Question What is the life expectancy of a ECCR?

[broncobowsher]

Service parts availability. Propitiatory parts are the limiting factor.
Hollis made the Explorer for a couple of years. When Huish bought them, they gave up on service parts. The electronics were a bit troublesome. I hear a few are still around. Most are dead.

Many rebreathers don't need special parts. Or that many of them. A basic eCCR can have all the electronics via 3rd party. Too early this morning, but I am thinking of an older eCCR (hammerhead?) that was known for bad electronics and the upgrade was to scrap the original controller and put in a Shearwater.

Poseidon has a LOT of electronic oversite. It would be hard(er) to change that out if the electronics support ever ended. Good thing is Poseidon is a fairly stable company with a long history.

 

[WOB0.01J]

Service parts availability. Propitiatory parts are the limiting factor.
Hollis made the Explorer for a couple of years. When Huish bought them, they gave up on service parts. The electronics were a bit troublesome. I hear a few are still around. Most are dead.

Many rebreathers don't need special parts. Or that many of them. A basic eCCR can have all the electronics via 3rd party. Too early this morning, but I am thinking of an older eCCR (hammerhead?) that was known for bad electronics and the upgrade was to scrap the original controller and put in a Shearwater.

Poseidon has a LOT of electronic oversite. It would be hard(er) to change that out if the electronics support ever ended. Good thing is Poseidon is a fairly stable company with a long history.

The seven I have been diving was first introduced around 2016 I believe. They have constant updates for the software on board which really shows that they support their products. The proprietary stuff is hard to predict, maybe there are going be aftermarket products. And I know people who are still heavily using the 6. It’s been a long time since they introduced the seven, maybe they are working on an eight ?!

 

[rjack321]

Poseidon has a LOT of electronic oversite. It would be hard(er) to change that out if the electronics support ever ended. Good thing is Poseidon is a fairly stable company with a long history.

Liberty's would be a possible example of a company without nearly the multi-decade history of Poseidon but a complicated eCCR that would be really tough to keep going without factory parts and service. Liberty seems pretty stable, for now at least.

 

[211ratsbud]

One thing to consider as since it's an ECCR;

A good portion of older CCRs that have failed electronics and up becoming projects and manual breathers. So just because you have an electronic version, does not mean you cannot implement a clean manual version and not have to change CCR manufacturers totally.

Certainly the higher level of integration components have this will be more difficult but never impossible.

Otherwise to truly answer the question you had to look back and you have to look forward.

Presently there is an aftermarket effort to implement some level of dive can.

I think this answer to this question specifically has a ever-increasing rate of improvement or change.

 

[Tracy]

I still have a 2009 Hammerhead Optima that I use when I am teaching courses where the student also has one of the original HH units. It still works, it still has the same annoying bugs it had back in 09 when it was made. I did upgrade to the current low energy solenoid. Outside of that, it is basically a stock 2009 unit.
I think I am the only instructor left for that unit. There was another, but I don't think she is still teaching on it.

 

[Big-swede]

Electronicts can be scrapped and changed to something else, same thing with hoses, mouthpiece, lungs etc.
The somewhat limeting part is special manufactured parts for the main body/head.

My poseidon 6 have "square" orings for the head. I imagine they are pretty hard to duplice if poseidon goes under.

 

[RainPilot]

Depends on the manufacturer, obviously a couple have gone out of business over the years, generally it's like an older car. If its a popular one, even when the manufacturer doesnt have parts anymore there is a decent 3rd party source, as people have made plans to keep them running.

I would be surprised if you couldn't keep a unit going for 20 years plus if its not an obscure unit, I have a couple of Poseidon 6 from the first batch still supported 20 years later, unless I flood the head catastrophically I can still get parts from Poseidon (probably even for a serious flood)

AP, JJ, Megalodon, Revo etc should be safe for years.

 

[RainPilot]

Electronicts can be scrapped and changed to something else, same thing with hoses, mouthpiece, lungs etc.
The somewhat limeting part is special manufactured parts for the main body/head.

My poseidon 6 have "square" orings for the head. I imagine they are pretty hard to duplice if poseidon goes under.

Those o-rings start life round, they square in use. When you get the service kit, all the o-rings are round. They are also all standard industry sizes, labelled on the service kit contents sheet.

 

[Big-swede]

Those o-rings start life round, they square in use. When you get the service kit, all the o-rings are round. They are also all standard industry sizes, labelled on the service kit contents sheet.

Nice, good to know