Heliox!

[PaulSmithTek]

I apploligize if this has been posted somewhere else before.

I know commercially we you Heliox, as a dive mixture. Is this practiced in Rec or Tech diving.

And is trimix better for deep dives instead of shallow as where nitrox is better for shallow dives in stead of deep dives?

I just am trying to understand all of this. I seriously want to start doing some deco and tech diving. I am going to go through. Iantd and SDI. any recommendations?

Thanks

 

[Bruciebabe]

Buy this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904381200/qid=1132696150/202-6241836-1989419

 

[PerroneFord]

Yes, Heliox is used for technical diving. Not really in recreational diving though.

I'd suggest you take Adv Nitrox, and trimix courses. I did IANTD, but others are good as well from what I hear and have seen. I have the TDI Adv. Nitrox manual and it's quite good. IANTD's is pretty poor by comparison. In my IANTD course we used a combination of the IANTD material, the TDI materials, and the NOAA diving manual. Combining the three filled in the gaps nicely.

Generally, Nitrox is losing its competitive advantage over air by the time you get to 100-110 feet. Trimix starts to make sense there. Heliox doesn't seem to be that popular except for sponsored projects, or in small amounts for decompression gases where you are trying to get off the nitrogen as quickly as possible. Some of the WKPP guys moved to Heliox after long bottom time dives. I know Jarrod Jablonski has talked and written about it some.

Best of luck.

 

[PerroneFord]

Buy this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904381200/qid=1132696150/202-6241836-1989419

I had a chance to review this book a few weeks ago. It's excellent.

 

[PaulSmithTek]

I will have to buy it then and read it. I appriciate everyones feed back

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Heliox is not used in recreational diving.

It is certainly used in technical diving, however, its use would quite likely be considered from the perspective of a cost/benefit ratio - in other words, there should be a significant perceived benefit to justify its cost. I'm not sure that the majority of technical dives fit that profile. Certainly some projects and organized efforts would be justified in using Heliox on a regular basis.

IMHO, Heliox is not widely used by a majority of technical divers.

YMMV.

 

[Diver0001]

I apploligize if this has been posted somewhere else before.

I know commercially we you Heliox, as a dive mixture. Is this practiced in Rec or Tech diving.

And is trimix better for deep dives instead of shallow as where nitrox is better for shallow dives in stead of deep dives?

I just am trying to understand all of this. I seriously want to start doing some deco and tech diving. I am going to go through. Iantd and SDI. any recommendations?

Thanks

I'll just preface this by saying that I'm not an expert on this but my impression is that Heliox mostly isn't used for scuba diving because the high HE content makes it expensive without adding any significant benefit over Trimix.

The limits of OC scuba in terms of logistics of gas supply pretty much means that Trimix is sufficient for most real world scuba diving. IN addition, Trimix is usually mixed by adding HE to Nitrox and it wouldn't surprise me if ease of blending accounts to some extent for the popularity of Trimix.

I hear tht commercial divers us Heliox for extremely deep dives (dives that are pretty much out of the range of people on OC scuba) where even small amounts of nitrogen are narcotic.

Make any sense?

R..

 

[PaulSmithTek]

Yes, and I was working on a Commerical job in a Hard Hat back in December last year and we were doing 210' mixed gas on Heliox. Thats why I was asking. because it elliminates any nitrogen if I am correct.

 

[PaulSmithTek]

Now on CCR my understanding is you can still use nitrox or trimix correct?

 

[PerroneFord]

I've seen both used on CCR.