Flood recovery is kind of a personal choice and something the anti-revo crowd like to beat on it about. There are several sidemount units dived aggressively in caves that are probably even worse in terms of a flood recovery and more dangerous for other reasons, but seem to have lots of enthusiasm towards them by people just stepping into ccr diving. I have a friend that wants to start on a sidewinder and that thing is very unforgiving although really cool. The revo has going for it a very simple loop that is not likely to leak in the first place compared to units where the counter lungs are not integrated into the can having more connections because of it. The biggest risk for a flood is taking dsv out or having the mouthpiece tear. You have to be really diligent checking your mouthpiece predive and I hold it in with my hand jumping from any height. Taking the dsv out underwater or on the surface is to be avoided or you need to be damn sure its closed again not really unique to the revo. I would argue you are equally screwed if you puncture a loop hose regardless of unit and many units you have more hose to worry about. My real concern with the revo in terms of water in the loop is longer working dives where I have built up a lot of condensation which becomes concerning for me after about 2.5hrs. I did my cave course on my revo and it was fine....me not so much...lol. I think if was gonna get into serious cave diving I would pick a different unit like a meg tiburon with bmcl's or other clone. Boat diving a revo is great. I think one of its advantages is it pretty simple to get kitted up to dive if you keep your configuration simple which works good on boats. Some of the other rebreathers are just inherently more complex which is fine cave diving where you have all the time in the world. If you had a third scrubber to bring along packed you could do a lot of diving in a day without any risk of a mess. I'll pop my unit open and dry it out mid day on the boat, pretty easy. I live in a terrible place so I make south florida home base for diving, most of the diving I get to do off a boat is limited to 2 hours or so rec or tech trip. I dive with oc rec divers and it works out just fine. I have my bailouts configured so I can completely hand them off to share gas. I usually dive with two for skills purposes regardless of whether its needed. If the plan on a rec trip is two dives on one site its generally not a issue to do one long dive with a buddy, make a 40m or so wreck dive into a tech dive.
You touched on one of the reasons I got the rEvo. There are remarkably few sealing surfaces to leak. Compared to some units, there are 2 junctions holding the loop to the rebreather. Some can run as many as 8. Maintenance (general day to day, week to week) is very easy. Take the loop off, rinse or clean, same thing for the counterlungs that are easy to access once the scrubbers are out. No special counterlung drying tools needed.
Every rebreather has faults. Nobody has invented the perfect rebreather, and they never will.
Different makes and models are better at different things. Much like a sports car and a truck are both means of transportation, how they get you places and what they can do while getting you there are very different. Horsepower is important to both, but for different reasons. Picking a rebreather should be about fining the one that works with you for your needs. You can often make them work in the wrong environment, but they are not as good as the proper unit for the environment.
One of the things a rEvo is good at is travel. The micro is sized to be a carry on item. I have had mine as a carry on, placed in the overhead bin. With tanks attached no less (empty, valves removed). Not many others can pull that off.
Something to think about. What is your dive profile going to be like? If you have enough of an issue that you flood, how much do you really need to keep diving? When you are an hour back in a cave, yes it would be nice to recover and get back on the loop. But long duration recreational dives, maybe with a light deco obligation, bailing out just works and other than jacked up buoyancy you just end the dive.
