What do you love and what do you hate about your unit?

[taimen]

Well, a disposable seal like that glazier's seal, or cotton string that the caulkers used to use seems like it might be a good idea. But with zero experience in the unit, I'm just blowing smoke right now. Lots of floaty sand in my water, so I'm intent on finding a solution.

Conceptually that should work and is definitely worth trying. Floaty sand might be a problem. I have usually had problems after hitting something like chippy mine ceiling or a rusty door frame.

 

[sunnyboy]

One rebreather owner here. Bought a Prism Topaz back in 2007. Have been diving it ever since. I did immediately after training swap the BCD for a backplate & wing (from my doubles which I then sold). Got an armadillo butt plate around 2008 and have sidemounted my bailout ever since. Otherwise, no real changes to the basic rebreather.

Likes: pretty much everything about it, but especially the secondary that shows PO2 even with the unit powered off.

Dislikes: After 13 years diving the Topaz, I've had to replace some things, like a couple of HP hoses, the LP O2 fitting, some o-rings, sensors, and other misc. bits. Also had to have my switch replaced this year (reed switch failed) and I had a bad wire in one secondary (I have two Prisms so I have spares if needed). I also lost the back cover on a bad current dive once, but found it a week later on a subsequent dive.

I only ever called two dives on the unit due to gear failure. One early in my diving with it I let a minor failure in the negative test go by, and ended up calling the dive at the start in 4ft of water when the bubbles said "nope". Second lost dive was when the HP hose failed. It was fine in pre-dive, fine gearing up on the truck, but when I got in the water it just started to "fizz". Called the dive.

Otherwise I absolutely love my Prism Topaz.

 

[king_of_battle]

Fathom seems good but the only thing that I hate is the tanks being valve up. Seems overly dangerous and difficult to access.

Not to sway you from Revo but it seems pretty simple to invert the tanks on a fathom. Flip the tank brackets and change out the regulator hose lengths and you are good to go. Only hazard may be it lacking a stand and protecting the tank valves/regulators, but that could probably be accomplished by hiking them up the unit until the base of the can is the lowest point. Can't say what that would do to trim though.

 

[justinthedeeps]

Stock JJ-CCR (Mfg 12/2019)

Love:
Seems to incorporate good features from numerous predecessors
Not overly complicated, for a modern eCCR
Not too dolled up
Modularity / not overly proprietary or "tiered"
Seems durable
The stand is great
Enough out there that info/parts/support are available
I put my Halcyon carbon backplate/harness on it, instead of the steel one, to make it lighter for travel/warm water

Challenges:
ADV feels stiff, or else fires too easily if my trim is intentionally head-down. Often I turn it off and use my dil MAV.
My stock HUD likes to turn itself on at fairly random times while dry on the surface, and occasionally reboots itself while diving (haven't bothered fixing yet)
Sensors easily exposed to condensation moisture. Beware laying it down between dives, or too many somersaults while diving
I managed to mis-thread one of the smallish screw-on MAV hose fittings fairly easily. Take care with them when washing/servicing counterlungs etc
The head is quite bulky (albeit solid)
I was told someone managed to slice the tip of their finger off while removing the head, by getting it stuck in the button hole pointing the wrong direction. It's now part of the training course I think

 

[rddvet]

Not to sway you from Revo but it seems pretty simple to invert the tanks on a fathom. Flip the tank brackets and change out the regulator hose lengths and you are good to go. Only hazard may be it lacking a stand and protecting the tank valves/regulators, but that could probably be accomplished by hiking them up the unit until the base of the can is the lowest point. Can't say what that would do to trim though.

Valves up are a nonissue anyway. If you can dive doubles, the fathom's the same. But I agree you could also fliop tanks if it suits you. I really like valves up. Makes diving with OC people easy if they're used to doubles.

 

[king_of_battle]

Valves up are a nonissue anyway. If you can dive doubles, the fathom's the same. But I agree you could also fliop tanks if it suits you. I really like valves up. Makes diving with OC people easy if they're used to doubles.

I agree wholeheartedly - I haven't had an issue with valves up at all. Canting them a little makes valve shutdowns easy. The only minor gripe with valves up is that I either have to have a dedicated 'wreck' O2 bottle with a left handed valve or switch valves on a bottle when I switch configurations. At this point I have dedicated bottles but I'm in the wreck configuration a lot less than I thought I would be so those bottles may go back to having a right side valve soon.

So... First World Problems.

 

[BabyDuck]

I just did crossover last week from sidekick to sidewinder and didn’t have any problems with wet sorb, even after scootering. I totally realize I have like 10 hours on it, but seems that’s when problems like that would crop up, when you’re learning a new configuration.

I really liked it. I could make the sidekick look ok, but I was working the whole time because of the side to side imbalance and it never felt good. The sidewinder dives were relaxing again.

 

[kensuf]

We were actually surprised when buying that there wasn't a small size. I think Chelsea's probably the smallest person currently diving the fathom and she uses a short plate and has no issues with the counterlung size that she knows of.
She's also obnoxious because she's yet to have to move her needle valve off of the "off" setting. At it's most closed it's the perfect flow for her metabolism if not almost slightly too much.

@king_of_battle's wife may have Chelsea beat for smallest person on a Fathom. It's close, and I came back from working with them and had a talk with Charlie about offering a smaller size. Of course, things changed in the world since then so not sure what we have in terms of priorities.

 

[kensuf]

For those diving the Fathom, how do you feel about the Kent tooling cylinder mounts?

They're very strong. I've sometimes had to fidget with them to get them to loosen up. I dive both fresh/saltwater on the unit.

 

[kensuf]

exceptionally solid. I actually have 9 pairs of them for my wife and I. 2 sets each for 3L tanks, 1 set each for al30s, One set each for travel, and one set for me for lp50s. The only issue we had is one of my wife’s tank side attachments won’t slide into my rebreather side attachments without seizing up. I still can figure out what catches. Other than that one issue we haven’t had problems. And it is only an issue if I put her one tank on my unit. It works fine on hers. Sometimes it can be a little difficult to remove a tank. You’ve got to get the right angle for the lock to pull, but it’s really not an issue. I would much rather have a rock solid attachment that sometimes is a little hard to remove than some of the flimsy attachments I see on unit’s like soft cambands. Kent tooling even offered to replace that one tank side attachment. But I just don’t use her tank and it’s a nonissue

Dude, 9 sets? You've got a problem.