Rebreather vs. OC cost comparisons

[LKunze]

Just out of curiosity I'm wondering what the cost comparisons are between rebreathers and open circuit? An Inspiration rebreather itself would cost more than a typical OC doubles scuba rig? I also get the impression that you get more for the money with rebreathers in terms of gas expense since you are reusing some of the gas that gets recycled so it lasts longer but rebreathers need chemicals and are higher maintenance too right? So how do those expenses figure into the cost equation when comparing the two systems?

[CCR2002]

Hello there.

I don’t know about the other CCR units that are available so I will stick to the Inspiration, the unit I dive.

We will use twin 12's for this with a Nitrox mix, I don’t know what it costs in the US but to fill those cylinders with Nitrox will cost about £15.00.

Now for the unit I will pay about £3.00 for a dill fill and £5-£6.00 for an o2 fill, plus I have a scrubber fill so about another £8.00. So as you can see there is not that much difference, however I can probably get 3-4 dives out of my cylinders where u might be able to get 2, but only 3 hours on my scrubber. So on that basis I don’t think there is much in it between the 2 on a per dive basis.

Both sets have 2 cylinders and 2 regs which need servicing, so we will ignore them, the unit needs 3 o2 cells minimum, sometimes 4. If you use a VR3, these can cost anything from £50.00 £65.00 each and you should change these cells once per year.

So already the unit has an extra cost of £150 for the year, also it is advised that the head of the unit, the electronics, are serviced once per year, if your lucky and have the know how then you could do it yourself. This service can cost £100 to £200 per service, a full service includes a full strip down, solenoid and connector change cleaning, it does not include cells.

So there is another £100 on top, so that now £250 extra per year than your twin 12's. However, like I said a lot of people have the knowledge to service the unit themselves, the rest of the unit is easy as it’s no harder than servicing your BCD. Hoses and o-rings are easy to maintain and clean, so are the lungs.

So now let’s look at a Trimix dive, I don’t have a lot of knowledge about Trimix diving so if I make a mistake, take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning.

To fill twin 12's with a Trimix of 50/10 the same I would use in my unit would cost in my country about £30 £40 for the fill, on the unit it will cost about £12 and again I can get 3-4 dives out of one 3lt cylinders.

So you can there is a big saving to be made when Trimix diving, but the unit costs about £4000 new in the Uk which is a lot of Trimix OC diving, so u should also look at the other benefits, like better deco, silent operation, and don’t underestimate how much a difference it can make breathing nice, warm and moist air.

Only you as the diver can weigh up the pros and cons of the unit and whether the large outlay is worth what you save in gas.

I hope this helps.

All the best

Laurence

[DiverMole]

APD sell the service kits for the first stages on the Inspiration so you can do them yourself easily. The head service is a red herring, just inspect and clean, lube. All the electronics are sealed in resin so APD cant check those, They just resolder the connectors if they are dodgy (Molex's, dirt cheap from radio shack), Solenoid is £30 to replace yourself, I just carry a spare

APD are great in that they will sell ALL the stuff you need to service the unit yourself and will even provide instructions on how to do it!!!

My sofnolime works out at £7 for 3 hours of diving (roughly £7 a day), My fills are £10 for both cylinders, so a weekends deepish diving, 2 dives a day, costs me approx £24 as opposed to 2 x £35 back gas, plus £15 for deco gas (£85)

But with the cost of the unit and the cells each year, you have to be doing a lot of diving for it to work out cheaper

Cost is NOT a reason to get a rebreather, thats why YBOD really stands for "Yellow Box of Debt!". Lots of other things about RB's do make the cost more than worthwhile. After all you cant justify a Ferrari on cost or insurance risk, but I bet you'd all like one!!!

[Elph]

No offense really intended, but you really like making expensive car comparisons.