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If you are in the market check out the ISC Predator. The philosophies are a little different, but both the posiden with the Bill Stone designed O2 cell monitoring, and ICS with its new CAN interface are pretty sweet.
The posiden was designed to the lowest common denominator... I mean its designed to be dove by people who could care less about o2 monitoring logic, and all the parts will show a warning and you just replace it.. its like the ipod of rebraethers. No tweaking or upgrades.. just use it and it will tell you when to replace parts.
In the long run I see the predator as more serviceable, upgradeable, and its not electronically or architecturally crippled so if you want to travel with a small unit and do trimix.. the predator will let you. The posiden is pretty cool, but I have a meg so I'm partial to ISC. The philosophies are a bit different and the predator is built to spec like military hardware just like the MEG.
By choosing this diluient and assuming I manage it properly, I shorten my deco time
Really? I wasn't aware that was possible [for He bottom mix to shorten deco obligation]. While it is a fast gas, that works two ways: decompression obligation starts much sooner. I'd really be interested to see a profile where normoxic trimix produced a shorter dive than Nitrox where bottom leg times are equal and other things the same: setpoint for ascent etc. No question about diving deeper or less narcosis though. I write decompression software but confess to not spending much time modeling/testing CCR/normoxic combinations. Tests run thousands of profiles but choosing standard mixes on OC weeds things out(END/CNS/OTUs/ and gas changes tend to be more problematic than constant PO2).
Hmmm...a little too late I realized that HIGHWing, in referring to shortened deco with nomoxic trimix, was probably expanding on his comparison to OC diving diving costs. For those who care, CCR deco profiles tend to be shorter than OC deco profiles when the RB permits a high continuous setpoint for O2. Assuming CNS% and OTU's have enough headroom to permit it, being at PO2 1.6 for the entire ascent is going to eliminate inert gases faster than someone who is using typical EAN50 and O2.
Meanwhile , I still don't know anyone that gets warm fuzzies when trying (emphasis on trying) to get their Poseidon regulators serviced. It may have improved some in the past few years but not enough to ever see the things out on a boat. I see rebreathers more often than I see Poseidon regulators.
FWIW, I'm had assurances that in conjunction with the ramp up their Discovery launch, Poseidon have put in a lot of work to improve US service capability and parts supplies. In fact, it sounds as if there were never parts shortages, just a lack of coordination or cash flow between Poseidon SE and their US distributors.
While I'm still relatively new to diving, I'm curious about rebreathers in general... so what I don't get is if this unit costs on the order of $7000, aren't most other RBs cheaper and more flexible?
I understand that the PADI course is significantly cheaper than going the technical route, but still....
If you are concerned with the 7K for the breather... you'll also need to consider the training/trip/travel costs as you'll likely spend as much on misc equipment, training etc. Set aside 12-15K