Background: I have OC tech background. Caves and wrecks are my thing. I recently completed Mod 1 & 2 on a unit and also did a crossover to another. Both units are fairly well-known in the community. I did a lot of googling before my courses (especially on the topic of unit choices) and found that info was all over. So here’s my attempt at consolidating them. I hope it helps if you are thinking about getting a unit.
This post is unit-agnostic. CCR choices are very personal and people do tend to defend their choices remarkably well. Hence, instead of listing the pros and cons of the various units I have researched and dived with, I would like to share some “learning points” – from my courses, online research and limited experience diving the units. Remember that this is coming from a freshly minted CCR diver though.
(1) Calculate your ROI
(2) Outline your decision factors
(3) Get training & actually dive the units
(4) Understand the trade-offs
(5) Make a pragmatic decision
I hope this helps someone. Thanks for reading.
This post is unit-agnostic. CCR choices are very personal and people do tend to defend their choices remarkably well. Hence, instead of listing the pros and cons of the various units I have researched and dived with, I would like to share some “learning points” – from my courses, online research and limited experience diving the units. Remember that this is coming from a freshly minted CCR diver though.
(1) Calculate your ROI
- There are one time and recurrent costs.
- Up-front cost goes to training, the CCR (of course) and other add-ons or modifications you intend to make to the unit. You might (or might not) want to factor in the cost for supporting equipment (eg: extra tanks, gas booster, whip).
- Recurrent costs are for sensors, spares, etc. You should also include servicing for the regs and even the unit itself.
- [Debatable] If you are in “transition” – aka require additional OC equipment to do the dives you plan on doing vs jumping into CCR, you might want to calculate what this figure would be (if you were to procure these OC equipment vs buying a CCR). So in a small little way, one might argue that this money would be spent regardless if you went with a CCR or not.
- You can estimate the length of time you would be diving the unit (eg: 3 or 5 years). This will help determine the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over the specified period.
- So here is what we have so far: TCO = up-front cost + recurrent cost x number of years.
- One key CCR benefit is saving on gas fees (especially on Helium).
- You can profile the type of dives you project to do in the coming years. I divided mine up into 3 categories (<45m, 45-60m, >60m). For each category, you can estimate the cost of these dives in both OC and CCR. Do include the cost for scrubber material. Note that you need Mod 3 and Mod 4 to dive to 60m and beyond 60m respectively (if you do the TDI route). Essentially, what you are doing here is to work out the cost savings on a per dive basis for each kind of dive.
- You can multiply the cost savings with the number of dives you intend to make in the coming years for each category.
- Ideally, TCO - Total Cost Savings < 0. If that’s the situation, you have a very solid case.
- If it is more than 0, don’t fret. Using the same method above, you can work out the cost per dive. Aka the extra cost of making those dives on a CCR on a per dive basis.
- Apart from gas savings, there are other benefits in diving CCR. You should know some of these already (if you read till this point). Hence, if you are willing to pay the extra cost (on a per dive basis) to enjoy these benefits, then I would say go with it as well. If not, you might want to re-evaluate your decision to go CCR.
- This actually is a lot easier to work out than it sounds. I did something up in Excel when I was calculating my own ROI and will be glad to share this with you if you want to use/modify it. Just drop me a PM!
(2) Outline your decision factors
- What sort of diving do you intend to do with the CCR?
- For example, if most of your diving involves significant traveling, weight and size would be a key decision factor.
- Start by listing down all the factors which matters to you. If you are reading this, you would have likely went through countless other online posts where others have outlined the factors which made them chose their units. If those factors resonate with you, add them to your list.
- Once your list starts to grow, you might want to group things up.
- If you want to be extremely objective about this, you might even want to assign weightages to them. You can then score the units accordingly. I did not do this but I did note down qualitative remarks for each factor after I dived the units. Eg: Unit A’s WOB was better.
- Here’s the list I used and some of the key factors:
- Reliability (Water Tolerance, Build Quality, Design, User Reviews)
- Diving (WOB, Trim, Access to Equipment, Controller/HUD, Flood Recovery)
- Travel (Weight, Size, Tank Flexibility)
- Supportability (Friends, Local Shop aka Unit Availability, No. of Divers, Brand Reputation, Repair)
- Ease of Use (Setup, Pre-dive, Post-dive, Tear-down, Maintenance)
- Here are other considerations which other forum members have raised. They are very valid points and hence, I have included them in a different list below:
- Availability of Instruction
(3) Get training & actually dive the units
- Do some research and populate the list you have from above. Narrow down your choices to a few units.
- It would be good to share the list you made above with your instructor(s) and seek their insights. Speak to people! Talk to instructors and owners of the other units as well. They might come up with some factors you did not think about or share an interesting perspective. In all my interactions, everyone was friendly and ever willing to share their feedback and experiences. Update your list accordingly.
- Get training on the unit you think you would get and do cross-overs for the rest if possible.
- Having done the courses, I don’t think try-dives in pools are good enough especially for new CCR divers starting out as we do not really know what to look and feel for yet.
- During actual diving, test the units for the factors which matters to you. WOB, trim, weight, ease of flood recovery, etc. Update the list you have made. Maybe some factors now matter more, maybe there are new factors you discovered, etc.
(4) Understand the trade-offs
- As you already discovered, technical diving is all about making trade-offs.
- The different CCR manufacturers have made trade-offs in the design and development of their units. Owners/users of these units chose them because they too value some factor over others. It’s good to find out what these are. There are some online info. Otherwise, speak to your instructor.
- IMO, this is a key aspect in the whole process of choosing a unit so set aside some time to do this. At the end of the day, chances are extremely high that you picked a unit because the manufacturer had applied the same value system you had.
- This article is meant as a guide to aid in your first CCR purchase. Hence, the other trade-offs (eg: CCR risk vs the kind of dives you are doing) will not be discussed here.
(5) Make a pragmatic decision
- Buy a unit for the kind of diving you will be doing in the next 3 years and not the kind of diving you would like to do beyond the 3 year mark. Or worse, the kind of diving you have been daydreaming about. I know. Daydreaming is fun. I’m guilty as charged.
- We can be ambitious. Yes, I would love to do exploration type CCR diving but I know it’s not going to happen in the next 3 years. At least not the very serious sort.
- Yes, I too have plans to do course X, Y, Z and so on in the next year or so but as we all know, plans usually change. And most often, stuff gets postponed and delayed.
- I would love a large radial scrubber. Longer duration. Lower WOB. But I have traded that with lower water tolerance (generally in most units) and likely a bigger/heavier unit. Be realistic, know your trade-offs (I can’t state this enough).
- Understand that you are still starting out. In a few years, once you have picked up the skills and experience, you will likely want a different unit. Remember that cool jacket BCD you picked up after your OW course? I know CCR units are a lot more expensive but with technology advances these days, who knows what the next 5 years will bring?
- Most units are very capable beyond the type of dives we usually do. Buy the unit which brings a smile on your face and not the unit with all the bells and whistles you think you might need.
I hope this helps someone. Thanks for reading.
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