Atomic Aquatics meets 'Moonshiners' Check out their new 'condensation coil' for regulators.

[scubafanatic]

Atomic Aquatics reveals ScubaHeat at DEMA 2018

Coil system warms breathing air in very cold water

Atomic Aquatics reveals ScubaHeat at DEMA 2018 | British Diver

Is this a solution looking for a problem ? (and I still don't see where the copper pot plugs into the system....

 

[northernone]

Atomic Aquatics reveals ScubaHeat at DEMA 2018

Coil system warms breathing air in very cold water

Atomic Aquatics reveals ScubaHeat at DEMA 2018 | British Diver

Is this a solution looking for a problem ?

Hmmmm. Thanks for posting this.

Here's a stab at a critique to get discussion going:

Off the bat, they try to compare it to the ambient temperature of a rebreather loop... That's impossible unless it's not in cold water, which seems to be rather self defeating given the marketing.

My main concern is that looks like a perfect entanglement hazard that I know every fishing line, stray branch and chunk of metal will be inexplicablly attracted to tangle in.

I wonder what real world temperature IP air is during normal workload in cold water. And how significant this is for 2nd stage freeze ups? I haven't found them particularly as common as 1st stage anyway. Though I prefer double hose in truely cold water.

As a fun side note, dive a metal second stage with no mouthpiece, bird dog gripping the bare metal barrel, you can feel a dramatic temperature fluctuation every breath on your lips and it varies depending on inhale force. A fun experience if you're into that sort of thing.

Cameron

 

[lexvil]

Ouch, that’s an embarrassment.

 

[Akimbo]

Off the bat, they try to compare it to the ambient temperature of a rebreather loop...

There was a company named Kinergetics in the 1970s that developed a thermal gas heat regenerator that captured well over 85% of the heat from exhalations for deep HeO2 bounce dives. It was an amazingly small device that consisted with fine copper screens pressed in a copper tube. Every other screen was rotated 45°. The whole assembly was chrome plated to minimize corrosion. It was developed for Oceaneering's Rat Hat.

The same heat exchanger technology was applied to a gas heater that tapped off the diver's hot water suit, making the regenerator obsolete.

 

[Scared Silly]

FWIW the writeup is wrong. The gas comes off the LP side of the reg, into the heat exchanger, then to the second stage. A correct write up: Atomic Aquatics Unveils New Scuba Heat System – DeeperBlue.com

I would really like to see the experimental details as the coil seems way too large in diameter and has too short of a run length to really make a significant difference. Regardless it is not going to delivering a warmth breath unless one is diving in water that is warmer than ~98.6F.

 

[MichaelMc]

From the second write up:
"This system can increase the breathing gas temperature from -6F/-21°C to 34°F/1°C, a difference of +40°F/22°C."

What were the experimental conditions?? Are they saying that in the absence of this system the diver would have be breathing -6F air?

Or, is it that if you free flow the system, air leaves the LP port at -6F, but warms up quickly regardless of the 'hose'. We used a metal hose, which helped a tiny bit, and looks cool.

It may be that their system helps, but their claimed results do not lead me to believe the applicability of their results, and system, at all.

 

[herman]

I suspect this is more a marketing gimmick than a useful item. While expansive cooling does happen, it is also quickly warmed by the metal around the orifice and in the LP chamber in the first stage so the air entering the LP hose is going to be warmed considerably before even it leaves the first stage. A good metal second stage will also help rewarm the air, which goes through a second cooling at the second stage....the large air chamber, large metal cans and hose lengths are the reason DH regs are so much better than single hose regs in cold water.
The add is also misleading when It brings up the rebreather. Rebreathers do warm the air both from retained body heat and exothermic heating of the absorbent but this heat exchanger has nothing similar. Farther, they actually warm the air, this at best returns it to ambient temperature.
At $350, it's a bit pricey for 4 feet of coiled plated copper tubing. If you are really curious if this works, get 3-4 feet of copper tubing, bend it in a U, add some couplings, insert it in your second stage hose and go diving....and save yourself $300.

If Atomic really wants to accomplish this, redesigning the first and second stages would be the way to go. A larger LP chamber on the first stage, make the first stage of a metal with higher thermal conductivity, add a good metal second stage and add heat sink fins to both stages.

 

[JohnnyC]

Marketing wank for sure. My SF2 loop is almost uncomfortably warm. I have NEVER had an OC regulator, even my Kraken with what amounts to an order of magnitude larger loop for gas expansion, come anywhere close to rebreather loop temperatures. Even with the cooler loop temps of my Meg and my Pelagian, no OC reg is going to come close to ambient temperature, let alone "warm."

Fool and his money.....

 

[northernone]

Fool and his money.....

... Buy rebreathers so they can be filled with hot air both figuratively and literally.

(humor, I'm on rebreathers myself)

Cameron