Another big big issue with ccr in recreational diving is the knowledge and training you need to have. That is way more than for an ow+aow+nitrox cert+deep diver cert. This brings also extra costs.
I had 1 open water student for the Inspiration. This guy had a high consumption on oc and wanted to dive longer. A 15 liter tank did not last more than 45 minutes at 6m depth. He did not want to wait to improve his skills, he had the money, so bought a second hand unit without any knowledge. He did not know what he bought, he only paid way too much.
In his club nobody could help him, he just thought I buy a ccr and people will learn me how to use it like you can get ow and aow in a club quite easy.
So after some calls here and there from people from the club they came to me. So we met, we did an oc dive to know each other and I could look at the unit. I was an almost brand new unit, 10 hours in the water since it was built: This mean the previous owner also did not like ccr diving. The max depth the unit had been was 11 meter. Most of the 10 hours were done in a pool, I could see in the logbook with the depth.
Further I did not see any problems with the unit. But the cylinders were out of test, the cells were death, the bov (happely it had a bov for recreational diving) needed to be serviced. All no things that are not doable. As instructor I have to advice to sent the unit back to the factory as this is factory advice, so this was done. A unit of 4 years old with only 10 hours was sent back. Also the cylinders had to become in test again and you have to service the first stages again.
The diver did not have a nitrox cert, which is required to start a ccr course. He decided to do that with his club, so he had to wait another 6 months before he could start diving his ccr. In this times it was serviced. As he did not knew anything about oxygen clean, oxygen service, risk of oxygen, cells, etc, he had another bill of 800 bucks before the unit came back divable. At this time his costs were already more than just buying a new unit.
When he was ready with his nitrox, it was winter, so he wanted to do a drysuit course first with his club. No problem, but I warned him that if the cells are over 1 year old, they are out of date again. Even if they are never used, but they are installed in the unit.
So the year came, more than 1 year came, the unit needed new cells which he really did not understand why, he decided to quit diving. Also the sorb discussion of 3 hours on a fill, that is expensive. Getting oxygen was hard. I need a bailout cylinder? Yes, do you think that you can come up safely with just that 3 liter tank with your consumption? Officially there is something like minimum of 180 bar to start a dive with, use a bove and a max depth of 18m to dive without a bailout cylinder, but is that safe? He also wanted to do dives over 20m because he was working on his aow cert with his club. That means you need a bailout for sure. At the end we have built the unit a couple of times together, but he never made it in the water. 3 years later the unit was for sale again. Had 2 owners, both never came to real ccr divers.
The same you see now with ssi divecenters, quite a lot buy a horizon. Sell a course. And then the divers who got certified never dive ccr again (scr). But they are proud to say they have a ccr/scr card(most don't know the difference, they dove a unit with a strange mouthpiece and now or almost no bubbles). That it will never give you a real shortcut if you want to go tech is no problem, the money is earned. The only times I have seen horizons in the water was with an instructor and an ssi divecenter. I have never seen a person who bought a horizon for his own private use. Then people decide to go for the revo which is a real ccr. But then they are always already technical divers.
I have done some try dives with the inspiration. I quit. It is for me a lot of work. I have to make sure the unit works. I have to clean and desinfect after a dive. And at the end, no diver ever will do a course. If you tell them about the costs, they all quit. Also this is discussed with other ccr instructors and all say introduction dives almost never follow by a course. So more quit. Serious divers that want to do a ccr course and never dived a unit most times are already adv. nitrox or higher and then you can make a dive to let them feel the unit. This divers try sometimes more units and then buy one. But recreational divers without any experience with a twinset or so, no, they just want to say: I have done a ccr dive.
I had 1 open water student for the Inspiration. This guy had a high consumption on oc and wanted to dive longer. A 15 liter tank did not last more than 45 minutes at 6m depth. He did not want to wait to improve his skills, he had the money, so bought a second hand unit without any knowledge. He did not know what he bought, he only paid way too much.
In his club nobody could help him, he just thought I buy a ccr and people will learn me how to use it like you can get ow and aow in a club quite easy.
So after some calls here and there from people from the club they came to me. So we met, we did an oc dive to know each other and I could look at the unit. I was an almost brand new unit, 10 hours in the water since it was built: This mean the previous owner also did not like ccr diving. The max depth the unit had been was 11 meter. Most of the 10 hours were done in a pool, I could see in the logbook with the depth.
Further I did not see any problems with the unit. But the cylinders were out of test, the cells were death, the bov (happely it had a bov for recreational diving) needed to be serviced. All no things that are not doable. As instructor I have to advice to sent the unit back to the factory as this is factory advice, so this was done. A unit of 4 years old with only 10 hours was sent back. Also the cylinders had to become in test again and you have to service the first stages again.
The diver did not have a nitrox cert, which is required to start a ccr course. He decided to do that with his club, so he had to wait another 6 months before he could start diving his ccr. In this times it was serviced. As he did not knew anything about oxygen clean, oxygen service, risk of oxygen, cells, etc, he had another bill of 800 bucks before the unit came back divable. At this time his costs were already more than just buying a new unit.
When he was ready with his nitrox, it was winter, so he wanted to do a drysuit course first with his club. No problem, but I warned him that if the cells are over 1 year old, they are out of date again. Even if they are never used, but they are installed in the unit.
So the year came, more than 1 year came, the unit needed new cells which he really did not understand why, he decided to quit diving. Also the sorb discussion of 3 hours on a fill, that is expensive. Getting oxygen was hard. I need a bailout cylinder? Yes, do you think that you can come up safely with just that 3 liter tank with your consumption? Officially there is something like minimum of 180 bar to start a dive with, use a bove and a max depth of 18m to dive without a bailout cylinder, but is that safe? He also wanted to do dives over 20m because he was working on his aow cert with his club. That means you need a bailout for sure. At the end we have built the unit a couple of times together, but he never made it in the water. 3 years later the unit was for sale again. Had 2 owners, both never came to real ccr divers.
The same you see now with ssi divecenters, quite a lot buy a horizon. Sell a course. And then the divers who got certified never dive ccr again (scr). But they are proud to say they have a ccr/scr card(most don't know the difference, they dove a unit with a strange mouthpiece and now or almost no bubbles). That it will never give you a real shortcut if you want to go tech is no problem, the money is earned. The only times I have seen horizons in the water was with an instructor and an ssi divecenter. I have never seen a person who bought a horizon for his own private use. Then people decide to go for the revo which is a real ccr. But then they are always already technical divers.
I have done some try dives with the inspiration. I quit. It is for me a lot of work. I have to make sure the unit works. I have to clean and desinfect after a dive. And at the end, no diver ever will do a course. If you tell them about the costs, they all quit. Also this is discussed with other ccr instructors and all say introduction dives almost never follow by a course. So more quit. Serious divers that want to do a ccr course and never dived a unit most times are already adv. nitrox or higher and then you can make a dive to let them feel the unit. This divers try sometimes more units and then buy one. But recreational divers without any experience with a twinset or so, no, they just want to say: I have done a ccr dive.
