What is your reason for not diving a rebreather while cave diving?

[next gen]

I'll stick with open circuit.

[jxh2297]

First, you need to dive a Revo. marvelous, reliable machines. second, when you get on it, you get comfortable, in open water for about 100 hours or so. then you go cave diving and then you realize, ####, I got 6 hours of duration! the time pressure is gone! yea,yea, i know all about bailout. but, having been a cave diver since 1987, i can't describe the feeling when i first got comfortable CCR cave diving. it is a completely freeing experience. I will never dive OC cave again. I know, unless I go with a sidemount rebreather, that there are places i can't get into, but I am not that interested in going thru long passages of super small #### anyways.

Marvelous until you get water in the loop... no way to get it out.

[bletso]

Wonder how much of the cost of a unit is liability? From a cost accounting standpoint,there is material,R&D,labor,warranty,and liability that all factor into the wholesale price.
I know the kit idea of a rebreather was experimented with because warranty and liability would fall chiefly on you.

With the dolphin and Draeger I was told 40% was product liability insurance and that was years ago.

[Superlyte27]

Marvelous until you get water in the loop... no way to get it out.

Yeah, I guess that would suck, except that it's so unlikely on the rEvo without pilot error I don't even give it consideration. And if it does happen, I'll switch to bailout and swim out. I flooded the loop one time in class. I forgot to close the DSV while doing a drill. In the 100+ dives since, it's not really an issue. I guess if I tore a hole in the cooper hoses, or somehow managed to back over the rebreather with my car it might leak enough to flood the loop, but I really don't give it much thought.

[swadiver]

Yeah, I guess that would suck, except that it's so unlikely on the rEvo without pilot error I don't even give it consideration. And if it does happen, I'll switch to bailout and swim out. I flooded the loop one time in class. I forgot to close the DSV while doing a drill. In the 100+ dives since, it's not really an issue. I guess if I tore a hole in the cooper hoses, or somehow managed to back over the rebreather with my car it might leak enough to flood the loop, but I really don't give it much thought.

I agree with Superlyte27. after hundreds of hours on the Revo and even hundreds of hours on the Optima, I have never had significant amounts of water in the loop. as he says, the design of the Revo minimizes water intrusion chances and it will tolerate a fair amount of water in the loop and still be breathable. OC bailout is always an option.

also, on CCR in general with bailout, I am carrying two completely independent breathing systems on my person. in many OC cave dive scenarios, each buddy pair is dependent on each other to have gas for both to exit on one breathing system tethered together on a 7 foot hose. sometimes a very difficult and slow process. yes, we sometimes use team bailout, but even in that scenario, a long hose is usually not used as the bottle(s) are passed to the bailed out diver as necessary

Think of that situation while on OC of being really lost, stuck, silted out. off the line, etc. on OC the time factor is very critical and right in the forefront of your thinking. you have a rather finite amount of gas and the worse things get the more likely that gas is going to go away at a higher rate. On CCR, you probably have about 6 hours (plus your OC bailout gas time) to deal with the issue. the psychological relief that brings is amazing and will help you to continue to think clearly and resolve the issue.

Rebreathers, like anything else, are not perfect. but when managed properly, they are the best tool in my mind for any serious cave diver.

[amphipod06]

I do not see a reason NOT to dive a rebreather in caves, they are a wonderful tool. Other than very shallow caves.

Just make sure you are proficient in your unit and carry plenty of bailout for whatever dive you are planning.

Dive safe,

Celia

[JE]

I prefer OC. For the dives I do I don't need CCR. I don't dive deeper then 200, I don't stay down for 5 hrs. Just my preference. Oh, and I sold mine!

i've made numerous dives on OC backmounted 105's in excess of 5-7 hours on a single dive, but not over 125', and mostly in much shallower caves. (when in dive shape & my sac rate is in tune) I believe in ccr for deeper excursions using the technical gear associated with re-breathers. I've never dove a ccr, but admire the equipment available to the trained divers using re-breathers for their deeper dives. Reference the recent exploration of an extended dive in a huge system in Texas. They had a blast in running line & mapping that cave using ccr.
Be safe & go long ~
Jack e.

[next gen]

Any rebreather diver here needs to dive madachuck just south of mariannia.

[diverdarren]

I guess that I don't dive a rebreather because when hear rebreather divers extolling the virtues of rebreathers, I feel that perhaps they are actually still trying to convince themselves that they have made a smart decision. Like MDAX, in an earlier post, I also believe that they add an exta dimension of risk that OC does not.

[Superlyte27]

I don't have to convince myself. The decision was a no brainer. Someone I really look up to offered me a class for a song. A few months later a really good friend was moving away and offered me a rebreather for next to nothing.

Of course I hated diving the thing for 6 months. But once I got it dialed in, man was it sweet. I still remember how much I hated it. Some of you might remember me trying to sell it after each dive. But these days, in a cave, I'd much rather have it than OC. You can't imagine how wonderful it is not to look at diving thirds.