Why are rebreathers so expensive?

[Scott L]

Being a career insurance broker all I have to say is acquire all the life insurance you will ever need before purchasing...

 

[stinkynewf]

Being a career insurance broker all I have to say is acquire all the life insurance you will ever need before purchasing...

And, buy your beneficiaries lube to prepare them for the screwing coming from the insurance company.

 

[sea2summit]

Being a career insurance broker all I have to say is acquire all the life insurance you will ever need before purchasing...

Spoken as someone who truly doesn't understand CCRs

 

[Scott L]

Spoken as someone who truly doesn't understand CCRs

I have no issues with CCRs. Technical diving in general is very problematic in acquiring individual life policies.

 

[Rainer]

Pretty sure he was just commenting on the increased premiums for CCR divers. As he noted, better to acquire any insurance BEFORE starting CCR training (for cash reasons, not safety ones).

 

[RJP]

Pretty sure he was just commenting on the increased premiums for CCR divers. As he noted, better to acquire any insurance BEFORE starting CCR training (for cash reasons, not safety ones).

I'm guessing that failing to update your policy when a material condition changes would void the policy, no?

Dec 31 - Do you sky dive? NO = the truth
Jan 1 - $1MM Policy goes in force
Jan 2 - Take up skydiving
Jan 3 - SPLAT
Jan 4 - Mrs RJP is SOL when it comes to collecting $1MM

 

[Rainer]

That's not how life insurance works.

I'm guessing that failing to update your policy when a material condition changes would void the policy, no?

Dec 31 - Do you sky dive? NO = the truth
Jan 1 - $1MM Policy goes in force
Jan 2 - Take up skydiving
Jan 3 - SPLAT
Jan 4 - Mrs RJP is SOL when it comes to collecting $1MM

 

[netmage]

I have the impression that (like most SCUBA gear) they are in principle pretty simple devices. What makes rebreathers so expensive? The materials? or is it more the research+development+patents around them?

Forgive my ignorance.

A large part of it comes down to the economics of such a small market. When your talking about a single manufacturer shipping maybe 100-200 units a year there is very little incentive to really drive down manufacturer costs with technologies like injection molding.

Take the meg for example - nearly all the physical bits are CNC milled or turned on a lathe; high end material (delrin, anodized AL, Stainless steel) and domestic labor costs associated. Then you've got some degree of markup first at manufacturer - then at reseller. The margin's on RB's is extremely slim.

Then you get into the electronics packages - which can be very simple and 'industrialized' like the Shearwater - it's platform and technology agnostic and can be implemented on just about any platform as either a monitor, controller, or integrated deco... Or the rb will have one built in house....

Some makes leverage existing commerical options - for example the rEvo uses a Draeger DSV rather than designing\manufacturing their own... If it works - and is available in quantities for other products\markets - great...

I kicked around the idea a while back on going to an internet based machine shop to make my own mccr head - project just fell to the wayside.

The apoc was supposed to deliver the first mass produced rebreather to drive cost to 1K w/o electronics - I havn't kept up with the drama - did anything ever ship?

-Tim

 

[Scott L]

Rainer is correct although it would assist the claims process immensely to have a material amount of time in between issuance and scary new hobbies. :shocked2:

I'm guessing that failing to update your policy when a material condition changes would void the policy, no?

Dec 31 - Do you sky dive? NO = the truth
Jan 1 - $1MM Policy goes in force
Jan 2 - Take up skydiving
Jan 3 - SPLAT
Jan 4 - Mrs RJP is SOL when it comes to collecting $1MM

 

[netmage]

Rainer is correct although it would assist the claims process immensely to have a material amount of time in between issuance and scary new hobbies. :shocked2:

Some interesting discussions on the topic...

The Deco Stop
The Deco Stop