Handfish
Registered
I was in the market for my first rebreather and try-dived a Liberty Heavy, a Kiss Spirit, and the chest mounted Choptima and Divetalk Go. I wanted to share my experience comparing these units. Here is what I’m currently diving: I have around 400 dives on OC at this point and dive both backmount doubles and sidemount regularly in lakes, ocean, and caves in North Carolina and Florida. On backmount I usually do dives with Iimited deco around 10-20 min, depth up to 40m and usually take one stage. I also like to take photos with a full camera rig. I don’t do a lot of travel but I do have around one bigger trip per year. CCR for me is to safely progress further in depth and distance but also to have silence and no bubbles for photos.
I went into the try dives having almost decided on a Choptima because this is what most people in my area dive and because it seems so straight forward and versatile. However, I was not a big fan of the chest mount units because of relatively poor trim, because the mouthpiece was pulling forward giving me jaw fatigue and because of the chest clutter, making it a bit more difficult to get to drysuit inflator and BCD inflator if diving sidemount. Maybe some of this can be addressed with experience but that was the first impression. The Choptima felt more comfortable than the Go and seemed to
have higher quality materials. The manual add buttons were easier to find and press. I also felt as if the Go lung volume was too small for me as I head trouble getting enough air. I think the Go may make sense for shorter people (I’m 6’3’’). cost wise there is not much difference given you still need Shearwater computers for the Go.
The Kiss Spirit was immediately a much better trim and a joy to dive. Very light weight on the back and the bailout Al80 on was almost not noticeable during the dive. No jaw fatigue. Really good head mobility as well even with a BOV. Not quite as travel friendly as the chest mount units but also very good for travel and can be converted to sidewinder. ADV on this unit was apparently not good since my instructor had it removed.
Finally I tried a Divesoft liberty heavy with back mounted counterlungs. Building the unit was a fun experience as the oxygen cell calibration, filling the scrubber, and pre dive checks were assisted by good design and electronics (I did not have a chance to build the other units though so no direct comparison). The trim was also very good. The ADV in T-piece does a very good job. The liberty heavy is very modular and can be dived heavy with double LP50s on the back as dilout or light with regular 3L tanks and bailout side mounted. I like that because I do a lot of boat dives and am used to very heavy doubles on my back. Also you can change SS backplate and stand for titanium it other material to make it travel friendly. Only thing I did not like were the manual add valves at the BOV which meant that there were 3 hoses going to the mouthpiece making it difficult to move my head left to right. People tell me this is something you get used by moving your whole body but I would prefer MAVs to be more traditional.
The result is that I bought a new used liberty heavy and am really happy with my purchase so far. all parts are very well built and it feels well thought out, very advanced and fun. looking forward to getting trained!
I went into the try dives having almost decided on a Choptima because this is what most people in my area dive and because it seems so straight forward and versatile. However, I was not a big fan of the chest mount units because of relatively poor trim, because the mouthpiece was pulling forward giving me jaw fatigue and because of the chest clutter, making it a bit more difficult to get to drysuit inflator and BCD inflator if diving sidemount. Maybe some of this can be addressed with experience but that was the first impression. The Choptima felt more comfortable than the Go and seemed to
have higher quality materials. The manual add buttons were easier to find and press. I also felt as if the Go lung volume was too small for me as I head trouble getting enough air. I think the Go may make sense for shorter people (I’m 6’3’’). cost wise there is not much difference given you still need Shearwater computers for the Go.
The Kiss Spirit was immediately a much better trim and a joy to dive. Very light weight on the back and the bailout Al80 on was almost not noticeable during the dive. No jaw fatigue. Really good head mobility as well even with a BOV. Not quite as travel friendly as the chest mount units but also very good for travel and can be converted to sidewinder. ADV on this unit was apparently not good since my instructor had it removed.
Finally I tried a Divesoft liberty heavy with back mounted counterlungs. Building the unit was a fun experience as the oxygen cell calibration, filling the scrubber, and pre dive checks were assisted by good design and electronics (I did not have a chance to build the other units though so no direct comparison). The trim was also very good. The ADV in T-piece does a very good job. The liberty heavy is very modular and can be dived heavy with double LP50s on the back as dilout or light with regular 3L tanks and bailout side mounted. I like that because I do a lot of boat dives and am used to very heavy doubles on my back. Also you can change SS backplate and stand for titanium it other material to make it travel friendly. Only thing I did not like were the manual add valves at the BOV which meant that there were 3 hoses going to the mouthpiece making it difficult to move my head left to right. People tell me this is something you get used by moving your whole body but I would prefer MAVs to be more traditional.
The result is that I bought a new used liberty heavy and am really happy with my purchase so far. all parts are very well built and it feels well thought out, very advanced and fun. looking forward to getting trained!
