Looking to use an underwater hose breathing system

[elmer fudd]

Back before the advent of scuba, homemade shallow water helmets used to be fairly common.

From what I've read, they weren't generally any more complicated than an upended bucket with a viewing window, a nozzle on the top and attachments for weights or a harness to keep it from floating off your head.

Basically you had this upended bucket on over your head with a hose feeding down into the nozzle on the top and on the surface you had a compressor or a pump or a tank feeding it air. The extra air would simply spill out the bottom.

The Fischer Price looking thing in this video is an Aquabell. They sometimes come up for sale on E-bay. The last one I saw was there for about a month with a "buy it now" price of $35.
‪Dutch Diving Helmets at diving club Fantasea 2010.mp4‬‏ - YouTube

More professional or collectible shallow water helmets can be quite expensive.

 

[blackvans1234]

my knowledge is EXTREMELY limited on this topic, but what I can assume is this:
The helmet may be cheap, but its the compressor that will run you broke. It has to be able to filter breathable quality air

 

[fstbttms]

There's a reason your first stage adjusts to ambient pressure at your depth. You cannot leave the first stage on the surface.

Now that's just crazy talk. Crazy, I tell you!

 

[elmer fudd]

my knowledge is EXTREMELY limited on this topic, but what I can assume is this:
The helmet may be cheap, but its the compressor that will run you broke. It has to be able to filter breathable quality air

Actually, I bet I could jerry rig something up for next to nothing, (I'd just use a tank for air). Safe? "Yeah, sure it's safe. Just swim to the surface if anything goes wrong!"

Seriously, the fun of a project like this lies in the fact that it's goofy and foolish on the face of it. Still, I can't think of too many more entertaining ways of spending a summer afternoon than monkeying around with a homemade shallow water helmet.



DDTeam,
I actually wouldn't mind diving a setup like I described above, but there are some very real hazards involved with being underwater that you need to be aware of before doing something like this. Lung overexpansion, barotrauma, entanglement and vertigo, just to name a few. For a strong swimmer who is at home in the water and aware of the hazards involved this is just good fun, but if that doesn't describe you, then you probably should consider a scuba class instead. They're generally about $200-300 and require two weekends.

 

[Rich Keller]

There's a reason your first stage adjusts to ambient pressure at your depth. You cannot leave the first stage on the surface.

This works just fine with a 50' hose you are good for about 30' of water so this would only lead to a slightly lower intermediate pressure that can be adjusted for if needed but in 25 years of using this type of rig I have never even noticed the drop in pressure.