Question Apart from the purchase price, what are the ongoing maintenance and repair costs of your CCR (excluding consumables)?

[SetheryJ]

I know you didn’t ask, but as an aside…just got back from a trip where my gas bill for the whole week of trimix dives including bailout was 550$. That’s diving 10/65…

Just a couple of those 300’ dives on OC would have been two times my trip cost.

Moral of the story….but the rebreather

 

[rjack321]

What should I expect to spend per year to keep the contraption in tippy top?

Random stuff will break or wear out over time. HUD goes bad, solenoid corrodes, puncture in a CL are all not cheap and also unpredictable. Same with proprietary Orings, some seem to last a decade, some a year.

 

[Alex Ouroboros]

On my last rebreather which I dived for a few years and had bought second hand I needed a full service, new loop hoses, a pair of new lungs and 3 cells to get her going as good as new, I think it was about £800, since then I dived the ass off it and was fine until it’s needed some wires replaced that were in potting coming through the body of the rebreather, I’m now very much “off grid” and do stuff myself including gas filling servicing etc, the wing etc won’t need replacing or fixing anymore than a normal bc, so really, it’s a yearly service and 3 cells,,, hydro on the cylinders, sorb (that you can roughly work out based on dive number and can volume)
If your trying to validate buying a rebreather I can only say that even if your diving twins and nitrox now your going to save money pretty quickly, if your on trimix then it’s going to be hard not to justify even in the space of a year, and if you look at time spent underwater comparable to price then it’s even greater as your dives will be longer and more comfortable almost from the off. Hope that helps

 

[bubblemonkey2]

I know you didn’t ask, but as an aside…just got back from a trip where my gas bill for the whole week of trimix dives including bailout was 550$. That’s diving 10/65…

Just a couple of those 300’ dives on OC would have been two times my trip cost.

Moral of the story….but the rebreather

I think it is not a bad idea to figure in the up front cost of preparing your bailouts, if you are doing deco or deep diving.
This might even include the cylinder, valve, rigging, regs, labeling, and initial gas fills.

It is required and dedicated equipment, except for NDL diving, where you just sling up any old standard air/nitrox cylinder that cycles right back into OC service.

Did you get credit back for unused bailout gas? (Often not?)

Actual CCR consumption is like ~100 litres of helium per dive for deep (~80-100m) dives, ~US$15 @ 15 cents per litre?
Figuring ~10 to 20 litres of diluent consumed per ATM of depth.

 

[SetheryJ]

I think it is not a bad idea to figure in the up front cost of preparing your bailouts, if you are doing deco or deep diving.
This might even include the cylinder, valve, rigging, regs, labeling, and initial gas fills.

It is required and dedicated equipment, except for NDL diving, where you just sling up any old standard air/nitrox cylinder that cycles right back into OC service.

Did you get credit back for unused bailout gas? (Often not?)

Actual CCR consumption is like ~100 litres of helium per dive for deep (~80-100m) dives, ~US$15 @ 15 cents per litre?
Figuring ~10 to 20 litres of diluent consumed per ATM of depth.

Beautifully written post and I couldn’t agree more. It’s really too bad @nadwidny can’t comprehend these concepts.

These posts and questions have been discussed for decades, and the short answer for those seeking to justify the purchase of a rebreather is you can’t lol. But that being said, IF you are doing open circuit technical diving AND using helium, rebreathers will ultimately end up “paying” for themselves.

First off, to answer @bubblemonkey2’s question: I paid one flat rate of 550$ for 6.5 days of unlimited trimix diving. I used one 80 of 15/55, one 80 of 32, and a 40 of 100%. My onboard was 15/55 for normoxic dives and 10/65 for hypoxic dives. I did not need to bailout, and returned the cylinders full. We did about 24 hours of diving with max depths around 230 and 305 respectively.

In places like cayman, you’ll pay 500$ for just the bailout on a 300’ dive and you will not receive a refund when its returned.

Contrary to @nadwidny ’s short sighted comments about his swinging banana, taking into consideration whether you are using a helium rich onboard, accompanied by a helium rich bailout will drastically effect your out of pocket. If you are not doing helium rich trimix dives it’s much harder to “offset” cost.

A week’s worth of Normoxic and hypoxic dives on open circuit will cost you thousands more than those same dives on ccr…

Trust me, buy the rebreather….best decision of my diving career.

 

[girlwithbigtanks]

It never stops. Besides consumables, things wear out or break, maybe you want to upgrade something you initially cheaped out on. Maybe you want multiple ccr 02 and dil bottles for convenience. Maybe you want to try a butt plate, maybe you want a ali backplate for warm water. Maybe you have OCD spares of spares. Maybe you want multiple bailouts for a range of dives. Maybe you buy a second unit of different configuration.

CCR has saved me no money, it was more about not being annoyed by logistics getting the gas i want for a dive. having a ccr and bailouts on hand “in stock” . I feel less exposed on bigger deeper dives on ccr. Less stressed with planning or last minute changes. Worth it.

 

[Alex Ouroboros]

Well, that’s not working and I can’t delete the full stop either

 

[nadwidny]

To try and get this back on track after the troll with poor reading comprehension skills decided to weigh in-

Yearly besides consumables? Not so much yearly but there are things that need to be replaced. Low pressure hoses as needed. 1st stage service on your O2 and dil 1st stages (how often is up to the user). I find that I change LP hoses about every 3-4 years. Loop hoses, more than that ( I dive mostly fresh water so if you are diving salt water YMMV and require changing those more often). I dive an ISC Tiburon and have also had a Kiss Classic. I service my own 1st stages and since the Tiburon uses Apeks DS4s, that's once every 3 or so years. Overall it's only around $100 or so per year, excluding consumables, if averaged over a period of time.

 

[kensuf]

In my mind, consumables include cells and batteries. Excluding them, o-rings every couple of years, mushroom valves every 18 months or so, reg servicing every couple of years, hoses as needed. Excluding cells/batteries, maybe $100 annually, throw in cells and you're around $400-500 annually.

 

[Wookie]

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