Avelo--I guess there's no need for me to recommend fundies anymore....

[maj2]

From their FAQs:
"The price of the Avelo System will be competitive with standard scuba systems."

I'll believe that when/if I see it...

 

[lowwall]

Further thoughts.

- They are claiming 40 pounds (18 kilos) for the whole system, which is about what a 300bar steel cylinder of that size weighs by itself. So both the cylinder and shell must be carbon fiber or carbon fiber wrapping with an AL core. The necessary inherent negative buoyancy would need to come from the pump and batteries and probably the valve at the bottom will be a big chunk of stainless steel. This means the whole thing will be both very expensive and life limited.

- And you'll likely still need lead with a 7mm suit or drysuit. I just don't see how they could make this negative enough at an overall weight of 40 pounds.

- The only true advantage over a BP/W is that the size of your air bubble does not vary with depth. That's a vast amount of equipment and expense to counter a very minor issue for a properly weighted diver. How about fixing training so divers aren't moving around with a giant bubble of air in their BCD in the first place?

- What happens if the battery or pump fails at depth? Presumably part of the training will be how to use an alternate buoyancy source such as a DSMB.

- What about the standard 2-tank dive trip?

 

[lowwall]

From their FAQs:
"The price of the Avelo System will be competitive with standard scuba systems."

I'll believe that when/if I see it...

Competitive with... I'd guess they'll call it a win if they are within 20% of the combined price of a steel HP100 tank, the most expensive scubapro BCD and 20 pounds of lead weights.

Let's see 1.2x(350+1300+100) = $2100

 

[formernuke]

Interesting concept, I wonder how well it works

 

[tech_diver]

I don't have any real info and even if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to talk about it.

But, I know people who know people...

This thing does exist and does function. But as the SB crowd has pointed out, success is going to be about price and ease of use. Like many new products, those will probably be the last two questions answered just before it comes to market.

That's all I know about that...

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I don't have any real info and even if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to talk about it.

But, I know people who know people...

This thing does exist and does function. But as the SB crowd has pointed out, success is going to be about price and ease of use. Like many new products, those will probably be the last two questions answered just before it comes to market.

That's all I know about that...

I'm curious about the hydro issue that someone else brought up, and also durability.

 

[Subcooled]

Just buy this!

Avelo - Technology

diveavelo.com

I assume no weights are needed?

What if my drysuit fails? Can this system provide me with 16 pounds of buoyncy?

What if that machine breaks? Should I pee enough to ensure neutral buoyancy?

 

[tech_diver]

I was exposed to this idea a couple of years ago when it was being developed, I really didn't get much more info than what we have today. I assumed it was a composite wrap cylinder of some sort that could be removed from the shell and sent to hydro.

My understanding was that the magic of this device was in the hydraulic pump technology brought from the fracking industry.

I may have said too much already...

 

[mwerle]

I'm pretty sure there's a standard

I'm pretty sure the setup is a conventional - most likely steel - cylinder that's surrounded by a thinner shell. The space between the cylinder and shell is the ballast tank. Doing it this way means the shell only has to handle say 12-15 bar if they limit it to recreational depths and include a normal safety margin. Double that if they allow it to go to 100m.

The animation shows the inner "cylinder" being resized as the tank is filled/drained with water. Assuming that's a realistic representation, that implies the air is basically in a balloon inside the tank. Outer shell will have to handle the pressure of the most compressed state (ie, at a full 300 bar fill + however much volume of water you need to add to become neutral in order to decsend). This also implies the pump needs to handle pressures in excess of 300 bars.

Concerns about loss of battery/pump I don't see so much as a problem. As long as you still have air left the "dump valve" simply uses the pressure of the gas to push the water back out, and voila, buyoancy. And it appears that the aim is to be neutral anyway, so should always be able to swim up at which point wetsuit decompression etc will start making you marginally positive.

 

[BRT]

The animation shows the inner "cylinder" being resized as the tank is filled/drained with water. Assuming that's a realistic representation, that implies the air is basically in a balloon inside the tank. Outer shell will have to handle the pressure of the most compressed state (ie, at a full 300 bar fill + however much volume of water you need to add to become neutral in order to decsend). This also implies the pump needs to handle pressures in excess of 300 bars.

Concerns about loss of battery/pump I don't see so much as a problem. As long as you still have air left the "dump valve" simply uses the pressure of the gas to push the water back out, and voila, buyoancy. And it appears that the aim is to be neutral anyway, so should always be able to swim up at which point wetsuit decompression etc will start making you marginally positive.

Also means that the regulator has to hold pressures much higher than tank fill pressure.