How Much Gas is Enough - Running on Empty (Ainslie)

[FW]

You are bloody lucky it wasn't cold on top of all ot that. The closest I have come to getting in trouble was always in cold caves, where numb hands, and brain, added to the problems.

[NEON]

Thank you Andrew!

[John Bailey]

Thanks for posting the article.

[cavediver256]

Thank you Andrew!!!!

[aainslie]

You are bloody lucky it wasn't cold on top of all ot that. The closest I have come to getting in trouble was always in cold caves, where numb hands, and brain, added to the problems.

Ican definitely see that happening.

[Garth]

Wow. Scary. Good advice on slowing down and rechecking your reserves.

[FW]

Another thing occurred to me, Andrew turned fairly early in the planned dive. If he had been another 1000' or so in, it could have been really dicey on bailout, with multiple problems like that.

[Greenwood_60]

Do rebreathers generally ever have redundant scrubbers? Since it is hard to know how long it will last, and how much is left, wouldn't it make sense to use 3 smaller independent scrubbers and dive 1/3rds?

Edit: seems that 3 scrubbers each with just enough to get you in and out, and dive each to 50% would be a fairly safe plan.

[FW]

Do rebreathers generally ever have redundant scrubbers? Since it is hard to know how long it will last, and how much is left, wouldn't it make sense to use 3 smaller independent scrubbers and dive 1/3rds?

Not generally. He didn't run out of scrubber, he broke a hose in a tight tunnel. That would have flooded multiple scrubbers anyway. It is pretty easy to calculate scrubber duration, so you just time when you need to turn.

[TONY CHANEY]

I finally got to read your story and thanks for sharing it with us. I know that I am no where near your level of cave diving so bear with me on this. I am not trying to pick this apart but why did you continue to drag around, what you believed at the time to be useless, equipment that was creating more drag, additional weight and making restrictions more difficult? We hear about divers recovered from the sea with their weight still attached to them. Sorry, but I feel if my life was in jeopardy I would not be concerned about lugging around a RB and "emptied" tanks.