View Full Version : Inspiration Rebreather
Is it the best rebreather on the market
What do u think?
it's certainly the yellowest :D
Lizardland
16-07-06, 23:46
If you are talking realistically priced rebreathers then I think it is a toss up between the Inspiration and the KISS. It all comes down to whether or not you think electronic control is a good thing. In the end, it's just a personal preference, I prefer not having it. You can pick holes with either system but in the end, the best is whatever works best for the diving you do.
I don't think there is a single best. I've dived a lot of rebreathers over the years: Mk15.5 (my candidate for the best), BMR500, Prism, Cis Lunar, EDO04, RECY01, KISS, various homebuilds, Draegers, RGUFM and I've had a go on the cancelled Apeks prototype rebreather (a very good bit of kit). The Mk15.5 really is an amazing bit of kit, beautifully engineered (the Inspiration and KISS look like airfix kits next to it), virtually impossible to break, it just keeps going. But it is seriously expensive, probably in the region of £7k. For the average diver it isn't a realistic buy.
Cheers,
Stuart
IDA-59 Russian Military Scuba Diving Rebreather
Only £249.99 on ebay
It is about the same age as the rest of my dive kit.
Lizardland
17-07-06, 23:34
Stick a KISS valve and a couple of O2 meters on it and it'll be perfect. I've dived worse than that.
The yellow bag of doom:
http://www.lizardland.co.uk/RB/RB_Progress/071104-01.jpg
And an even simpler lump:
http://www.lizardland.co.uk/RB/RB_Progress/311004-02.jpg
Stick a KISS valve and a couple of O2 meters on it and it'll be perfect. I've dived worse than that.
The yellow bag of doom:
http://www.lizardland.co.uk/RB/RB_Progress/071104-01.jpg
And an even simpler lump:
http://www.lizardland.co.uk/RB/RB_Progress/311004-02.jpg
Is the simple lump home made
Ps I like the electronic control. even though I know water and elec dont mix. If u look after it, it will look after you!!
Looks like a hose from a hoover and an air filter housing from a Landrover & other bits & bobs :D
Stick a KISS valve and a couple of O2 meters on it and it'll be perfect. I've dived worse than that.
And an even simpler lump:
http://www.lizardland.co.uk/RB/RB_Progress/311004-02.jpg
Is that an Asda carrier bag for a counter lung?
Lizardland
18-07-06, 12:12
Is the simple lump home made
Sort of. It's the scrubber from a Draeger Ray, the hoses and DSV are from other Draeger RB's. The counterlung is a 8 litre water bag with Draeger P-Port fittings for the loop hoses. The ppO2 displays were home made and I hade a lexan housing machined for them. Diluent was added by a Poseidon 2nd stage modified into an ADV (I swapped that for a manual button like the Inspo). Oxygen was added by a Swagelok valve. The scrubber attached to my waist d-ring, the counterlung was clipped under my arm. The idea was that I'd encase the whole thing in a plastic tube about the size of a stage cylinder but I never got round to it. I dived it wearing a small twinset which was both diluent supply and bailout, with oxygen worn as a stage bottle at the side. I have to be honest, I did consider using an air filter housing :)
My plan was that the RB could be added to any normal open circuit setup and wouldn't be any more hassle than wearing a stage. It worked quite well, it survived a couple of 60m dives and some cave diving in France. The scrubber was a little too small though, it was really pushing it to do 1hr if you went deep on it. It is a very nice RB to use, WOB is excellent because the counterlung is right next to your own lungs. I've kept it to use as a bailout O2 deco rebreather on longer dives.
The yellow bag of doom was part of an EDO-04 rebreather modified to fully closed circuit with everything housed in a caving tackle bag. It could be worn sidemounted or backmounted. I sold it to pay for my KISS.
Ps I like the electronic control. even though I know water and elec dont mix. If u look after it, it will look after you!!
Nah... you want to switch the controllers off and dive it manually. So much more fun! They're both similar systems, one has the controller in a box, the other has the controller in a skull. They both do the same job -- deciding when to fire the O2 valve.
Cheers,
Stuart
Nah... you want to switch the controllers off and dive it manually. So much more fun! They're both similar systems, one has the controller in a box, the other has the controller in a skull. They both do the same job -- deciding when to fire the O2 valve.
But I like to use the skull for other things like nicking portholes and photography. If there is a prob u soon know about it, u feel or hear it. I supose I wait untill something happens then I sort it.
Imagine you are at say 30m and your breathing increases, you are short of breath.
Do you bail out and sort the problem or Dil flush and sort the problem?
Gas Guzzler
11-10-06, 12:44
I'm guessing that your breathing is increasing because the CO2 level is increasing. Is that because your scrubber is losing efficeny or because the you are not making up the O2?
Is the question asking whether on a straight bail out you could make the surface before something bad, like unconciousness, happened?
If you flush the dilutent how long till the CO2 level builds up again? How many dilutent flushes do you get?
Would you be in trouble if you added to much oxygen? At 30m, ppO2 would get to 1.4bar with 35%O2
Lizardland
11-10-06, 13:18
It depends. For a suspected CO2 problem which this sounds like then I'd flush. CO2 is a fairly slow acting problem unlike hypoxia which is very quick in hitting you. If my displays were telling me bad things about my loop (i.e. very low ppO2 <0.3) then I'd get off the loop. If it was high pO2 then I'd flush it down as I'm not bothered about high pO2 spikes, I've spiked it to over 2bar without a problem for <1min.
If it was a CO2 problem and as in the question I'm at 30m I'd go on to OC to get to the surface. Flushing the RB helps to clear your head and settle your breathing but I'd still get off the loop. I might think different on a deep dive.
I'm guessing that your breatuhing is increasing because the CO2 level is increasing. Is that because your scrubber is losing efficeny or because the you are not making up the O2?
Generally that's what it means but it can be other things. CO2 is usually accompanied by other symptoms, sore head being the biggie. The problem is though, CO2 is a bit like narcosis, because of it's effects on you, you don't always register that you have a problem. It's quite nasty.
CO2 wouldn't be affected by not making up the O2. You won't physically notice the O2 dropping until you blackout. Hypoxia doesn't really have any clear symptoms.
Is the question asking whether on a straight bail out you would make the surface before something bad happened?
A bailout I'm assuming to mean a switch from the RB to an open circuit reg. Nothing bad will happen as long as you have enough air (or whatever) to get to the surface.
If you flush the dilutent how long till the CO2 level builds up again? How many dilutent flushes do you get?
Probably a few breaths. It's like breathing into a plastic bag, there's enough oxygen but it's CO2 that wipes you out.
You can flush as many times as your gas will allow. My RB lung volume is 6litres, depth is 30m so that's 24L per flush or 8bar per flush assuming I'm using 3litre bottles. So 30 times max maybe assuming a full bottle.
Would you be in trouble if you added to much oxygen?
Oh yes!!!
I have not come across this yet but I'm shure I'd Dill flush and check the PP02 if it was low I'd check my 02 pressure guage add 02 and listen for the solenoid. If i did not hear the solenoid i'd fly manual. If I did hear the solenoid and I had plenty o2 the cells are wrong so depending on how much gas I had I would either dill flush to the surface or Bail out
Or if after the first Dill flush and the PP02 was high. I would Dill flush again and listen to the solenoid, If its staying on too long, I'd close the 02 cylinder and manually open and close to keep the PP02 at close to 1.3 as posible
Any comments....:(
Saw this on the net
Helium
(c)Rod Nairne 1998, Silent Submersion 2000
An increasing number of experienced RB divers are discovering the advantages of using heliox diluent, including using the gas for decompression. At Silent Submersion we even use heliox for shallow 50 to 80 foot dives.
Here are a *few* points for helium usage, hopefully to stir up some discussion, and hopefully stop the practice of all the new RB divers which is to dive nitrox down to 50msw because they "don't have the ticket". SCARY!
Helium:
*is easier to breathe at any depth
*is less soluble than nitrogen
*produces no narcosis
*is cheap to use in a breather and in fact breathers in some ways were developed for it's use
*results in no diver fatigue after a deep dive, in fact in our experience produces less fatigue at 250 than nitrox at 100! So at 100 it's got to be incredible.
*can be used for decompression with a fully closed unit
*Saturation divers use heliox deco right to the surface, they are the real pro's
*takes less heat energy out of the scrubber so theoretically extends scrubber life in cold water
*Requires less dive planning for a deep dives than trimix with several gas switches on ascent
Nitrogen:
*is a difficult gas remove from the tissues
*is dense, so is hard to breathe even at 100 feet (by comparison)
*produces longer deco for long dives (which is what breathers can be used for, right!)
*produces narcosis, something you don't want while operating a device nicknamed "death machine"
*Far more nitrogen can be absorbed in your body than helium due to high solubility
*May result in higher incidence of neurological DCI due to high soluability in fatty tissue such as spinal cord
*Due to density theoretically takes more heat energy out of scrubber, could result in premature scrubber failure in cold water
*is really only any good in Guinness
HPNS
Dave Crockford from the UK has been diving his inspiration with heliox to 93m and reported that HPNS or Helium willies were not a problem for him. One of the team did suffer slightly with compression arthalgia but it soon passed off once stable at 93 metres. (He is in his 60's) It manifested as shakes, evident in the hands.
http://www.silent-submersion.com/articles/#helium
Any thoughts on using helium on shallower dives apart from the price, which at £9-12 for 6-8 dives works out at £2 a dive...:cool:
Lizardland
11-10-06, 20:05
I use trimix on shallow dives, usually about 30bar of helium with an air top off. I very rarely use air/nitrox as a diluent. I've thought about heliox but I don't really like the idea of it for shallow diving. The main reason I was put off heliox is that if you are diving a heliox diluent and you need to bail out then you really need to bail out on to heliox too. Going from breathing heliox to breathing air would be very bad, there have been reports of divers getting bends in the inner ear.
For 30-40m diving like in the Clyde I normally carry something like a 7 of EAN32 which means I can bail out and do a reasonable amount of deco if I had to. I can run my suit off the 7L too. If I was on heliox I'd need a heliox bailout cylinder, an oxygen bottle because the 6m stop would get really long and I'd need a drysuit inflation bottle (I couldn't use the heliox bottle because I'd freeze and I wouldn't like to chance pure O2 in my drysuit).
A couple of other things is that you need to be very careful with your ascent rate on heliox. Sure commie divers use it all the way up but they are brought up in a bell at a constant pressure and then deco'd in a chamber so have no chance of a fast ascent. We've all done ascents faster than we should and doing that on heliox will easily bend you. Second, you'll end up with big deco times very quickly, especially if you have to bail out to OC.
I agree completely with bits of the article, I don't see the point of having a rebreather and getting narced but I think heliox is just too complicated for ordinary diving. On the other hand I think weak trimix is a very good idea for 20-40m stuff.
Cheers,
Stuart
I asked the guy at the APV stall at the NECC dive show, were the rumers true they were making a BOV and he said he didn't know. so I said to him there is no point in me waiting, I would just get a jugerson and he said I should just wait....
Saw one of the newer rebreathers
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/johnnicolson/Temp%20folder/PA157995.jpg
Great Idea u get a suit with it as well....;)
Lizardland
16-10-06, 10:10
Nice piccie, were they doing try dives? :-)
That's one of those Russki sub escape rebreathers. You can get them on ebay fairly cheap but I don't think you'd ever catch me in one! Very well made though when you see them close up. They never messed about with their dive kit.
Nice piccie, were they doing try dives? :-)
That's one of those Russki sub escape rebreathers. You can get them on ebay fairly cheap but I don't think you'd ever catch me in one! Very well made though when you see them close up. They never messed about with their dive kit.
Yep they had 2 pools scuba try dives and rebreather (inspitation & evos)
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j62/johnnicolson/Temp%20folder/PA157995.jpg