If you have any questions

[King_Neptune]

It is my personal belief that rebreathers are the WAVE of the future as far as SCUBA is concerned.
We have been doing our share of research on them and welcome others thoughts and questions.

 

[Scooter7285]

What exactly is a rebreather? I've heard of them, especially in the same breath as Dracor and Navy S.E.A.L.'s. I've always been interested in them.

 

[King_Neptune]

Scooter7285,

Here is a quick rundown on how rebreathers work.

A rebreather gets rid of the need to exhaust the gas, instead the exhaled gas goes into a loop where it is pushed through a chemical absorbent (the scrubber) to get rid of any harmful CO2. Then it gets put back into a flexible membrane (the counterlung) for the diver to "rebreath", thus the name Rebreather.

Replacement of metabolic oxygen consumption is the idea behind every rebreather. All the body requires to sustain it is a certain amount of oxygen to burn in order to produce energy for the body to use.

Sounds easy, right? Well, it's not quite that simple. The catch is that oxygen consumption is not a constant, it is actually dependent on our workrate or activity level.

For a more detailed explanation (including pictures) click on the link below which will send you to where I have borrowed the info from, hehe. The word I received from those I asked all pointed to this site and sure enough they have some good info there. From what I am told they make some of the best rigs around.

http://www.steammachines.com/rebreathers.html


Let me know if this helps.

=-)

 

[Scooter7285]

Thanks, the information helped a lot. However, I was wondering if breathing with a rebreather was the same as breathing from a regular tank, and does it last the same amount of time, or longer?

 

[King_Neptune]

Scooter7285,

They last MUCH, MUCH longer ... That is one of the beauties of a rebreather. When I say longer, I mean by hours longer.

They termed the phrase "No bubbles, No troubles". When you breathe you don't use all the oxygen in each breath, so they basically "Scrub" out the used air and return the breathable air to you to breath.

As for "being the same as breathing from a regular tank" I am not sure what you mean but if you mean is their additional learning or training needed to learn how to use them then, "yes".

Did I answer what you were asking?

=-)

 

[Aegir]

I thought it was high time i learnt a little about rebreathers. Can somebody give me a rough idea of how much longer you can stay down with a rebreather than with scuba please.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Until the maintenance manhours per diving hour are sharply reduced, I don't see rebreathers becoming mainstream recreational Scuba equipment. Add to that the disposal of the expended scrubber material (I've heard some pretty strongly worded opinions on poluting here), the up-front and maintenance costs, and you have a useful tool for those whose work or avocation take them underwater with a real need for greatly extended bottom times, but a system whose "hassle quotient" exceeds what most folks consider "fun."
Rick

 

[scywin]

I have no experience with rebreathers, but with prices coming down and various dive shops getting their instructors up to speed, I thought it was time to take a look, . . . so here I am.

There are comments here about the cost and hassle of maintenance. That also raises an issue in my mind of reliability while the equipment is in use. Would someone who is knowledgable please comment on what maintenance is needed for common systems and what reliability issues one faces with some of the rebreathers that are becoming commercially available.

Thanks

 

[parksie]

Do you still need to carry a small cylinder to replenish the oxygen lost?

 

[OceanSpirit]

I also believe that the work & cost/fun quotient is a serious impediment at the moment to the rebreather becoming mainstream recreational gear. I'm sure this will change and I will be keeping an eye on developments.

By the way, here in the UK, the Buddy Inspiration was nicknamed 'The Expiration' after some fatal accidents. I'm glad to say these incidents have stopped and I'm pretty sure that they were caused by insufficient training rather than equipment failure.