What is a good SAC rate ?

[JamesD]

Curious because mine is SLOWLY getting better (was horrible to start with) but I'm curious what other peoples SAC rates are and how long they have been diving (and of course male or female since that makes a fairly large difference)

 

[Rick Murchison]

It depends a lot on the kind of diving you're doing. For warm water reef touring, I'd say around .4 CFM is very respectable; average for a new diver is in the .6 to .7 range. You can run it up easily to over 1.5 CFM with some work and cold water.
(With a standard AL 80, 1 CFM=38.75 psi/min = 2.67 Bar/min)
Rick

 

[Stone]

Like Rick Says:

Originally posted by Rick Murchison
It depends a lot on the kind of diving you're doing. For warm water reef touring, I'd say around .4 CFM is very respectable

Hand that warm water, reef diver a camera and watch his SAC go to .6 or .8.

 

[sharpenu]

I think that depends on a lot of conditions. My SAC varies from .39 at the low end to 1.1 at the high. My average is around .56 I know a diver who is 60lbs lighter and has an average of .4. My girlfriend is regularly in the .29 range. Are you drifting? Hunting? Picture taking? What is the water temp? Male? Female? How much do you weigh? Currents heavy? I see new divers here commonly use an AL80 in 25 minutes. That works out to around 1.1 or so. I would say that an AVERAGE of between .6 and .8 is acceptable for most male divers, and an AVERAGE of .4 to .6 is acceptable for the more advanced diver. You can subtract .1 to .15 from that for females.

 

[donacheson]

Originally posted by JamesD
Curious because mine is SLOWLY getting better (was horrible to start with) but I'm curious what other peoples SAC rates are and how long they have been diving (and of course male or female since that makes a fairly large difference)

I can count on 15 psi/min on an Al80, about 0.4 CFM. On good days, 11-12 psi/min. These numbers assume warm, clear water and not having to work against a significant current for a significant time.

 

[solodiver]

SAC has a lot to do with personel comfort levels. so once you start to task load your sac well change . Cold water, low vis, current, differant buddy, deep. all can cause your sac to change.

 

[Newhampster]

Here's a graph and the data table behind it. Air consumption. Watch it drop over time. (Been diving since sept 00. Dive 1.)

Dive	SCFM	PSI/M
1	1.3	48.8
2	1.62	60.8
3	1.16	43.5
4	1.22	45.8
5	1.15	43.1
6	1.53	57.4
7	0.97	36.4
8	0.74	27.8
9	1.04	39.0
10	0.87	32.6
11	1.16	43.5
12	0.82	30.8
13	0.91	34.1
14	0.64	24.0
15	0.69	25.9
16	0.55	20.6
17	0.63	23.6
18	0.63	23.6
19	0.59	22.1
20	0.65	24.4
21	0.56	21.0
22	1.02	38.3
23	0.78	29.3
24	0.62	23.3
25	0.51	19.1
26	0.57	21.4
27	0.54	20.3
28	0.51	19.1
29	0.53	19.9
30	0.52	19.5
31	0.61	22.9
32	0.53	19.9
33	0.57	21.4
34	0.56	21.0
35	0.64	24.0
36	0.62	23.3
37	0.62	23.3
38	0.67	25.1
39	0.51	19.1
40	0.56	21.0
41	0.56	21.0
42	0.54	20.3
43	0.53	19.9
44	0.51	19.1
45	0.55	20.6
46	0.59	22.1

 

[ScubyDoo]

I just started using my Suunto Cobra air integrated dive computer and downloaded my dives into the accompanying Suunto Dive Manager. It figures up your SAC rate for you automatically. Totally Awesome!

I was just OW certified exactly one month ago. I wasnt using my dive computer then, but I did input the data manually into the dive manager and it came up with the following SAC rates for my 4 OW cert dives: (in 68F water)

Dive #1 - .75
Dive #2 - .57
Dive #3 - .66
Dive #4 - .62

Averages out to .65

I did my Peak Performance Buoyancy adventure dives yesterday (in a heated indoor pool) 86F. This time I was using the Cobra computer. I also did some warm up dives before hand and had the following SAC rates for all the dives:

Dive #1 - .55
Dive #2 - .43
Dive #3 - .38
Dive #4 - .51
Dive #5 - .42

Dive #3 I should probably throw out because the computer says it was only a 1 minute dive. Guess I surfaced for something??

These dives average out to a SAC rate of .46 for a total dive time of 1Hr 9min.

I beat everyone in my class on residual air pressure. My instructor was impressed. I think it probably helped that I never added air to my BC to maintain neutral buoyancy. I was weighted perfectly......Only 4lbs with a 2.5mm shorty.

 

[vicky]

Be happy with your SAC. It is not a competition, and you don't have to be frustrated about it. Best thing to do is dive "cool". Be calm and peaceful, enjoy your dives and your SAC will improve by imself. Give it time.
Remove extra weight, improve bouyancy, move as little as possible (especially hands), Keep body and head warmth, be calm. These will benefit immediately in improved SAC.

 

[megaohmer]

Be happy with your SAC. It is not a competition, and you don't have to be frustrated about it. Best thing to do is dive "cool". Be calm and peaceful, enjoy your dives and your SAC will improve by imself. Give it time.
Remove extra weight, improve bouyancy, move as little as possible (especially hands), Keep body and head warmth, be calm. These will benefit immediately in improved SAC.

yea i like that. if you are always worrying about breathing your probably not doing something else fun