Recreational Rebreather!?!?!?!?

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I have one and I can get 2hrs of run time out of the unit on a single scrubber. As I have said elsewhere unless you have a ready supply 40% nitrox, you are not going to see 2hrs very easily if at all.

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I am the OP, and no I don't work for my LDS. The owner has been talking about getting into these rebreathers, (selling, training and servicing) for a while now. And I was very interested in getting involved. But I don't know everything there is to know about RB's, or the differences between systems. But I do know enuf to know that the Explorer isn't what I expected in a RB. I just want to know what is supposed to be so great about it? If there are better, safer and more tried and true systems out there, in the same price range. Why is he pushing this one? What would be a better unit that I could start with and grow with? One that isn't so limiting, yet rec friendly.
 
Hey guys. The owner of my LDS has been trying to gain interest in the Hollis Explorer. He wants to start selling them and providing training. I dont know alot about rebreathers. I know the basics of how they work. But i can't really figure out what makes the Explorer a hybrid. Are there Bubbles or not?? lol. To me, the unit looks a little bulky. I'm just wondering if its something i want to bother with.

The bubbles seem to be a fight between marketing and engineering. First they say "no bubbles" however it actually does produce bubbles, just not with every breath. They appear whenever it decides that it needs to add fresh gas.

While it does produce less bubbles than OC, I'm not sure I see a real reason to have all the risks and maintenance costs of a re-breather without the advantages.

Also, it sounds like the pre-packed sorbent carts that PADI wants are going to be expensive and hard to find, simply because pre-packed anything is usually expensive and it's not going to have enough sales volume to find them wherever you go.

According to the review in Sport Diver, the unit is limited to a one hour dive, after which it shuts down. While I have no idea how this is accomplished, it certainly doesn't sound very safe. I would never buy SCUBA equipment that can simply decide that my dive is over, regardless of where I am.

I can get longer on a single OC tank than the Explorer allows, and for the next dive, I just need to switch a $10 tank, not replace the sorbent (and the cylinder?) and go through the whole pre-dive checkout again.

It's a nice try, but I'm not sure who their market would be, and it only seems relatively safe if it has the CO2 monitoring "option" installed and the users is good about maintenance and the user has a redundant bail-out system.

Note that I don't dive a rebreather, so I'm probably their target market, and I still can't see anything that makes me want one.

flots.
 
I am the OP, and no I don't work for my LDS. The owner has been talking about getting into these rebreathers, (selling, training and servicing) for a while now. And I was very interested in getting involved. But I don't know everything there is to know about RB's, or the differences between systems. But I do know enuf to know that the Explorer isn't what I expected in a RB. I just want to know what is supposed to be so great about it? If there are better, safer and more tried and true systems out there, in the same price range. Why is he pushing this one? What would be a better unit that I could start with and grow with? One that isn't so limiting, yet rec friendly.

Rebreathers are the future, and this market segment is growing. For an LDS, it's another revenue stream. For a diver, it's where you want to be. For you, right now, the quickest, best thing for you to do is get yourself a copy of "Mastering Rebreathers", by Jeffrey Bozanic. This book lays it all out, and you will be educated about rebreathers, as well as about a majority of the brands/units that are out there. Make sure you get the "2nd Edition".
 
Yeah, rebreathers are the future. Especially for those new divers that bitch about having to spend more than a weekend or two getting certified and don't want to have to buy any gear. And for those shops that will need to come up with thirty or forty grand to buy a few units so they can rent them to locals for $200.00 a day who want to do a couple of dives in the forty foot deep quarry. And I had a cd tell me that sidemount was too technical but a rebreather was not.

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Rebreathers are the future, and this market segment is growing. For an LDS, it's another revenue stream. For a diver, it's where you want to be. For you, right now, the quickest, best thing for you to do is get yourself a copy of "Mastering Rebreathers", by Jeffrey Bozanic. This book lays it all out, and you will be educated about rebreathers, as well as about a majority of the brands/units that are out there. Make sure you get the "2nd Edition".

I wish it were that simple... LOL
 
Rebreathers are the future, and this market segment is growing. For an LDS, it's another revenue stream. For a diver, it's where you want to be. For you, right now, the quickest, best thing for you to do is get yourself a copy of "Mastering Rebreathers", by Jeffrey Bozanic. This book lays it all out, and you will be educated about rebreathers, as well as about a majority of the brands/units that are out there. Make sure you get the "2nd Edition".

In the past week there have been two threads about the Explorer. We learned there were two owners in that thread. We also learned one rig was returned for a refund, the other rig is for sale with a couple hours on it. I know the outstanding claim is using 40/15 Trimix at nearly safety stop depth will produce a two-hour dive. That's nice, but seriously 25-35ft for 120 minutes is nothing more than advanced snorkeling IMHO. It's almost impossible to justify a Trimix Rebreather dive at 25ft. And hell, I'm all about a Trimix Rebreather dive.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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