What Support Equipment for CC ?

[Zebra 1]

Due to me getting Covid me and my buddies training has been rescheduled to late April.
In the meantime I am obsessively studying and preparing

We put the deposit down on two O2ptima's with Nerd 2's.
Down the road we will be adding O2ptima CM's for travel.

Ultimately I don't see myself ever diving below 75M or for more than 180 minuets.
We are well aware that the above is after a lot more training and many hours on the loop.

I have purchased steel lp27's, the units come with AL20's.
What other equipment and spares do you recommend?

 

[davehicks]

How much money do you plan to spend???

 

[Zebra 1]

I prefer to think of it as investment in my life support equipment
The O2ptima CM conversion will be about 2k and I know a baby booster will be about the same.
We understand that this is not the least expensive hobby. I own a boat so maybe I've become some what numb to the sticker shock.

 

[broncobowsher]

Have a talk with your instructor.
You will need bail outs. AL40s for the small stuff and AL80s for the big.

For around the house (and travels) a trimix analyzer (Divesoft has a couple of good versions that are the industry standard)
And you will soon have a booster. That is just about an unwritten rule about having a rebreather. I lasted about 6 months using a couple of the shops in town that could fill O2 before getting the booster.

Drysuit? Do you already have a drysuit bottle? If not plan to add one. The deeper dives won't have any gasses correct for a suit gas. Either everything will have Helium in it, or nearly pure oxygen.

My boat is WAY cheaper than my rebreather. And I have owned it so long that it has been restored twice.

 

[lostsheep]

You will need bail outs. AL40s for the small stuff and AL80s for the big.

For around the house (and travels) a trimix analyzer (Divesoft has a couple of good versions that are the industry standard)
And you will soon have a booster. That is just about an unwritten rule about having a rebreather.

Drysuit? Do you already have a drysuit bottle? If not plan to add one. The deeper dives won't have any gasses correct for a suit gas. Either everything will have Helium in it, or nearly pure oxygen..

As a new CCR diver I have to say this is spot on. I had one al40 when I got my Choptima , I have since procured another Al40, 2 Al80s, and a suit inflation bottle. I am trying hard not to buy a booster but I am slowly losing that battle lol. A Trimix analyzer would certainly accompany the booster.

 

[davehicks]

I finally got a booster a year ago after a dozen years of rebreather diving. I stated just boosting AIR for my stages, but soon started moving O2 around and collecting a few 100cf bottles of Air and O2 for source gas. I run the booster from a small shop compressor. I dive one or twice every week these days, so this cuts down on trips to the LDS for fills.

• You'll want to have at minimum two sets of O2/Dil tanks and two bailouts
• I highly recommend you learn how to service your own regulators and your CCR unit, which means buying a few tools
• Stock a few replacements like: CCR Oring kit, Spare Fischer cable, O2 cells, O2 1st stage, SPG & spools
• Buy Sorb in bulk with other local divers, and keep 3 or 4 tubs in stock

 

[TTPaws]

I finally got a booster a year ago

Which one did you decide on? I'm leaning towards the USUN, but...

I dive the AP Inspiration and have found an extra cartridge so I can better manage the sorb.

 

[Zebra 1]

All great advice and pretty much what I had figured. The O2ptima will take both loose sorb or an ExtendAir cartridge so I'll have to figure out which to buy in bulk (or both). I've been told not to buy extra 02 sensors so maybe only one spare. The O2ptima uses a 4th sensor not in the voting logic, not sure if the unit can be flown with that sensor removed. (would be nice if one goes out while on vacation) I'm trying to standardize my regs and will service them myself. After a lot of research I will probably go with Dive Rite.

 

[Zebra 1]

Which one did you decide on? I'm leaning towards the USUN, but...

I dive the AP Inspiration and have found an extra cartridge so I can better manage the sorb.

I like USUN, a lot of good reviews. Can't go wrong with a Haskel, just hard to swallow the rebuild costs for 50 year old technology.(even though the long term costs are not really that high)

 

[Zebra 1]

I dive the AP Inspiration and have found an extra cartridge so I can better manage the sorb.

I'm not sure what you mean, can you elaborate?