Adobo
Contributor
So in running some math, if you just keep doing T1 dives to 170ft for 20 minutes and you assume an ACE of 200 minutes, 20kg of sofnolime is 170 bucks, and $237 for 3 O2 sensors every 50 dives (annual replacement.) You are looking at ~40$/dive on CCR in consumables, completely ignoring gas costs for the diluent and O2 you do use.
It would take 213 dives for the crossover between the OC and CCR to occur assuming no other parts needed to replaced or serviced in either system, and you never touched your bail out gas, I fully admit I could be misunderstanding some of the cost of CCR diving.
I'm not sure if that savings to me would make it worth switching to CCR for cost savings, I think there are other valid reasons to dive CCR when the logistics or parameters of the dive require it but for the T1 level it really seems like a lot of additional complexity and risk, but maybe that's my ignorance.
Although I know a couple of people who dive with JJ CCRs, I haven't the faintest clue how much it would cost to get into one - either the equipment or the training. I know even less about how they work in terms of what the related equipment are (I seem to remember people talking about the higher end Shearwater computers) or the consumables.
I appreciate that with the cost of helium, if you are an avid technical diver, the rebreather will wind up "paying for itself". The argument seems to be stronger for those who are doing tech 2 dives than divers who only go as far as tech 1 dives. I imagine the considerations are beyond costs though - sounds like they are far more complex to operate.