side first stage.

The Abyss or Stingray uses a needle valve which can be adjusted any time between dives. There is a cover over the valve to keep it from being bumped. Kerry had started with an orifice, but found that the flow rate would vary over time and that he would get occasional minor clogging. After going to the needle valve, it was possible to clear minor clogs by simply opening the valve further to blow it out, then closing it back down to the desired rate.

Since then, we have also added an inline filter before the valve. I have had no trouble with mine so far.

cheers...

__________________
Curt Harpold
US Representative
Rebreathers Australia
http://rebreathers.com.au/