Wishing you could spend more money on tech?

[DevonDiver]

Guess I'll have to take that deep air class after all.

Worringly true.... I wonder if/when the time will come that the tech community has to re-discover the 'lost art' of deep air diving

 

[rjack321]

Worringly true.... I wonder if/when the time will come that the tech community has to re-discover the 'lost art' of deep air diving

You know you'll be posting about your narcosis management class at 100m in no time.

 

[Rhone Man]

I'll do my quick: "You Americans whine too much" post now.

Where I live, we pay US$1.00 per cubic foot.... for oxygen.
We pay US$2.40 a cubic foot.... for balloon grade helium.
We can special order UHP helium, and they will quote a price.

We'd kill to pay US helium prices.

 

[battles2a5]

Dive for dive, How much has it saved you vs how much the initial investment cost?

I was completely joking. You will save a couple hundred bucks in gas on big dives as long as you are keeping standard bail-out filled and available. The problem is that for all the shallow dives, training dives, NC off-shore dives, cave dives, OC gas just isn't that expensive and you still need sorb, O2, batteries, and cells in the rebreather. So in the end, operating costs might be slightly cheaper on the unit as long as you are doing deeper dives. But you still have the sunk costs of unit and all the things you put on it (BOVs, gas blocks, etc. etc. etc.). Definitely not a good way to save money.

 

[amascuba]

I pay $124 for a T or about $0.45/cf from my supplier and honestly I'm just grateful I'm not in Canada, or with Rumbo in Truk

Ain't that the truth! Heh.

I'll do my quick: "You Americans whine too much" post now.

Where I live, we pay US$1.00 per cubic foot.... for oxygen.
We pay US$2.40 a cubic foot.... for balloon grade helium.
We can special order UHP helium, and they will quote a price.

We'd kill to pay US helium prices.

I'm not complaining. I'll gladly pay what I'm paying locally.

I was completely joking. You will save a couple hundred bucks in gas on big dives as long as you are keeping standard bail-out filled and available. The problem is that for all the shallow dives, training dives, NC off-shore dives, cave dives, OC gas just isn't that expensive and you still need sorb, O2, batteries, and cells in the rebreather. So in the end, operating costs might be slightly cheaper on the unit as long as you are doing deeper dives. But you still have the sunk costs of unit and all the things you put on it (BOVs, gas blocks, etc. etc. etc.). Definitely not a good way to save money.

Cool. I didn't figure that the return of ownership would be much and if it did, it would take a long time to see the returns. Especially when you're cutting one cost (the gas) and adding others (sorb, cleaning materials, etc).

Now if you're spending $3k a year on helium like a buddy of mine, then you will probably see more returns, but I don't know many people who spend that much on OC helium usage.

 

[boulderjohn]

Now if you're spending $3k a year on helium like a buddy of mine, then you will probably see more returns, but I don't know many people who spend that much on OC helium usage.

Are we thinking of the same buddy who said his He bill was $3,000 per year before switching to CCR?

I thought about the price of his CCR, his classes, his other associated costs, and his annual maintenance costs and figured out how many years it would take him to break even. I assume he will need a new CCR well before that. There are good reasons to switch to CCR, but I am not sure the money saved on HE is one of the primary ones.

 

[amascuba]

Are we thinking of the same buddy who said his He bill was $3,000 per year before switching to CCR?

I thought about the price of his CCR, his classes, his other associated costs, and his annual maintenance costs and figured out how many years it would take him to break even. I assume he will need a new CCR well before that. There are good reasons to switch to CCR, but I am not sure the money saved on HE is one of the primary ones.

It is, and I'm sure it's going to take him several years to recoup the cost of his rebreather. I also agree that the cost of helium shouldn't be the primary reason to switch. I think you could make a better argument just by simplifying logistics in terms of the amount gas you need to take with you to remote locations that don't have access to the same gas resources. I'll stick with OC for the foreseeable future. It's just too simple not to.

 

[akscubainst]

Personally, My rebreather cost me less per dive hour than Nitrox.

Sorb $18.50 for 3 hours
1 air fill on the Dil $6.00
1 O2 fil $10

That's 34.50 for 3 hours dive time anywhere between 0' and your tolerance for diving air.

How much would the same 3 hours cost in nitrox or air? I'm talking 3 hours submerged not 3 tanks, probably at least 5 tanks for most people.

 

[battles2a5]

Personally, My rebreather cost me less per dive hour than Nitrox.

Sorb $18.50 for 3 hours
1 air fill on the Dil $6.00
1 O2 fil $10

That's 34.50 for 3 hours dive time anywhere between 0' and your tolerance for diving air.

How much would the same 3 hours cost in nitrox or air? I'm talking 3 hours submerged not 3 tanks, probably at least 5 tanks for most people.

Now you just need to figure out how to spread the cost of the unit/training over time, plus the cost of cells and batteries over the year. Let's say we depreciate it over the course of 5 years and you dive an average of 100 hours/ year. $20/ hour. 200 hours per year, $10/ hour. At least we aren't spending it on drugs!

 

[Scott L]

Your prayers have been answered! The price of helium is going up!

How interesting that with a nation of runaway spending decides to amortize the cost of an entire generational program over a relatively very short time frame. With it's effect on the diving community that's some very bad luck...