Question Dedicated Oxygen Regulator vs RescuEAN

[Roy_W]

We are currently in the process of putting together an 02 kit for the car... The prices and more importantly the limited size of tanks is putting us of a buying a full commercial kit.. So instead we have decided on putting something together ourselves..
We got a good deal on a 7ltr, 2 year old Nitrox tank ( would that be an S60 in the US). At 200bar this gives us 7*200/15 , approx 90 mins, for a single diver or around 45mins for two divers.. So this fits our needs, 98% shore dives, and gives us a lot of time to get the hospital or wait for the services to arrive

Now our choice is between buying a dedicated 0² Regulator, here in Europe they are around 250 Euros or buying a second hand Nitrox 1st Stage along with a RescuEAN kit..

Both the RescuEAN and the dedicated O2 Regulator which has a M26 connecter could also be attached to any other bottle so neither is at an advantage here.

The RescuEAN + 2nd hand 1st Stage regulator would cost us around 200 Euros so it would save us around 50 Euros

What we be your reasons for selecting/buying one rather than the other outside of the small savings ?

Cheers
(Edited to change the words "Flow Meter" to Oxygen Regulator)

 

[tursiops]

dedicated 0² flow meter,

Can you explain this further? What I think of as a flow meter looks like this and I doubt that is what you mean.

 

[Roy_W]

Sorry guys , I am not sure of the correct name in English... In French it is called a DebitMetre, I thought it was a Flow Meter in English
It is used for controling the oxygen supply rate , it takes the 200 Bars at the entry and drops it down to a rate of 15 Liters per minute... ( or anything between 0 and 30l depending on the equipment)

Here is an example :
Oxygénothérapie - Détendeur oxygène débilitre P300 - oxygénothérapie - Hersill - Diving Equipement

It's bascially a 1st stage that outputs in Litres per minute rather than bars.

 

[tursiops]

Thanks. We would usually call that an Oxygen Regulator.
They work fine, they can be bought for various prices, but the key is to what kind of tank are you going to attach it? What threads are on that Nitrox tank you bought? DIN?

 

[Roy_W]

Thanks Tursops..
It will be attached to an Alu Nitrox Oxy Clean Tank that has a M26 connecter. The O2 regulators can be bought here either with a already dedicated M26 connecter or used in conjuction with an "02 F " to "M26" adaptor.

 

[Roy_W]

I have just changed the original post to use "Oxygen Regulator" rather than "Flow Meter"... Thanks to Turiops for the correct term.

 

[tursiops]

US here, so struggling with the terms. I believe M26 is the EU term for a dedicated O2 or Nitrox cylinder, right? Whereas DIN is for air usage? And your "new" Nitrox tank has a M26 fitting. OK.
Here we don't distinguish between the two and use DIN for all gasses, but do not use M26.

The RescuEAN, of course, has a LPI inflator for its inlet, so you would need a standard first stage on the M26 Nitrox bottle to feed the Pod. The advantage is you can use an LPI hose from any first stage on any bottle, so you have more versatility if you need to jury-rig something from any old tank/valve lying around, such as a deco bottle (that might NOT have a LPI hose on it!).

The dedicated O2 reg is nice because your emergency O2 rig can be set up, ready to use, without having to find some diving reg to put on it. It is simpler and faster to set up, adn in an emerency thus less prone to errors.

What we often do here is take a simple medical O2 reg that is NOT made for any particular fitting, and put a DIN fitting on it so it can be used with our DECO bottles. Here's an example of the end result.

You could do the same thing with the right adapter:

 

[greeniguana]

I keep a reg hose to LPI converter in the box with my Rescue EAN.

 

[Roy_W]

Please excuse for the confusion with the terms... I did not realise that the USians did not use the same sizes..

Yes, M26 is the standard European size for Nitrox connectors, normal air tanks use the DIN standard, I believe the idea behind it is to avoid using regular air equipement on Nitrox ( Oxy Clean) equipment...


"What we often do here is take a simple medical O2 reg that is NOT made for any particular fitting, and put a DIN fitting on it so it can be used with our DECO bottles. Here's an example of the end result."

Does this mean that that your Nitrox Bottles have the same connecter sizes as your 21% bottles ?

Yes, I agree with you that having the appropriate "Nitrox sized " connecter would probably be the most useful solution , as you mentioned it could go on any Nitrox tank regardless of the whether a low pressure hose was available..

 

[tursiops]

Does this mean that that your Nitrox Bottles have the same connecter sizes as your 21% bottles ?

Yes. Everything (that is not yoke) is DIN, but some are 200 bar and soema re 300 bar.
We just make sure to not put an O2 reg on an air tank...unless it is "clean" O2.