Pawel:
C-lungs are entirely encased and not accesible they are difficult to inspect.
The
entire loop is secured to the case by a single latch. Open the latch, pull the scrubber cannister out, and 100% of the loop's outside area is accessable. It's the best loop access I've ever seen. Opening the latch isn't anymore time consuming or difficult than opening the latch that holds the Azimuth's cover down.
On every other breather I can think of you either have the parts of the loop running through a case, the BCD semi-permanently held by screws to parts of the loop or case.
... the bi-axial scrubber is a mistake. ... the gas travel is very long, which has to increase breathing resistance.
I haven't had one in the water yet, but breathing resistance is reportedly better than several rear mounted CL designs. The length of the loop is but one factor in WOB. The co-axial (not bi-axial) design has two relatively short gas paths through the scrubber bed, with breathing bags in between. That should certainly lower WOB.
Most radial scrubbers have about ~5cm gas travel (or huge surface, like MK15/16) and some nice axial scrubbers, like Colkan have also very short gas path and large surface area.
The annular-axial cannister of the MK series pretty much a radial design laid out flat, and has much the same properties of a radial design.
... if you push yourself hard in cold water this thing will go quick, and I mean well before the scrubber rating is up.
I have yet to see any testing data on the Sport Kiss' performance, and I wager so do you. That means were both guessing.
To be fair I haven't seen any data on the Meg, Classic Kiss or
any OMG rebreather either. So I can either believe the claims, or make educated asumptions on their performance based on the general design. I just don't know enough about co-axial scrubber to make an educated guess.
Is there any testing data for a like design that has been published (or made accessable to you) that allow you to be so certain in your assessment?
Look at other general rules:
Two counterlungs increase dwell time and thus scrubber efficiency
Yet two single counterlung rebreathers, the MK15.5/16 and the RB80 (the inner bellows just expells gas & water) seem to be very efficient having repeatedly allowed extreme dives (both depth and time).
Metal is a bad cannister material due to its heat sink properties
OMG and the MK15 use scrubbers entirely made from metal and still perform quite well. The Meg's cannister is made from metal yet it lasts as long as the plastics of the like Inspiration.
Uninsulated scrubbers yada, yada, yada
The RB80
yada, yada, yada
You get the idea. All factors interact, there no absolute here.
I would really like to see a 3h CO2 concentration chart in freezing water at 2L CO2/min flow with peaks up to 5L/min. From my experience, I am almost sure it would break through, probably within the first hour.
Once you're frozen in you won't go anywhere anymore, the wait for spring will outlast any scrubber.
But seriously, I couldn't care less how a scrubber performs at 2 lpm - 5lpm CO2 addition over 3 hrs since it is impossible to sustain. For a human, anyway. What I want is testing done to parameters that reflect real life but at an increased worse case rate (rather than impossible rate). That will give you usable data. If you test at 2 - 5 lpm as you suggest people just gonna say I can exceed that because it can't be achieved. They have been saying and doing that for years with the Buddy.
I am interested in the failure well before the rated duration is up.
That's the problem with some of your arguments and the reason you get so much flak from people:
You're intrested, but you don't really know, yet make claims and accusations.
The reason I whinge about it is that there is no good reason (other than to sqeeze cost) for such compromised design.
Case in point for my last statement.
There are many very nice breathers out there and most of them do not have OMG sticker
The sticker they all have is a price tag much higher than the Sport Kiss. And outside the military that is usually an issue.
I don't think anyone claims the Sport Kiss is the best or the perfect rebreather. Jetsam certainly doesn't.
But it could very well be that it is the best rebreather for what people want to use it for.
Look at yourself. You use an O2 rebreather for some of your work that would be useless to many of us, no matter how well it is designed and build. And it certainly is both of that.
My concern is also that, because of Sport KISS affordability, it is likely that it will sell in large numbers to recreational divers, some of which may not recognise this limitation, and the likelyhood of accidents due to scrubber inefficiency is considerable, in my view.
The limits are clearly stated by Jetsam, and should be taught during training. If someone doesn't understand or recognize them they shouldn't be diving rebreathers. Probably shouldn't be diving at all.
Anyway, save us all by getting the Castoro Explorer (? the mCCR) at a low price.
That looks like one sweet 'breather.