Fathom Gemini WOB on partially used scrubber

[J-Vo]

I dive a Sidewinder, and I rotate canisters. I would only keep the exhale sorb if it ended the dive completely dry. If I do a 90-minute dive, I'm tossing the exhale sorb dry or not.

That out of the way, I was diving last week with a leaking counter lung. Water was seeping through the fabric and filling the exhale canister. I found the work of breathing change almost undetectable, through 3 hours of diving across two dives, and didn't really notice the issue until tear down.

 

[rjack321]

I dive a Sidewinder, and I rotate canisters. I would only keep the exhale sorb if it ended the dive completely dry. If I do a 90-minute dive, I'm tossing the exhale sorb dry or not.

I don't rotate my canisters but would be ok doing a 2nd dive on the original fill after 90mins if dive 2 wasn't anything "big" (overhead, long or deep). And if it had the normal amount of spit butter at just the top not dripping or anything.

I basically do the same on my Meg although that unit has a water trap so this whole "dripping" canister thing is completely foreign.

 

[rddvet]

Not sure it makes a difference, but I'm in Europe and using sofnolime rather than sorb.

I've seen a few people post this. I don't understand why given (presumeably, if like lime) it is delivered dry?

It’s all the same. What does being delivered dry have anything to do with wet sorb? I’m not following

 

[rddvet]

Someone who actually dives a Gemini or Sidewinder needs to chime in on this.


ETA: this is one of those things that should have been addressed by your instructor. I’m not gonna ask who your instructor was but the field isn’t exactly big and you asking this question is concerning.

Keep in mind not everyone retains everything they’re taught or pays attention an entire class. Could be the instructor. Could be a bad student. Could just be a student who’s tired from travel or diving or getting bad sleep in a hotel and missed some info

 

[J-Vo]

I don't rotate my canisters but would be ok doing a 2nd dive on the original fill after 90mins if dive 2 wasn't anything "big" (overhead, long or deep). And if it had the normal amount of spit butter at just the top not dripping or anything.

I basically do the same on my Meg although that unit has a water trap so this whole "dripping" canister thing is completely foreign.

I would have no issues diving again with 90 minutes on the entire system, but since I have the option to dump and rotate, it's not a lot of sorb tossed and it makes me feel better.

 

[macado]

sorb is just a nickname for any CO2 absorbent. The same way that some people refer to it as lime.

It can refer to Sofnolime, Intersorb, Dragersorb, Sodalime, etc.

 

[JCM@Atlam]

Keep in mind not everyone retains everything they’re taught or pays attention an entire class. Could be the instructor. Could be a bad student. Could just be a student who’s tired from travel or diving or getting bad sleep in a hotel and missed some info

I didn't put these questions to my instructor, nor did he suggest any of them. I wanted to get opinions from those who dive the same or similar units. I don't suppose you'll find removing the dust filters on the course or in the manual, but it seems to be a common practice among users.

PS: I dived the unit this morning with no filters at the bottom of either scrubber. So far, so good...

 

[lostsheep]

I didn't put these questions to my instructor, nor did he suggest any of them. I wanted to get opinions from those who dive the same or similar units.

To explicitly clarify my comment only:

Your comment about dumping out partially used granular sorb so that it could dry and then be repacked is the only issue I’m addressing. Repacking partially used sorb is absolutely unacceptable and will lead to a hypercapnia event. I am very concerned that you suggested this. I’m very concerned it either wasn’t mentioned or that it wasn’t retained.

 

[rddvet]

I didn't put these questions to my instructor, nor did he suggest any of them. I wanted to get opinions from those who dive the same or similar units. I don't suppose you'll find removing the dust filters on the course or in the manual, but it seems to be a common practice among users.

PS: I dived the unit this morning with no filters at the bottom of either scrubber. So far, so good...

I was generalizing when I responded to the person who said you had a bad instructor. I wasn’t trying to say you in particular were a bad student. I was just saying you can’t label the instructor without more info.
When I did my fathom mod 1 I had to skip a day and a half because I got dengue fever and was jacked up pretty bad. Enough to go to the Tulum hospital. I guarantee you I missed some stuff in lecture becuSe my brain was more focused on not dying.

 

[JCM@Atlam]

I don't think it's reasonable to expect a course/instructor to tell you ALL the stuff you shouldn't do. My question about drying sorb was exactly that, a question, not a suggestion.

Also, consider that most of my dives are 30m shore dives with minimal deco done for fun/fitness. I am interested in economical but safe consumption of lime for these as I do on average one a week, and the cost does add up over time. If removing a couple of the dust filters proves beneficial and effectively doubles my stack time, this post will have been very worthwhile.

For deeper/more serious stuff, I always have at least one new scrubber

With only ~60 hrs on my Gemini, I may well have clocked up the most hours among the small number of users on this island, so being able to reach out here is helpful