Duration on the new EP Extendair cartridges?

[Toren]

Anyone know?
It would be laid-back warm water diving.
I just have an opportunity to pick up a few cases cheap, along with a converter, so I was thinking of giving them a try...but not at the "official" 2 hour duration, not when I can get 4 hours out of a fill of sorb.
So what's the word on the street...? :)

[caveseeker7]

Hit the Dive Rite Express banner, it'll take you to the O2ptima pages.
They're afaik the only ones who have posted any info on testing and duration.

Which I find odd, as manufacturer Micropore still doesn't give you anything
above 2 hrs in writing. They've been bragging about duration and testing at
dive shows for years, you'd think they would stand for it.

DRE sells cartridges and RBs that use it ...

[Toren]

Excellent, that is exactly the info I needed. Muchos gracias! Don't know why it didn't come up when I googled.
Agreed that Micropore needs to step up to the plate on their products, even in this litigious country.

P.S. I might add I'm a BIG fan of Dive Rite Express...they are the BEST online shop I've dealt with. The new O2ptima CCR looks pretty neat, too...I'll be trying one out in Feb.

[ScubaDadMiami]

Two hours was the rating for the 2 hour cartridges. The EP cartridges are not the same thing.

[caveseeker7]

And we're supposed to know that how?

The info on their website sucks, it's way out of date.
I've talked with them at the 2004 and 2005 DEMAs,
and they praised their cartridge (whichever one they
had at the time) and said they're easily good for 3 or
more hours (Dolphin & Azi, a year later the YBOD too).
But they never had any such info in writing, they never
replied to e-mails after the shows, never send any info
as promised on testing.

Farallon made like promises at the 2005 show and never
send me the promised info. First mail got a reply to wait,
the rest went unanswered. The Micropore chaps weren't
around when I was at their booth. Waited for a while,
kicking back in their chair putting my feet up, but ran
out of time.

The feedback I got from a YBOD diver that has used the
cartridge is that it works as well as in the SCRs on rec
dives but has problems on long trimix profiles.

[ScubaDadMiami]

I agree that they really need to update and overhaul the web site. They don't even reference the Optima on it yet.

The reason why I mention about the duration is because I was recently in a dive shop where the owner had one leftover from a time when his shop was trying to train divers on the Draegers. He offered it to me for free. It was not expired.

I glanced at the cartridge box. It had a statement on it that read something like: "Rated to 2 Hours" with the 2 in large, bold font inside of a blue circle. The cartridge for the Optima has a big "EP" in the same place where the "2" was on the other box, and it also says "Extended Performance" just below that. I can only tell you this much as fact.

It is possible that the cartridge has been re-rated, and that Micropore has changed the label on the box, reflecting the updated data. It is also possible that there are two different cartridges, each rated for a different duration.

I did not have any cartridges from my Optima with me when I was at this scuba shop. So, I didn't hold one box up against the other to see if there was any difference in size. The box in the shop seemed to be the same size by eye. However, there could be a difference in size between one and the other. I did not measure the one in the shop.

Not wanting to take a chance on becoming another statistic, I thanked the shop owner for his kind offer but left the cartridge at the scuba shop to assure that I would not accidentally use it in my Optima. I would gladly have accepted an EP cartridge so long as not expired. :)

[Toren]

Well, I decided to go for the carts and the canister kit. It'll up my sorb costs about 25% per hour but hell, it's a vacation! :D
I'll report back next month on how I liked them...although, what's not to like? Pop it, drop it, go dive...no dust, no packing, no channeling, no caustic cocktail risk (well, much less, anyway)....
If I could get the carts at this bargain price all the time I'd probably be tempted to use them regularly.

[diverklondike]

I was the origional crash test dummy for Micropore on the cartridges for the Inspiration and have been very happy with the results. I have well over 150 dives on them... Trust me that I do not miss the extra time and effort of filling a scrubber with Kitty Litter... ;)

Here is a link to DiveRite and the details that they are sharing for the Optima

http://www.diverite.com/Products/pro...7&CategoryID=4

Dive safe....

Mark

[caveseeker7]

It'll up my sorb costs about 25% per hour but hell, it's a vacation! :D

Almost twice as expensive per fill and more than that per hour compared to the PRISM in your profile. ;)

[ScubaDadMiami]

The prices will come down as more of them are manufactured.