Recreational Rebreather!?!?!?!?

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There is no EAC for the unit. All retail units are user packed. EAC may not even see the light of day according to what I have been told

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Oh cool. Thanks. I don't know where I read that but I am glad you made that clear.

My apologies. I made the assumption that recreational rebreathers commonly had no user pack sorb. Am I way off here? I thought a lot of them were non user packable.


Garth
 
The mkvi is eac. The GEM and Explorer are packable

The standard for the GEM is EAC. A user-packable scrubber is an option. I have used EACs in my GEM and my Optima for over 8 years. There is nothing more convenient or safe. Or more expensive. They are about double the cost of loose sorb per fill, or maybe a little more. Filling with loose sorb is not rocket science, but for a recreational diver who doesn't do it often, the EAC can provide a level of comfort for an extra $15-$20.
 
Add far as I remember on the manual, 90 minutes is the scrubber life quoted. I know I was never told that it was two hours during training.

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This is terribly easy to sort out for you. Head on over the Hollis website, click Rebreathers, click Explorer, and see what it says.
 
Well Let me try to clear up several items that are just flat wrong in a few posts on here by people who it is clear know nothing about the explorer rebreathers.
The unit is a recreational unit - in others words it is designed for no decompression diving to a max depth of 40 meters. if you go into deco it will give you a plan to follow in an attempt to get you home - think your typical single gas nitrox dive computer which does the same thing. Also the unit is NOT designed for nor it should be used with helium - again it is a recreational semi closed rebreather. It has a number of safety features built into the unit to try to make you a safer diver - but you just cant fix stupid - so if you are thinking to get this unit to save a few bucks and then "work around" the safety devices - buy another rebreather cause I dont want to read that you are the best diver in the world but were too dumb to follow safe diving procedures that you are taught in the course. In terms of Scrubber. the unit has a user packable scrubber. For those who are not staying current - PADI is in the process of modifying the requirement about pro packing of the scrubber - this was announced at DEMA. Scrubber Life - Scrubber life is tied to numerous things but lets keep it simple - Depth, temperature and your metabolic O2 consumption all affect the duration you get from a scrubber. Think a little like RMV and every diver will get a little different. Problem is you are use to thinking that a scrubber has 3 hrs of duration- why - cause the manufacturer tells u so. This unit actually calculates the duration. So you may want to rethink that 3 hr duration when you are huffing underwater and really have no idea how much scrubber you are using. The unit also operates much different then that cheaper unit since that unit is about the same price but you are getting SOOO much less. The Explorer is a electronic SCR and allows you to adjust it so that you can get more time underwater by Maximizing No deco time or adjusting the unit to max gas time (assuming you have a long no deco time). How it does that and how you can maximize the unit is taught in the course and you learn to tweak it to your particular needs as u dive the unit how to maximize your dive. Just like you do on a CCR. You will have no problem getting 2 or even 3 no decompression dives with the unit depending on the parameters that you decide to dive. Again its a no deco unit that will provide you emergency deco info if needed. In courses we routinely get dives in the 60 - 80 min per dive. We also have scrubber time remaining after these dives that show the scrubber time is in excess of 2 hrs - You are taught to follow the time limits presented by the unit; If you do a number of dives , the time on the unit has been 2 hours - and the scrubber time remaining is in excess of that you should change the scrubber before you dive again. Depending on how you dive the unit and your particular physiological factors you may not get 2 hours on a scrubber. I can tell you that I have no problem with having the unit consistently indicating more time available. The Wrist unit will only show a max of 90 min of filter time, but it adjusts it self during the dive depending on the dive. So you could see 90 min of filter time remaining even after you have been underwater for 30 mins
Finally - the unit doesnt shut off after an hour - that is just wrong! - the unit will continue to work as long as resources are available - But again everytime you think you have covered all the bases - there is always someone who try's to prove you wrong... LOL
I would suggest to take the course from a instructor who KNOWs the unit and DIVES the unit not someone who says they do. If you go to the Hollis website, you will find a list of instructors. If your instructor is not on that list, they dont know the unit... Hope this helps and safe diving to all.



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Depth, temperature and your metabolic O2 consumption all affect the duration you get from a scrubber.

The evidence of depth affecting scrubber life is not nearly as clear as temp. Especially at recreational depths. The effect depth would have is related to the concentration of CO2 molecules in the loop. This would not drop below efficient scrubbing levels until well past 40 meters depth.

As for time on scrubber, manufacturers estimates will always be conservative. That does not mean that the diver should exceed them.
 
Wrecktek - I own an explorer and have been diving it since august.

My particular unit most recent only allowed 45 minutes on the scrubber.

Easy dive 60ft 81degree water.

I checked the resources , I was at 36 minutes dive time and the handset was telling me I had 9 minutes left.

I hope that the performance I have seen on my unit is not indicative of others out there, hopefully my unit is just a lemon.

As for the metabolic rate, I don't buy it. Its not plausible that I produce 4 times as much co2 as the everyone else diving an explorer.

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How it does that and how you can maximize the unit is taught in the course and you learn to tweak it to your particular needs as u dive the unit how to maximize your dive. Just like you do on a CCR. You will have no problem getting 2 or even 3 no decompression dives with the unit depending on the parameters that you decide to dive.

1) I don't disagree with you about "maximizing the unit". My point was, I've *yet* to see an Explorer diver who is following the computer (and not tricking it) get *more* dive time on a single dive than what I can get out of a single AL80 or HP100. Now if you want to drop down to 130ft for two minutes, and then do an 80 to 100 minute safety stop that is probably dive site specifc.

2) The parameter you're changing on the Explorer is the DCP. You're not manipulating the SP as you would an a CCR. You're proposing it's esentially the same thing, but it isn't and it's very important to understand the nuance here as it could get someone hurt. As a CCR diver I'm holding a SP, which means I can actually very accurately plan a dive. With the Explorer, I can't plan the dive using any common software, I have no idea how much inert gas uptake or O2 exposure I'm going to experience in actuality. In truth dive planning is nothing more than a fruitless exercise. People claim the Explorer will hold a minimum PO2 at or greater than an air dil equivalent. In my experience, this claim is absolutely false. If this were the case, you could simply use a backup computer set to air and then track NDL/deco with say a common dive computer. With the Explorer, I can't really back it up with a second computer because it uses a decaying PO2 model. You're never really on the SP, you're always breathing away from it. All the DCP does is determine how much gas you want to invest in staying close to the computer selected SP. You can't plan for a SP, you can't select the SP, you can use the known SP in advance to plan your dives. Your diving day is determined in large part by whatever the computer wants to do. This is probably excellent for the market the Explorer is targeted toward, but nothing like a real rebreather where control of the SP and knowledge of the PO2 is everything.

Because the handsets lack the ability to run in detached stand-alone OC mode, and considering the PO2 is not stable to a minimum air-dil equivalent this makes any subsequent OC dive after a rebreather failure a walk into the unknown. With a CCR, I can switch back and forth to OC all day long and know exactly where I'm at on the model. I don't find this as a fault of the Explorer, however the assertion you should always bring OC gear with you in case of a rebreather failure is a bit silly. Is the average recreational diver really going to know how to calculate deco for this situation? My suggestion would be that Hollis adds a parameter to the Explorer which absolutely never allows the PO2 to drop below the equivalent of air dil thereby overriding the DCP. If they did this you could dive again on OC, but you'd need a backup computer. Granted diving against an OC Air plan after an Explorer dive is going to come with a possibly unwarranted residual nitrogen time, but who knows? It all depends on the implementation, I suppose.

If I were king for a day, I'd add the necessary CPU power to the handset to make it essentially a detachable DG05. By doing this you get essentially double the value out of the computer, and you can use it to plan dives regardless of the health of the Explorer. Should the Explorer run out of resources? No problem. Select OC mode, grab your OC gear for the next dive, and go. Right now, you kinda have to just decide diving is a good idea and go for it using another computer. Probably a cost-cutting move to run a less powerful CPU, but a detachable computer capable of calculating OC dives would have benefit in the sales pitch.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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