Dolphin v Azimuth

Dolphin v Azimuth
By Fltekdiver



I thought I would pass my experience's diving both the Dolphin and the Azimuth Rebreathers, as I just passed the certification's on both units!

All I ask is to keep in mind, these experience's are based on diving both unit's during their certifications, and I do not have anymore logged hours , other then the required hour's to do the certs. I can say however, they are different and have their own pros and cons and I would ask other diver's to share their experience's, as I would not want anyone to make judgement on either units, this is only to share my first experience's on both units.

We started out on the boat, both me and my buddy pre-breathing both units before entering the water as they suggest. I’m on the Azimuth, and my buddy on the Dolphin.

Before we are about to enter the water, my buddy start's yelling, "Hey is this thing going to breathe better under water then on the boat?" We both jump into the water, and give the “OK” and start our descent down, and as I'm breathing in and exhaling through the loop, my inhale bag doesn’t have anything there! No prob! The Azimuth has a manual add, so I remember on the descent I'll have to do this, or let the bag "catch up". I choose to add, and "Ahhh, I have air!” We drop down to 60' on the reef, and I noticed I could not keep up with my buddy, who is swimming effortlessly over the reef! Throughout the dive I had the same problem. A lot of drag!

We did our hour bottom time, and had to go up because we were diving off a charter boat, I noticed on our safety stop at 15' , my buddy is venting a lot on the Dolphin, I looked at myself, and did not see any bubbles, or very little. We got back on the boat, and concluded that the Azimuth after the two dives has more drag then the Dolphin in the water. Also the Dolphin has a 8 litre inhale bag, 4 on exhale, and the Azimuth has two 6 litre bags, so on the boat my buddy could not exhale as easy, because it would " Fill the bag" but at depth it was fine.

Next day we swapped units, this time myself on the Dolphin, and my buddy on the Azimuth, this way we had two new divers, with two different opinions, and we could better judge the units, helpful as I am buying one here shortly.

First thing as I was concerned, now I was experiencing the "filled cheek's" on the boat, and saying “Man is this thing going to breathe better down there!"

Another major concern for myself was, I was very scared of not having enough air in the loop on the descent, and as the Dolphin has no manual add valve, I was concerned, but I knew if anything, I could bail to OC on the pony till the inhale bag filled.

We dropped in, gave the "OK" and started our descent, Surprisingly, I never ran out of air once during the whole dive, meaning the 8 litre bag in the Dolphin, on the inhale, was enough to not have to add air, although a few times I had to add air into the loop both on the descent going down, and during the dive with the Azimuth.

Also, I noticed the drag on the Dolphin to be alot less, and now I was gliding through the water while my buddy was “working" to dive the unit. I loved the Dolphin in the water, buoyancy was very easy to maintain, as the Azimuth took a little more work.

Now I have to say, being I love the Tech look, and coming from a background of diving doubles, wing's , carrying extra bottles for deco, I love the look of the Azimuth, in the water and out, that unit just looks awesome. But I was surprisingly surprised by the “simplicity” and the over all diving characteristics with the Dolphin. I was kind of disappointed because I thought I would leave this class, and for sure would be going home to buy an Azimuth! I never thought the Dolphin would have dove as good as it did. Another thing I had to keep in mind, I only planed on diving SCR for about a year, until I could move onto a CCR, “Money" being the most issue, with my wife

One thing is the Dolphin isn't that hard to convert over to CCR, and it would be my first step into going CCR and from there could grow into a Priszm, or Inspiration, etc.

A few pros and cons just from my experiences diving both units, keep in mind they were just cert dives, I’m sure if I dive them both much more, I would have better opinions, but this is just a start. Divers on both units are welcome to give the opinions as well, here's a few of them just from my past weekend's dives with them:

Azimuth & Dolphin comparisons from what I dove

1. Manual add for air into the loop on the Azimuth, Dolphin has none.
   
2. Two bottles, could be used in different ways, different mixes, etc, Dolphin has a 50 cubic foot tank, and a 13 on the bail out. I know both sizes on them can be changed out.
   
3. Azimuth has plenty on SS rings to clip off, crotch straps, chest strap, which I like, Dolphin has almost a rec BC, Azimuth also has a nice Bungeed wing, looks like the OMS wings
   
4. Dolphin was a little heavier on the back out of the water, but very little drag. The Azimuth seemed lighter out of the water, but seemed to have a lot of drag in the water, we both experienced this, but other's tend to differ.
   
5. The Azimuth was very “loud" underwater, it sounded like a full orchestra! The Dolphin was very “quiet " underwater, when breathing in and out in the loop. The Azimuth seemed to be loud on the exhale; you could hear the side of the loop playing songs for me. “I kept saying man this is quite, bubble-less breathing?” It sounds like someone bending steel with a pipe wrench in my left ear! LOL, J/K, but true.

The Dolphin won over the Azimuth as far as breaking them down and setting up,

“Simple" is the perfect word. I was very pleased on breaking down and setting both units back up, as both weren't hard to do, and the myth of taking hours is just a myth, as both units took no more then 20 min between both units!

Monitoring flow rates was easy on both, as well as adjusting the pressure of the vents, etc

The Azimuth was a little harder setting up, we found by putting the bottom tank in first, and working up that it was easier to put the whole unit back together.

The Azimuth had a lot of the parts "screw" into place, like the lungs , etc where the Dolphin in some areas " clicked" together, I wasn't too pleased with that, but haven’t found any threads where they failed.

Another thing I didn't like in both units was the bailout. The Dolphin has a 13 cubic foot pony that is your OC bailout, but your B/C inflator hose is also connected to that to fill your BC. After two dives, my 13' bail out bottle was just about empty, not leaving much for OC bail out.

The Azimuth has two tanks, with bail-out coming off one tank, and BC inflating off the other, I didn't consider that a true bail out for OC, and would add a pony off for sure.

The Dolphin needs a 19' cubic foot pony for sure if your going to use it for BC inflation and OC bail out.

Overall, I was very pleased with both units and have not made up my mind, there are more pros and cons for sure, of both units. It would take me more experience diving both and a lot more typing, I’m hoping others who dive either unit will join in and give their opinions, as welcomed.

For myself, we’re going back down in Jan to the Key's in FL, to dive both units, and I’m hoping to decide then one which one I want to buy.

I’m leaning towards to Dolphin currently only for the simple reason there easy to convert to CCR, and I liked the way it dives, out of the water, I would take the Azimuth any day for looks, and it's put together very well; that is why I need to dive it one more weekend, relaxed, and make a decision then on which to buy.

Overall, my experiences with the two units was very positive. I was very pleased with diving a rebreather, even though it's SCR, looking forward to diving them a lot more, and really enjoying the true benefits of diving a rebreather. Now that I have dived one, my mind is made up, it's just a matter of which unit, at this point to buy, but I have no intentions of going back to OC, kind of like the saying when I bought my first dry-suit, I’d never want to dive wet again!

Thumbs up on both units, and even more to looking forward to safer, quieter, longer bottom times, and Oh the warm air, how nice!

Thanks for reading, and I welcome those to post their experience's in any type of rebreather diving, both SCR and CCR, would love to hear from you.

Thanks Again!