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We did the math before we bought, and compared to OC at nitrox depths you basically break even on the direct costs and won't ever recover the acquisition costs. However, you will save significant money on the direct costs compared to OC when you're diving at trimix depths on CCR. In the 300...

Pete, I had different Cave DPV and Cave CCR instructors but both had us doing SAC swims to confirm how far bailout would last under ideal conditions. And emergencies almost never involve ideal conditions. My regular team mate and myself both have SAC rates around .65 at a 75 fpm swim rate...

I have a 3.5 cfm AN-M4C Stewart Warner compressor. The originals were set up with a 3 HP Continental gas powered motor but the adapt easily to a 5 HP Honda gas engine. They'll handle fills to 3300 psi and they are rated for continuous duty. They were commonly available on the surplus market...

I don't find a HUD to be distracting, but I'm also ambivalent about mine, at least on my KISS Sidekick. I got it in order to have redundant loop monitoring, and I also found it was convenient for monitoring the loop in small side mount passages and in low viz. On the other hand over almost...

One of my frequent team mates has a Sidewinder and it works well for him, but it is heavier over all than my Sidekick, takes up more space to pack and is much more involved to assemble. With my Sidekick I can bubble wrap the O2 reg, MAV, Petrel and DSV and pack them in the scrubber, which is...

I agree with you that you want to take some care not to re-calibrate to mask the effects of a dying and current limited cell - but that's a potential issue with wet or dry recalibration. I check our cells with a cell checker just before the trip to verify they are not current limited and that...

It's a composite wrap, and the gel coat in the inside has delaminated in spots. I suspect what happened is that it developed pin holes, which allowed water in the drive gas to get underneath the gel coat, which then caused the delamination in spots, probably aided my sub freezing weather as it...

I'm rebuilding an older version of a Haskel AGT 7/15 for a local dive shop and the 5 3/4" ID barrel for the air drive has some spots inside where the barrel has de-laminated. I'm looking for lower cost alternative to a new barrel and wondered if any one has one sitting around in serviceable...

I'm rebuilding an older version of a Haskel AGT 7/15 for a local dive shop and the 5 3/4" ID barrel for the air drive has some spots inside where the barrel has de-laminated. I'm looking for lower cost alternative to a new barrel and wondered if any one has one sitting around in serviceable...

Let's say you are diving in a cave and it descends to 300' before again rising to the surface at more or less the same 1 ATA. You'd have to do the same deco stops you'd normally do for the same dive profile in open water. That's distinctly different than surfacing in an air bell where the...

Caissons were pressurized to keep water out. Water in a sump is just that, in a sump. The air on either side of the sump will be at close to ambient pressure. Worst case, if the cave is completely sealed at the far end, and the water in a "V" shaped passage starts to rise, there would be...

I read the article and there are some thing said that need to be properly qualified. For example, if you are filling a tank directly off a compressor, the tank will indeed get hot at a 300 to 600 psi per minute fill rate. I have a 4 CFM compressor and it takes about 20 minutes to fill an AL 80...

One of the biggest challenges for a CCR diver is really getting a handle on how long the scrubber will actually last. I've never found any solid data on the Sidekick but I've seen 3 hours quoted for a similar scrubber design with the same capacity - based on using 3 liters of O2 per minute (a...

I've seen divers with excessively small counter lungs or excessively small scrubbers out breathe their loop and have similar CO2 issues. Working hard in high flow can do that. In a properly packed scrubber the chemistry is very reliable - but the reactions take a certain amount of dwell time...

I dive a KISS Sidekick with 'just' three sensors. It's enough, although there is something of a learning curve to getting things to run trouble free. For example if you are doing 4 to 6 hours per day, for several dats in a row and expecting the head and sensors to dry outside in a Florida...

We paid $4500 for our KISS sidekicks about 3 years ago, but to be fair we had to add a external Shearwater Petrel ($900 at the time) and acquire some 2L O2 tanks, so the total cost was closer to $5500. We got a package deal discount on the training so that was only $1000. So $6500 total, ready...

Many diving air compressors will handle helium ok, but be aware that they run a lot hotter when compressing helium. It can be an issue when continuous blending trimix on a hot day, particularly, if the intercooling between stages is minimal. If you are compressing 100% helium it's almost...

Three thoughts... 1) I found a used AG-30 Haskel for $500, and even with new seal kits and new build fill whips I only have about $1000 in it. That compares to about $3k for a rebuilt AG-30 or $4300 for a new one. There are deals out there, you just have to know where to look and know how to...

I run a larger AG-30 off of my 5 CFM shop compressor. If you operate it at about 1 cycle every 5-6 seconds the compressor should keep up at around 90-100 psi. That works well for O2 as it keeps everything nice and cool - just mildly warm to the touch. The drive section is separate from the...