Hydroid Aquabreather

[doctormike]

Thanks so much for this thoughtful writeup! It's pretty amazing how something like this gets such viral buzz. It's more amazing that the DEMA people rented them a table. Is there any sort of screening process?

As I suspected, the #1 issue to address if you are claiming that this is a "rebreather" is the counterlung. I can believe that technological advancements will someday allow us to do all sorts of things - generate oxygen from chemical reactions or scrub CO2 with vastly improved efficiency. I can even imagine someone figuring out how to make an artifical gil, that will make all the rest of our dive gear obsolete.

But I can't imagine a technological advance that will let you put 6 liters of anything into less than 6 liters of physical space. And until someone figures out how to bypass the lungs to oxygenate the blood and offgas nitrogen (recreational ECMO?), every scuba diver will need to move one tidal volume of gas in and out of their lungs with every breath.

 

[Johnoly]

..... It's more amazing that the DEMA people rented them a table. Is there any sort of screening process?.....

{LMAO, cleaning coffee spew everywhere}

Did You know they were selling bongs at the show this year ?

 

[Manatee Diver]

There is a screening process, I managed to hack it off their computer.

DEMA Exhibitor Screening process:
Does the check clear? (Y or N)

 

[doctormike]

Hah! Guess I'm naive.... not in the industry!

 

[jgttrey]

It's hard for me to judge based on the pictures of the thing. I'd love to see an actual unit disassembled - but I won't hold my breath.

6L's worth or counterlungs aren't as big as you think. The small ISC Minnows are 6L total and if the helmet were big enough, I guess I could see that happening, but it's hard to say. But, for some divers, 6L is a bit too small anyway. I use bigger 8L minnnow lungs precisely because I felt that 6L lungs were a bit small for me on actual dives.

WOB on "cranial counterlungs" would be terrible in any orientation other than horizontal trim. Hard to inhale if you're head up and hard to exhale if you're head down. You really want the CLs to be on a plane with the lung centroid.

Many, many, many challenges to be overcome here even if this is a legitimate attempt at a product. How to bailout, dil flush. Trim would be interesting - it'd be like diving with an SMB attached to your head that inflated and deflated with every breath.

If one of the reasons for diving a rebreather is silence, then mounting the counterlungs next to my ears would be awful. All you would hear are these bags inflating and deflating.

You could solve a lot of those issues simply by relocating some of the components. The biggest issue is, of course, using potassium superoxide. I get the appeal of being able to ditch conventional scrubber and an O2 cylinder, but this just sounds like terrible, dangerous, idea. Plus, the containers are so small that, even if there is enough chemical to do the job, I'd worry about the bed depth and dwell time. I don't know anything about that chemistry, but breakthrough during rapid breathing would certainly seem to be an issue with something that small.

 

[tech_diver]

LMAO, cleaning coffee spew everywhere}

Did You know they were selling bongs at the show this year ?

LOL....

Yeah but at least those people weren't claiming their bong operated at a depth of 42 meters for an hour on a single refill.

 

[doctormike]

LOL....

Yeah but at least those people weren't claiming their bong operated at a depth of 42 meters for an hour on a single refill.

Maybe this NSFW one does...

 

[jgttrey]

Maybe this NSFW one does...

Looks like video smuggled out of the Hydroid R&D lab.

 

[JohnN]

Maybe this NSFW one does...

That second is certainly no longer O2 safe

 

[undrwater]

I want to believe in the next big thing as much as anyone but the Hydroid Aquabreater is not it. It is a fake.

Assuming your analysis is correct (and I believe it is), for me it begs the question about motivation. The website does not indicate any connection to crowdfunding.