FFM for the Prism Topaz

[padiscubapro]

Well i'm very pleased to hear from you. I spoke with you in person at your Beneath the sea booth this year. Between your husbands great presentation on Rebreather engineering and design and your and Ron Scorese's wonderful knowledge and personalities I chose the Prism for my first breather. You two were the only rebreather company booth who could actually answer the questions I asked. The guy at the Megladon booth actually told me that temperature has nothing to do with scrubber duration! Keep up the great work!

I doubt he said "nothing to do" with temperature, and if so what temperature external or internal??..

But there is **SOME** truth about temperature, in many cases there is no significant difference with external temperature, I am NOT saying there are NO differences.. How much an effect depends on how much co2 is being generated and the temperature within the stack..

at low work loads ith little co2 being created, the core temp of the stack can cool in cold water and it will be less efficient, but with higher work loads the stack is generating alot of heat and ambient temperature differences mean alot less especially if the scrubber is well insulated and if the counterlungs are insulated..

There are several designs out there that the scrubber is located within the counterlungs, in this arrangement the scrubber is never in direct contact with water (which pulls heat away much more readily than a gas), and varying water temperature has little measurable change on the scrubber temperature.

It really isnt a simple black and white anwer, there are lots of qualfiers.. Heat helps chemical reactions along, but in a co2 reaction there are multiple points than can hinder or help the reaction.. some of the reactions within the scrubber are very violent and generate ALOT of heat..

How a scrubber works is hotly debated.. There are many experts out there that claim the reactions work in different ways...