So how long does AL80 last?

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Nitro91

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Location
Sydney, Australia
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I've had a few dives now with just myself and my buddy straight out of OW about 6 weeks ago. All our dives so far have been with a single al 80 usually at a depth of around 6-9 meters with a max depth of around 15m, but we stay around 8 meters or so.
We start our dive with about 200-220 bar and the dive lasts about 35-40 minutes and we return with 20 bar or so.
Does this sound right in terms of consumption because I see many other people here and there saying they can last longer than an hour with one tank. Maybe I am consuming too much air.
 
That sounds high. About 2x higher that you could achieve, but in the end you have what you have. Not breathing enough is bad too since it can lead to carbon dioxide build up.

Here's some reading for you:
http://www.scriptkiddie.org/blog/20...creational-divers/comment-page-1/#comment-552

You really need to know what your surface air consumption (SAC) rate is in liters/minute or cubic feet/minute. In imperial units 0.5-1 cubic feet/minute is pretty typical.
 
I generally use this site SAC Calculator to calculate my SAC rate. The average, according to the site, is 0.70 cubic feet per minute. Of course, you'd have to convert BAR to PSI and meters to feet (and you've already converted liters to cubic feet).

Your air consumption sounds pretty high, without doing any calculations.

Edit: Sounds close to mine when I started. I wasn't getting more than 40 minutes per dive for a little while. Air consumption doesn't matter, as long as you constantly monitor it. Probably better to concentrate on buoyancy control and comfort underwater.
 
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If you breathe out 200 bar in 40 minutes that's 5 bar per minute average. To adjust for depth, if we assume your average depth was 8 meters that would yield a surface consumption rate of 200 / 40 / ( 1 + .8 ) or 2.7 bar per minute. That is not out of line for a brand new diver, based on the few hundred individuals I've taught.

If you're diving there at home that's cold water (have been there myself, really liked diving the Heads) and your activity level and consumption will be higher than for a warm-water dive.

And don't pay too much mind to consumption. Make a safe dive plan, monitor your gas, and have fun!
 
I don't do metric, but my very rough calculations put you somewhere in the range of 1 cf/min, which is not at all unusual for new divers.

It most likely WILL come down, as you get more comfortable, but if you like, HERE is a thread with a bunch of tips on how to improve your efficiency underwater and lower your gas consumption.
 
If you breathe out 200 bar in 40 minutes that's 5 bar per minute average. To adjust for depth, if we assume your average depth was 8 meters that would yield a surface consumption rate of 200 / 40 / ( 1 + .8 ) or 2.7 bar per minute. That is not out of line for a brand new diver, based on the few hundred individuals I've taught.

If you're diving there at home that's cold water (have been there myself, really liked diving the Heads) and your activity level and consumption will be higher than for a warm-water dive.

And don't pay too much mind to consumption. Make a safe dive plan, monitor your gas, and have fun!
My home cold water (17deg C & below) Surface Consumption Rate is 22 litres/min, or translated to pressure units per minute for the single AL80 11L tank: 2 bar/min.

(Converted to and prefer metric units for diving. . .it's much easier in figuring out breathing rates and makes more sense!)

Here's what happens to my breathing rate in warmer tropical waters:
Using 0.75 cf/min imperial units for a convenient starting/reference Surface Consumption Rate (SCR) --in metric, this is approximately equivalent to 22 litres/min.

The common AL80 Tank holds 11 litres volume at the surface standard of 1 ATA (or 1.01 bar), for a metric rating of 11 litres/bar.

22 [-]litres[/-]/min divided-by 11 [-]litres[/-]/bar equals 2bar/min SCR (Surface Consumption Rate) in pressure units --a more useful quantity to utilize during the dive since your SPG reads in bar pressure units.

Your depth in meters, which converts easily to ATA (simply divide-by-10 and add 1) becomes your multiplier depth factor for your 2bar/min pressure SCR.

Example: 30m depth is 4 ATA; your 2bar/min SCR at depth -or Depth Consumption Rate (DCR)- now becomes 8bar/min. [4 times 2bar/min equals 8bar/min]. So 10 minutes at depth 30m on an AL80 (11L/bar) tank in nominal conditions, you would expect to consume 80bar of gas and your SPG reading to be down or show a delta of 80bar. . .

What if your SCR, or Depth Consumption Rate (DCR) is lower or better than the example above? --Just scale it as a percentage result:

My SCR/RMV in tropical warm waters is typically 30% better than it is in temperate cold SoCal homewaters. However, after a week drift diving in Palau 30deg C water temp, I've lowered that to around 50% of my nominal cold water SCR (from 22 litres/min to 11 litres/min).

This is how I used this value with a 11 litres/bar tank (i.e. an AL80) in Palau:
11 [-]litres[/-]/min divided-by- 11 [-]litres[/-]/bar equals 1 bar/min pressure SCR.
[Note for all you US Imperial Units Users out there: which quantity is easier arithmetically to work with -->1 bar/min or 14.5 psi/min??? Go metric people, it's the convenient World Standard for Diving. . .]

All my dives are averaging 20 meters depth going with the drift current; 20 meters is 3 ATA (divide 20 by 10 and add 1 gives a depth in atmospheres absolute of 3 ATA).

Therefore 1bar/min multiplied by 3 ATA equals a depth consumption rate of 3 bar/min at 20 meters. Checking my bottom timer every 10 minutes, I expect to consume 30 bar (3 bar/min multiplied by 10min equals 30 bar), and accordingly my SPG should read 30 bar less in that 10 minute time frame.

So by 30 minutes elapsed dive time at 20 meters, I expect to be down 90 bar or at half tank (AL80 full tank is 200 bar). At 40 minutes elapsed time, I'm ascending off the wall into the shallow coral plateau around 9 meters (down 120 bar from 200 bar total, or 80 bar remaining in tank). And finally at the 45 to 50 minute mark, I'm at 6m and my 3-5min safety stop with 60 to 70 bar left. I surface and I know even before looking at my SPG that I have around 50 bar remaining in my tank.

This is how you should actively use your SCR with your particular tank, knowing how much breathing gas you have left, not just only pre-planning, but also during the actual dive real-time-on-the-fly --all with easier to use metric units . . .additionally, you have a SPG that reads in units of pressure: why not convert your SCR to a Depth Consumption Rate (DCR) in pressure units to make use of it???
 
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That sounds about right for a new diver. As your skill improves and you work on buoyancy control and proper weighting that will improve a lot.
Here are some tips to speed you along.

Do a proper weight check (most new divers are way overweighed). If you are constantly adjusting your BC as you do minor depth changes- a meter or 2, then odds are you are overweighed. Properly weighted, especially with little wetsuit, you should not need to adjust your BC more than a few times during the entire dive.

Find an experienced buddy to observe your diving to look for problems like inefficient kicks or poor trim.

SLOW DOWN!. For whatever reason, most new divers swim around at 2 or 3 times the speed of an experienced.....make that good diver....time underwater means nothing. Diving is not a race but rather a finesse sport, everything should be done in a slow, gentle and deliberate manner. I once had an "experienced" diver join my normal buddy and myself who was literally swimming circles around us to keep from leaving us behind. After the dives he was confused as to why he saw so much less than we did. I finally convinced him to slow down to our pace, he started seeing what we were seeing.

For what it's worth, on a dive like you describe, 75 to 90 minutes is about the time I get on an 80 unless I am in a dry suit. Work on getting your buoyancy, trim, weighting and swimming technique down. If you do, your air consumption rate will improve greatly.
 
Damn so I have a lot to do.
Also why do we consume more i coldwater?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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