considering an optima

seeboth

Ive been looking for a rebreather for a while now, and just started looking at the optima. Im not sure if I was just told to look at other units first or what, but I just started looking at the optima.

I was really looking at getting a meg and then getting hammerhead electronics for it, so I love that the optima already comes with the HH controls. Also the dive shop I work at is a dive rite dealer, which seems to me that would make the owner ship a little easier. And, although maybe not as important the price tag on the optima seems to be the friendliest available for an eccr.

I just wonder as to its cold water prowess. Im a great lakes diver, pretty much exclusively Superior and Michigan, and one of my favorite training spots, and just a fun place to play around in, is and old 325 ft iron pit mine that rarely gets above 34-36*f.

I've also heard rumors about it having a poor WOB, but as my 'breather experience is limited to a few pool demos I have yet to truly comprehend how much of a difference there is between units.

size is nice for traveling, but Im used to lugging giant double everywhere so not a huge factor. Im really interested in cold deep tech diving, so Im really just concerned about reliability.

Any thoughts or advice would be nice,

thanks,
al

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yes those are double lp steel 121's on my back
yes those are the main reason i want a rebreather

zmcave

Hi Al,
the optima breathes very well in my opinion. I've passed through high flow sites many times without problems. It's hard to compare units but people I know state that the WOB on the optima is as good as any other OTS CL unit in the market, from the end user point of view, not from testing. I guess you should check it yourself and make your own conclusion.
As for the rest, the HH is one damn good controller and extendair cartridges are for sure very practical. Just not sure how they perform under your very cold water conditions, they sure do very well in the waters I am used to dive (around 19C, 66F). The unit is very comfortable to dive.

Best,
Zé.

jiseson

the wob is terrific-no issue at all! i have been diving it in 38 deg F water with no problems. i am very happy with mine

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Jonathan D Iseson

ScubaDadMiami

There is no problem with any of the issues you mention: WOB or diving in the cold.

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Howard Packer
IANTD CCR Instructor
Miami Beach, Florida
CCRDiveTraining.com

Downtime

45M dives for 30 minutes and no problem breathing, in fact I would swear it's easier than my OC (Oceanic Delta-4 on an FDX-10) ()

It only gets hard on the way up, if I don't vent some gas

Cheers,
Michael

phreaticus53

I spent 4 hours on my O2ptima Sunday, and was surprized to find that after being on the unit for most of that time that I wasn't even aware of ANY WOB issues.....wasn't even a factor! I did :45 @ 200', plus :60 deco two weekends ago..again, no WOB issues at all! Depths were to 115', with HIGH flow being part of the equation at the deepest spots on Sunday, btw.
I had dinner with Paul Heinreth Sunday after our dives, he's been using CCR's since 1992...Cis-Lunar, Inspo, KISS (no Meg yet, he said), he now uses an O2ptima, says the WOB is the easiest he's used. Makes sense, the loop is short and the Micropore cartridge is very consistent, density-wise.

Nemo1957

I agree with the previous WOB comments. I also dive mine the Great Lakes Erie and Ontario as well as other north east cold spots and have no problem with cold being an issue. Size size, ease of use, and reliability of the unit and its support network you cant beat it.

sfldiver

For me, the fact that the Optima is manufactured by a reputable company that has been producing quality diving products for quite some time and the fact that my local dive shop is a Dive Rite Dealer was probably two of the top selling points I considered!

Good luck to you!

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Currently piloting & shooting...
Dive Rite O2ptima FX
*Rigged w/ a Dsix Custom Aluminum Frame, Nomad Wing, Transpac Harness and VR3 Computer w/ VPM-B/E & a 4th Cell Sensor Link.
Canon PowerShot G9 Digital Camera
*Rigged in a Patima-PDCH 2008 G9 Aluminum Housing w/ an Inon UWL-100 Achromat Wide Conversion Lens, 2 Inon UCL-165M67 Close-Up Lenses and 2 Inon Z-240 Strobes.

diverreb

The O2ptima is a great unit. DiveRite is a very customer driven company. I'm very happy with my unit.

As to WOB as a criteria... it's highly over rated. All the major units breathe very well. The differences are minor. Some do a little better than others in terms of different body positions underwater due to their placement on the units.

I've never heard of anyone selling their unit because it didn't breath well, or come up from a dive saying... I'm beat... It was way to hard to breath on my unit..... Any issues are usually caused by improper positioning of the lungs, or as previously pointed out, not using minimum loop volume.

I was hung up on WOB when I was making my decision, because I didn't know any better. It's really not a major factor between the big name breathers.

Richie

seeboth

Thanks for all the replies.

As of right now, I'm leaning towards the optima, I really like the layout. I also think the extendair cartridges will be a nice for changing the scrubber on a small dive boat covered in everybody else's OC gear.

__________________
yes those are double lp steel 121's on my back
yes those are the main reason i want a rebreather