I'm sorry but I disagree whole heartedly. The skills required on the 2 units are different and diving an SCR does NOT prepare you for a CCR. The skill sfor eaither are easy to understand (nitrox)
I started straight on on a CCR and had no problems at all. In fact having dived Inspirations, Dolphins, Rays and Azimuths I'd actually say the Inspiration is the easier unit to maintain and learn and is a lot safer than the Dreagers and Azimuths as without a 3rd party O2 sensor the SCR units all break the golden rebreather rule "Allways know your PPO2". Computer control is not "evil" as some have you belive, but a backup and assistance to YOU diving the unit and will control it fine should you be so stupid as to stop monitoring the unit (provided you turned it on!!!)
Military/commercial divers are a bad source of information as the dives they do, the training they get and the units they use are not remotely related to the units available to recreational divers
All of the units have major failure modes that can kill. On the Inspiration for example failing to turn on and calibrate will not be good. (but is very easilt prevented by routine), on the Semi closed, outbreathing it on the surface is just as deadly (but without a PO2 monitor youd be totally unaware. A blocked jet (very common in the Dolphin) can be just as deadly.
One of my dive partners runs the "Unnoficial Draeger Users Group" and is one of the plug everything in it brigade, he certainly knows the unit well, yet we've had to abandon the last 2 dives because he had jet blocks and his PPO2 dropped to 17% during descent, without a gauge he'd be dead!!!!)
You are very lucky in that your in-experianced OC skills have yet to be fully driven home and this would be an ideal time to swap and unlearn them. I picked up a second hand Inspiration for the price you are quoting for SCR's, but they are advertised on the Inspiration lists and unless youve done the training you wont see them. There are plenty about. Once youve done the training you will easily be able to judge if the unit is good or bad. Only the stupid would not budget to change the O2 cells instantly (many who sell remove them anyway)
A large percentage of Inspiration owners are ex SCR owners, Ask your self why? How many Dolphin users are ex CCR owners, very few if any!!!!
Ask yourself why, with an SCR you have severe depth limits (rather shallower than OC) you can get round this if you plumb in extra gass feeds and jets, but then the cost and complexity far outways a CCR in the first place. A CCR will not limit your diving (once the initial training is done) and will cope with any thing you can throw at it
If you are dead set on an SCR take a look at the Azimuth, IMHO its a nicer unit than the dolphin and doesn't have the very deadly jet blocking problem. Remember to budget for a PO" meter of some description (Oxyguage, VR3 etc) in either case. The RB80 is also very very nice but again needs a meter as it too has a single point of failure that can kill without warning
I started straight on on a CCR and had no problems at all. In fact having dived Inspirations, Dolphins, Rays and Azimuths I'd actually say the Inspiration is the easier unit to maintain and learn and is a lot safer than the Dreagers and Azimuths as without a 3rd party O2 sensor the SCR units all break the golden rebreather rule "Allways know your PPO2". Computer control is not "evil" as some have you belive, but a backup and assistance to YOU diving the unit and will control it fine should you be so stupid as to stop monitoring the unit (provided you turned it on!!!)
Military/commercial divers are a bad source of information as the dives they do, the training they get and the units they use are not remotely related to the units available to recreational divers
All of the units have major failure modes that can kill. On the Inspiration for example failing to turn on and calibrate will not be good. (but is very easilt prevented by routine), on the Semi closed, outbreathing it on the surface is just as deadly (but without a PO2 monitor youd be totally unaware. A blocked jet (very common in the Dolphin) can be just as deadly.
One of my dive partners runs the "Unnoficial Draeger Users Group" and is one of the plug everything in it brigade, he certainly knows the unit well, yet we've had to abandon the last 2 dives because he had jet blocks and his PPO2 dropped to 17% during descent, without a gauge he'd be dead!!!!)
You are very lucky in that your in-experianced OC skills have yet to be fully driven home and this would be an ideal time to swap and unlearn them. I picked up a second hand Inspiration for the price you are quoting for SCR's, but they are advertised on the Inspiration lists and unless youve done the training you wont see them. There are plenty about. Once youve done the training you will easily be able to judge if the unit is good or bad. Only the stupid would not budget to change the O2 cells instantly (many who sell remove them anyway)
A large percentage of Inspiration owners are ex SCR owners, Ask your self why? How many Dolphin users are ex CCR owners, very few if any!!!!
Ask yourself why, with an SCR you have severe depth limits (rather shallower than OC) you can get round this if you plumb in extra gass feeds and jets, but then the cost and complexity far outways a CCR in the first place. A CCR will not limit your diving (once the initial training is done) and will cope with any thing you can throw at it
If you are dead set on an SCR take a look at the Azimuth, IMHO its a nicer unit than the dolphin and doesn't have the very deadly jet blocking problem. Remember to budget for a PO" meter of some description (Oxyguage, VR3 etc) in either case. The RB80 is also very very nice but again needs a meter as it too has a single point of failure that can kill without warning