Why no love?

[Aaron Harmon]

Excellent. There's plenty of Inspirations around at reasonable prices. Certainly in the UK it's the cheaper way of getting in to diving CCR and there's a ready market to sell your old one once you've finished with it -- or sell quickly if needs must.

Inspos have been around for a long time and have sold more than most of the others put together. As a result they've been places where most of the others haven't.

For some reason I seem to dive with a lot of medical people. Maybe CCR attracts those kinds. And engineers.


Enjoy your course. It's fun, albeit hard work. Quite different from OC, but the core skills are pretty similar and bailout's as easy as anything.

I dive with a lot of medical people in general... People who work hard and face this much stress need to play hard too : )

 

[sea_ledford]

I don't know a single CCR diver that has any significant experience that has stuck with their first unit. Sometimes is a complete ignorance of what you need/want vs what you think you'll need/want, sometimes it's being promised something that doesn't deliver, sometimes it's a change in diving style. But you probably won't get away from it.

I initially was certified on an Inspo, but that was in about 2005 when the options were basically Inspo, Meg or a variety of antiquated units (my instructor now has probably one of the largest collections of MK15s and is even retrofitting them with shearwater controllers). Inspos were the go-to unit at the time, especially with the new (then) vision electronics. They had solved most of the issues that earned them the Yellow Box of Death nickname (like battery bounce), and were moving away from the handsets with the dumb magnetic reed switches that corroded and got stuck or flooded the controller housing.

10 years later there were a lot more options, with much better US service, now there are even more options and it is a much bigger market with major mfgs supporting CCRs. So no need on relying on an UK based company with not great service in the US.

The poseidon units were initially marketed toward the recreational user, but that never really caught on, because it was a dumb idea. There are very well known divers doing stupid deep stuff with them, so they are capable. Once they make the solid state O2 cells available to non-poseidon computers and Shearwater does some techy magic stuff to be able to read them, I'll give galvanic sensors about 3-5 years before they are almost non-existent. The 2 cell validation is brilliant in theory, and I haven't heard about significant issues with it, but I don't actually know that. I mostly think that poseidon's aren't well used here because of the semi-disastrous roll out and nannying of the first version.

So have fun on the Inspo. Rent it for class, then figure out what you want to do. But also know that after getting some time on the unit you are going to start looking at other units with envy.

 

[happy-diver]

Inspiraqtion Bouyancy help.. Please...

 

[RainPilot]

You have to buy a new battery just to change the depth limits you can dive. Hell no to that.

That was an agency prerequisite years ago, everyone now just buys the black battery with the unit and you're done.

The Poseidon wasn't really designed for technical divers and was biased heavily towards being able to achieve PADI type-R status.

There is an element of truth to that, but the original mk 6 test divers were Richard Pyle and co doing some pretty serious dives, the Se7en was done from the get go as a capable tech unit which could also be used in a type R role. Poseidon unfortunately focused so heavily on the Recreational aspect in their marketing that it has become synonymous with that side, being perceived as a "toy" rebreather by a lot of folks.

Pros and cons, but it is a rebreather designed to be used by amateurs and not really professionals. Not to say you can't use it for big boy stuff, but it wasn't designed for it.

Richard and Brian and co are doing some very serious dives indeed, and have been for years, on the Poseidon. They have done hundreds and hundreds of 100-150m dives with, to my knowledge, no issues whatsoever. Peter Andersson from Poseidon has about 3500 dives on the unit, including a few hundred hypoxic dives, with not a single non-training bailout.

Poseidon doesn't gather much support as it is a recreational dive shop unit.

This was the gist of Poseidon's marketing, in truth it is a little different.

There is no diver level support.

I am not sure what you mean by this?

Typically, but definitely not always, people moving in the rebreather direction are technical divers looking to expand into something they couldn't feasibly do with open circuit. The Poseidon doesn't fill that role.

As above, there are some very serious divers doing very big dives on these units. the difference is they tend not to do the whole FB/SB/Instagram circus

I think one of the main reasons you don't hear much talk about them is that most poseidon divers are happy with their gear and don't bother getting in to discussions with people who don't know what they are talking about and still want to throw trash around.

That has been my experience, too.

because of how mismanaged Poseidons USA distribution was up until about 5 years ago.

Yeah, that was a serious PITA for all concerned, it is better now but if US based folks have issues with Poseidon, I sympathise.

 

[TTPaws]

Speaking specifically with the two units you mentioned. Poseidon doesn't gather much support as it is a recreational dive shop unit. There is no diver level support. Typically, but definitely not always, people moving in the rebreather direction are technical divers looking to expand into something they couldn't feasibly do with open circuit. The Poseidon doesn't fill that role.

As to AP, They make a very good unit, and I understand they have great support in Europe.
They have basically no support in the US. When the unit breaks, and they all do, you will be sending it across the pond for service.

I have to disagree with you here: Silent Diving with Mike, Jennifer and Mark have provided me outstanding and quick service for my EVP. I have over 100 hours on it and have had no issues with it.

 

[TTPaws]

I thought Silent Diving handled service and support here in the U.S. Is that not the case? If I had to wait 5 months for a replacement part, I'd be pretty aggravated. Heck, 5 weeks is too long...

Aaron

P.S. Out of curiosity, what do you dive?

The only part I've had back ordered on me was O2 sensors, last year and I think everyone was in short supply. To answer a previous question as to why I don't post much on how much I like my APD, it is just I don't post much at all. Also some people have a lot of time on their hands to write really long post about there favorite RB and others just get swamped. Now that I live in the islands and my gear will be here next week, I'll be clocking 5-15 hours in the water every week (I dive with a lot of OC divers). The vision 2020 present the information I need and because of the colors is is really easy to see. IMHO it has one of the best flooded loop recoveries and I haven't had any issues.

I'll be happy to answer any questions via PM if you'd like.

 

[stuartv]

I don't know a single CCR diver that has any significant experience that has stuck with their first unit. Sometimes is a complete ignorance of what you need/want vs what you think you'll need/want, sometimes it's being promised something that doesn't deliver, sometimes it's a change in diving style. But you probably won't get away from it.

I think I do not qualify as having significant experience. Seriously. But, I am at about 120 hours or so and MOD3 qualified on my unit and I am still quite happy with it.

I am a big fan of buying used. I paid well under 1/2 what a new one would cost to get my unit. No regrets. You just have to shop carefully, including being careful about what seller you purchase from. I have friends who have bought very good condition Prism 2 units - 3, between them - all for around $3K or less in the last couple of years. I bought 2 used rEvos for less than $5K each and sold one for less than $5K. It is very hard for me to imagine spending >$10K on a CCR...

I came into CCR diving with the idea that I would do the best I could to buy what would be good for me long-term, but also understanding that pretty much everyone (that sticks with it) ends up moving to something different for their second unit. I regarded my first CCR purchase as my Starter Rebreather.

Which is another reason I did not want to pay full price for a new unit. I figured if I shopped carefully and paid a fair price for a used unit, I could dive it until I figured out what I REALLY wanted, and then sell it for roughly what I paid and move on. I feel very lucky, at this point, that I still prefer what I dive over any other options that I know of.

I agree that being able to directly buy parts is important. At least, it is and has been, to me. I'm still money WAY ahead, but I have replaced just about every part on my CCR at some point. Everything major except for the counter lungs themselves and the controller. That may sound like a good argument against buying used, but I look at it as having acquired a much better education on my CCR than most people ever get. Meanwhile, I have never actually missed a dive because of my CCR.

I don't think anybody has mentioned electronics, really. Personally, I would not consider buying any CCR that did not use Shearwater electronics. But that's just me. Related: I would strongly consider limiting myself to a unit that can be serviced at the same service center that services the electronics. In the U.S., that means rEvo and Meg/Tiburon. Those units come with Shearwater electronics and Dive-Tronix - the U.S. service center for Shearwater - is also a factory service center for rEvo and ISC (that makes the Meg & Tiburon). Being able to send my unit to Dive-Tronix and have the unit itself and the electronics all serviced there, at one time, has been very valuable to me. They do excellent work, very quickly, and for very reasonable prices.

 

[tbone1004]

@stuartv units like the Meg15 and the Liberty have modular heads so the only time the whole head would have to be sent in is if you seriously blew it up. Everything else just has modules screwed in and out which is even better. The O2ptima is somewhat like that as well with the external control boards.

 

[stuartv]

@stuartv units like the Meg15 and the Liberty have modular heads so the only time the whole head would have to be sent in is if you seriously blew it up. Everything else just has modules screwed in and out which is even better. The O2ptima is somewhat like that as well with the external control boards.

That definitely sounds nicer than shipping a whole unit for service. But, I would still want to be able to send any/everything that needed to be serviced to the same place to all be done at once - with nothing have to be shipped off from there for subcontracted service by a 3rd party.