Where should the pressure gauge be mounted and what are the advantages of this configuration?

[elan]

a rebreather diver can help as they're carrying usable gas in those side-slung tanks. You need to make clear that you need the gas NOW with a slashing motion of the hand over your throat; the rebreather diver will pass their regulator hose to you, then probably give you the bottle as you both go to the surface and end your dive.

Would this be a good planning approach though? I do not dive rebreathers so want to clarify what is the common procedure for planning the bailout volumes. Do you plan the volume for one person ? or for 2 people. Because if you donate the bailout to the oog diver and then you have a failure on the rebreather you have to do buddy breathing now. Or you plan for a single failure only? With a rebreather in the mix this type of planning in a mix does not give me a warm feeling.

If mods feel this conversion is for a non Basic Scuba they might want to split it and move it to another forum

 

[Wibble]

Would this be a good planning approach though? I do not dive rebreathers so want to clarify what is the common procedure for planning the bailout volumes. Do you plan the volume for one person ? or for 2 people. Because if you donate the bailout to the oog diver and then you have a failure on the rebreather you have to do buddy breathing now. Or you plan for a single failure only? With a rebreather in the mix this type of planning in a mix does not give me a warm feeling.

Rebreather divers carry sufficient bailout gas to get them to the surface safely with a sufficient safety margin. No more required (they may have a full cylinder and it might be an ali80, but it might not be either full nor large; it just needs to be enough).

It's a single cylinder (normally) and has a single hose+regulator on the tank. The rebreather diver may also be carrying a second decompression gas cylinder that looks very similar if they're doing a deeper dive.

Two use cases for using the reserve bailout:

1. The rebreather catastrophically breaks (e.g. hose rips and it floods). Rebreather diver grabs the always on hose from the bailout, begins to breathe from it, then ends the dive with a prompt, no hanging around ascent.
2. Someone else has a big problem (e.g. out of gas). The rebreather diver grabs the always on hose from the bailout, shoves it in the face of the needy diver who breathes from it. Almost certainly the cylinder's passed over to the other diver and both divers ascend promptly (the rebreather diver's lost their backup so must surface).

The reality is that you'll see few rebreather divers on purely recreational dives AND the recreational divers will be buddied up or will be carrying a Pony/reserve gas.

A rebreather diver won't appreciate someone just stealing their bailout gas because that diver's a total selfish jerk with poor skills and who just sees other divers as additional gas carriers. Oh the joy of resort diving!

 

[grantctobin]

99% of all rebreather divers carry a standard stage mounted bailout cylinder with a hose bungeed to the cylinder. Some of those, 10%?, may also have a bailout valve (BOV) for their own convenience which complicates the configuration.

This longhose configuration on a rebreather is most definitely not popular for the obvious reason that it's a massive overcomplication that isn't necessary. It's largely due to the culture of the supporting agency -- which still doesn't promote sidemount nor other mission-specific configurations.



Other issues with it: you need a non-standard rebreather configuration that is seriously modified for that specific style, i.e. a JJ with the large cylinders -- just like the post above. It makes a mockery of the simplicity and standardisation of rebreathers with inverted small cylinders which don't require yoga training.

In short, if you are a GUE person who's swallowed the dogma, then fill your boots with that system and its shortcomings.

This is borderline religious dogma. Like in real life, religion's important to some but the reality is the rest of the world doesn't need to believe in that religion to have a good life.

Sold 99% are diving as you described. Buy 10% of rebreather divers use a BOV. "Seriously modified" is hyperbole, as is calling it religious dogma and much of the rest of your post.

And it is growing in popularity outside of GUE. You might not be seeing it, but it’s certainly happening. From “zero” outside of pSCR divers, to seeing guys using it with the fathom, Meg, non-GUE trained JJ, and others, it’s gaining traction.

In addition to Meg, Fathom, and RB80, I've been in water with at least the following with BM bailout in the past year: X, Liberty, Sidewinder, Sidekick. If I could get hands on one of Beto's Classic frames, I'd have a set of 50s on my Classic as well.

 

[flymolo]

Sold 99% are diving as you described. Buy 10% of rebreather divers use a BOV. "Seriously modified" is hyperbole, as is calling it religious dogma and much of the rest of your post.

In addition to Meg, Fathom, and RB80, I've been in water with at least the following with BM bailout in the past year: X, Liberty, Sidewinder, Sidekick. If I could get hands on one of Beto's Classic frames, I'd have a set of 50s on my Classic as well.

Yeah, not sure how it qualifies as a massive over-complication. It's basically just a manifolded set of doubles with a rebreather can in the middle. It's straightforward and very robust.

 

[nickbutcher]

Hot take: not everyone is doing the dives you’re doing. A lot of guys are going deeper, with penetration, and longer bottom times.

An al80 of bottom gas doesn’t cut it. For a lot of us, the idea of not using a BOV is crazy. Again, the manifolded tanks give a large volume of gas that’s immediately accessible. That’s what you want if you have a co2 hit. Theres more than a few reports from survivors who’ve stated that they almost couldn’t switch because of their incredible urge to breath. BOV simplifies that.

And it is growing in popularity outside of GUE. You might not be seeing it, but it’s certainly happening. From “zero” outside of pSCR divers, to seeing guys using it with the fathom, Meg, non-GUE trained JJ, and others, it’s gaining traction.

@Wibble is well-known on UK dive fora as having a 'my way or the highway' attitude, even though 'his way' is based on quite limited experience and very limited CCR experience.

However, his observations that a GUE CCR setup is not 'growing in popularity outside of GUE' does hold water here in the UK.

I've spent the majority of the past 5 seasons crewing on a dive boat in Scapa Flow and have never seen this configuration used by anybody not associated with GUE. The ONLY other CCR I've seen with 7l back-mounted cylinders (non-manifolded) is owned by a guy that spends the majority of his time well inside the battleships here and by necessity has to stage his side-mounted bailout to fit through some very tight gaps.

This thread does seem to have drifted way off topic though.

 

[PfcAJ]

@Wibble is well-known on UK dive fora as having a 'my way or the highway' attitude, even though 'his way' is based on quite limited experience and very limited CCR experience.

However, his observations that a GUE CCR setup is not 'growing in popularity outside of GUE' does hold water here in the UK.

I've spent the majority of the past 5 seasons crewing on a dive boat in Scapa Flow and have never seen this configuration used by anybody not associated with GUE. The ONLY other CCR I've seen with 7l back-mounted cylinders (non-manifolded) is owned by a guy that spends the majority of his time well inside the battleships here and by necessity has to stage his side-mounted bailout to fit through some very tight gaps.

This thread does seem to have drifted way off topic though.

That’s cool, and it makes sense. Most of the GUE-like stuff seems to trickle out of north Florida and make its way elsewhere in time. It’s more and more common in Fl and Mexico every passing year. The GUE CCR program is somewhat new, as well.

 

[Dave Whitlow]

According to a recent 'spat' in another thread about Revos (where everyone agreed they were the best rebreathers, I digress...)

where on earth was that!!

The revo is clearly not the 'best' so I presume it was a bunch of revo divers agreeing they've made the same (sub-optimal) choice and patting each other on the back

 

[Wibble]

where on earth was that!!

The revo is clearly not the 'best' so I presume it was a bunch of revo divers agreeing they've made the same (sub-optimal) choice and patting each other on the back

In who's opinion? There isn't a "best" rebreather, except for the one on your back!


LO Dave.

 

[Dave Whitlow]

In who's opinion? There isn't a "best" rebreather, except for the one on your back!

I agree, there is no "best" rebreather. They all do simple job, and offer different features, and some of those features are sub-optimal

 

[RobPNW]

This is a somewhat off topic newbie question, but how is the pressure to the SPG, or to a shorty hose connected transmitter, released after a day of diving? It's obvious how to release the wing and the regulator hose pressure. How is HP air hose pressure released?