Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

DiverMole · 04-03-2003, 01:11 PM,

You should come over to Britain, I'd guess over 10% of all dives here are now being done on rebreathers. They are seen at every site and theres at least one on nearly every boat going out. 10 years may be a bit pesimistic

And as for getting in with quick replies, its easy from England as we get up 6 hours earlier than you lazy lot Wink

john j · 04-03-2003, 05:05 PM,

TO SPEARIT:

I sold my Dolphin after I bought my Inspiration. I tried to sell it before I bought my CCR but couldn't find any buyers at that time. Finally sold it though and used the money to buy more gear and to help pay off my Inspiration.

I like the Dolphin. I think it's a good unit, well made, very sturdy and good for traveling with. It's just depth limited to about 150ft or so. I pushed mine beyond that but only with much added risk. There are people using the Dolphin with trimix but it requires some modifications and more complexity and risk. I was going to go that route but then I started figuring out how much extra money and effort it would require to get it all figured out and I concluded that the right thing to do was to sell the Dolphin and buy an Inspiration.

If someone is satisfied with diving to 150ft or less or wants something that's easy to travel with I would highly recommend the Dolphin. It's much less expensive and than the Inspiration too.

I'm gonna try to get up earlier than Divermole tomorrow. Tongue

john j · 04-03-2003, 05:36 PM,

I wanted to comment too on INSPIRATION DIVER's last post where he talked about trimix diving on Isle Royale. He described a very realistic case where each OC dive might bring 3 sets of doubles. Not only is that a lot of weight and space but expensive too. One set of doubles with a manifold probably costs $800 US or more these days. (how much is that is in British pounds Divermole? ???). So if you were thinking of getting into tech diving you might be planning on buying 3 sets of doubles eventually, plus several stage bottles too. Just the tanks alone would be about half the cost of an Inspiration. Then every year you have to have visual inspections done on the doubles which is expensive becasue you have to pay for the additional labor of taking apart the manifold and putting it back together, unless you do it yourself. When I considered all the costs of tech diving with OC, it really isn't too much more expensive to by an Inspiration. If you get bored some time, list all the stuff you have bought or plan to buy for OC tech diving and I think you may see that it isn't drastically cheaper than a CCR. I see guys sometimes at Wazee with nice trailers full of doubles and stage bottles, compressors, He and O2 supply bottles, etc. They have a lot of money tied up in all that stuff and it could all be replaced by an Inspiration which you could fit in the trunk of a compact car. When I really want to upset those OC dudes, I show up at Wazee with my small Honda Civic, pull out my Inspiration and 2 small stage bottles, put it on, do a few jumping jacks just to show how much lighter it is than a set of doubles, then I do a deeper, longer dive than the OC folks. You can really do some amazing things with a CCR. Smile

Inspirationdiver · 04-03-2003, 05:42 PM,

I agree, the Dolphin is a very user friendly unit. The user doesn't have to provide any input to the unit while diving it. The injection system is mechanical and non-adjustable during the dive, compared to the Inspiration which is computer controlled. There is an optional PO2 gauge that I would recommend so that you can monitor your breathing gas. It also runs on nitrox instead of oxygen and a diluent. This can be an advantage in travelling, some destinations have nitrox more easily available than oxygen. I can see the Dolphin going a long way in the recreational market.

Drager also makes the Ray. It is a little cheaper than the Dolphin and pretty similar mechanically. The counterlungs are actually better placed in the Ray than the Dolphin in terms of breathing resistance. It doesn't have the plastic shell on the back, that is replaced by a fabric casing to hold the scrubber canister. Both the Dolphin and the Ray's mouthpieces are easier to operate with one hand than that on the Inspiration.

Inspirationdiver · (This post was last modified: 04-03-2003, 05:49 PM by Inspirationdiver.)

Here's the links for the Dolphin and Ray at the Drager site.

Freedive WI · 04-03-2003, 06:12 PM,

While rebreathers may be the future....

Many of us who still dive OC don't bring many sets of doubles along with us on a trip. We have one set of doubles and many stage bottles. I can use a stage bottle full of trimix for my dive and keep my doubles full in case of any emergancy. This allows me to keep my doubles filled for an entire trip and just use a varitey of stages to do my dives. IF I do run into a problem I have a TON of bailout gas on my back.

I also only need to buy some 80 cuft tanks to use as stages- which ARE cheap. And maybe one, or at the most, two extra regulators. Diving this way also takes up less space on a boat than a bunch of 1/2 filled doubles lying around.

Jon

Inspirationdiver · 04-03-2003, 06:31 PM,

Jon,
I guess I'm a little confused. How do you do a trimix dive and only use trimix in one stage bottle? What about travel gas and deco gas?

john j · 04-03-2003, 08:47 PM,

Here's a photo that illustrates pretty well what it takes to do a technical dive trip in a remote area using OC equipment. This is from a trip to the Gunilda in 2001. There's 18 set of doubles in this trailer, plus lots of stage bottles. There's about $15,000 just in doubles sitting there not even counting the cost of the other tanks, the compressor or the trailer. Just think about how much this stuff weighs! :o

Inspirationdiver · 04-03-2003, 08:50 PM,

Nice picture John, that is exactly what I was referring to. Have any digital pictures of the gear required for your last CCR outing?

john j · 04-03-2003, 09:39 PM,

Here's the number of tanks each diver would have needed if using a CCR for the same trip. Two 25 CF O2 tanks, two 25 CF diluent tanks, one 40-60 CF air tank, one 40-60 CF trimix bailout tank and some argon. Note swim fin in background for size comparison. We might bring a couple spare tanks for the group in case one leaks or a bailout tank is used but that's it.