Reusing a scrubber?

[cerich]

2) Dumping out the sorb into a bucket and re-packing a scrubber with partially used sorb is a giant no-no that hasn't been taught in 10+ years. The illustrations of the reaction front on John Clarke's blog posted earlier illustrate why. Plus there have been a few deaths from this practice years and years ago.

I think part of the confusion stems from the fact that #2 has been so widely discredited some of us didn't actually realize that it might not be common knowledge not to do that.

I would not be so sure, within the last year I watched a fairly well known IT in Asia who teaches many tech instructors show at a consumer show slides of he and his team drying out sorb on sheets on a remote expedition.... so they can repack. I actually was alarmed enough to approach another local IT and ask him to explain why it was a bad idea, he passed.

 

[JohnnyC]

OK, so let me ask how much time you guys put on your stack?

Please clarify stack. Smoke stack? Stack of magazines? Stack of bricks? Did you say stack but what you really meant was pile? We had a smoke stack in town. They blew it up after the smelter closed. Ostensibly, it went from a stack to a pile in very short order.

 

[CptTightPants21]

Please clarify stack. Smoke stack? Stack of magazines? Stack of bricks? Did you say stack but what you really meant was pile? We had a smoke stack in town. They blew it up after the smelter closed. Ostensibly, it went from a stack to a pile in very short order.

I'm pretty sure 'stack' is referring to the 'stack' of money you set on fire when you go CCR.

 

[Kay Dee]

I would not be so sure, within the last year I watched a fairly well known IT in Asia who teaches many tech instructors show at a consumer show slides of he and his team drying out sorb on sheets on a remote expedition.... so they can repack. I actually was alarmed enough to approach another local IT and ask him to explain why it was a bad idea, he passed.

If I may ask, was that IT from Hong Kong?

As for Kensufs question re time on stack, genearally circa 11 hours on my mk15.5 scrubber (4.2kg / 9 and a bit lbs), occasionally a little more when shallow diving,, and did so habitually for 12 years on that unit with never an I'll effect. Well probaly 10 years actally, as it took a couple of years to work up / feel comfortable with that level of usage. Almost all in warm water though, and mostly in the 50 to 70m range during the later two thirds of that time, as deeper wrecks were simply not available (for deeper dives) in the areas where we were operating during that time. Of course if I knew / thought the 'next' dive was going to be strenuous on the bottom, I would change out at 9-10 hours, that being dependent on run time for upcoming dive though.

As for keeping a partially used sealed scrubber, I would, when not out on an expedition, somtimes have to go for weeks between dives (unfortunarely), and again, never encountered a problem with that 'storage' procedure, i.e. sealing the packed scrubber, but with airtight screwed on fittings in the 15.5's scubber's case, not just inside a so-called 'sealed' plastice bag for that time. On the other hand, I certainly would not empty the scrubber to dry out the sorb - as mentioned in above quote - at any time!

However, my above re scrubber time usage is not to be seen / taken as a recommendation by any means, just a truthful answer to a question is all.

EDIT: To those not familiar with the scrubber in a mk15.5, there are some very good photos here - SM1600 - although in this instance the mk15.5 is called an 'SM1600', which simply denoted the Pete Ready / Kevin Jurgensen electronics version (of the 15.5) so to speak. The case, cylinders, scrubber, and almost all other parts, are identical.

 

[Peter69_56]

Which part of what he said was a very dangerous practice? He knows his time used on the scrubber and the scrubber is a chemical reaction where if there is no co2 it doesn't react. If he has a known used time and a known safe amount of usage per scrubber than maybe it isn't very dangerous? maybe it's just risky.

I dive partiality used scrubbers frequently that have been labeled with time used out of total acceptable time.

Here is an article on partially used scrubbers and the effects of using them.

Storage of partly used closed-circuit rebreather carbon dioxide absorbent canisters

What was not made clear to me was the definition of "open" (unsealed). Is that totally open and not in any container at all? Or in a plastic bag or similar but not sealed to the environment in any way?

I keep mine in plastic bags which are not vacuum sealed, hence my curiosity

 

[rjack321]

What was not made clear to me was the definition of "open" (unsealed). Is that totally open and not in any container at all? Or in a plastic bag or similar but not sealed to the environment in any way?

I keep mine in plastic bags which are not vacuum sealed, hence my curiosity

The inspo has a 2.5kg axial scrubber. So not open in all directions like a radial would be, just the ends.

 

[broncobowsher]

My keg of new sorb is just sealed with a cap, probably air tight. But not vacuum packed. Why do you need to vacuum pack a partially used scrubber?

 

[FreeFlyFreak]

My keg of new sorb is just sealed with a cap, probably air tight. But not vacuum packed. Why do you need to vacuum pack a partially used scrubber?

Probably because of what is in this link, though they only tested unsealed and vacuum sealed, they didn't test zip lock bag sealed:
Storage of partly used closed-circuit rebreather carbon dioxide absorbent canisters

 

[FreeFlyFreak]

https://web.archive.org/web/20080518082010/http://www.nobubblediving.com/frankenson.htm

Interesting link.
Amazing how many boxes I checked in his list, I have done or still do all of these:

Diving, Motorcycling, Sky-Diving, Auto-Racing, Skiing, Target-Shooting, Computer-Programming, Sailing, Model-Rocketry, Photography, Archery.

Most of the others listed I would like to try, except golf, zero desire for that one.

 

[rjack321]

My keg of new sorb is just sealed with a cap, probably air tight. But not vacuum packed. Why do you need to vacuum pack a partially used scrubber?

vacuum would (potentially) start to dry it out which is not what you want at all.