Is a SCR or CCR right for me?

[ffdiver]

Here is some background information first....

I do over 100 dives a year ranging from 15ft to 150ft. Between teaching and diving for fun I can go do a 20 ft dive for one full day of diving to jumping on a wreck charter and diving a 130ft wreck the next day.

I enjoy long dives but hate carrying tons of weight and loathe doing very long deco. I limit most of my deco to around 15mins with O2, since I don't want to carry the tanks that I would need on the bottom to get the really really long bottom times they would afford.

I hate carrying huge tanks, and that's the reason I went sidemount for almost all of my diving.

I'm looking to be able to do a nice hour long + dives at 130 - 60 ft without killing myself with huge doubles and stages.

Would I be able to do these dives on a Hollis Explorer? or would I need to go to a full CCR? How does the Explorer or other SCR handle deco and whatnot since there isn't a set PO2?

I know the explorer wasn't designed to do tech diving but what I'm asking is it possible for the unit to do some "Tech lite" type dives?

 

[hroark2112]

Skip the SCR.

KISS Spirit LTE mCCR | KISS Rebreather

trust me. I use mine for anything from 2 hour shallow dives in Bonaire to wreck dives off the NC coast. The unit is light. I use a 20 cd O2 bottle & a 40 for diluent/bailout for 90% of my dives. Easy to learn and dive.

 

[tbone1004]

for those kinds of dives I'd go CCR. FWIW SCR's typically have longer decompression times than OC because while your mix might be the same, you are always a couple FO2 points lower.

CCR is more expensive/complex but much more versatile. Kiss works, the O2ptima is a real nice unit now that it has legit electronics on it, any of the Shearwater controlled units are nice, but I'd recommend the ISC Pathfinder or the Poseidon MK7 for what you're looking at.

 

[ffdiver]

How does deco work with a scr? Since the fO2 keeps changing? You wouldn't be able to follow a petrel for deco while on it right or would it just be tons more conservative then the onboard computer?

 

[skankpile]

Pathfinder man..and you'll still sling a 40 or 80 depending on whats available at location. The little pathfinder will do whatever you want and you will not outgrow it. On the pathfinder you really have no limits and you can easily drop down to whatever sane depth for a while and come back shallower keeping your NDL/Deco in check like any other unit. You'll pack the scrubber in the morning, get on a boat, and change the scrubber when the days over...it travels well.

The new meg head on a cave (shorter) plenum is not much bigger, and will now allow an 8lb radial scrubber in the short plenum... you could realistically stay at 60-80' feet all day if thats your gig.

 

[tbone1004]

FO2 is pretty constant, PO2 isn't, so you'd either purchase a Petrel EXT to monitor the O2 sensor directly, or you'd following the controller which is monitoring it. Some will switch to a different gas for O2, but for dives that long and that deep, I'd just go to a smaller eCCR, you can also add the baby Revo in there to keep it light, just keep in mind that they work much better in drysuits as they tend to be pretty leg heavy.

 

[ffdiver]

Slinging a bottle isn't the concern. I don't mind carrying an 80 or 40.

Maybe a better way to ask this question, will a "recreational rebreather" allow me to do the dives I want to do, without the added complexity of a CCR?

 

[skankpile]

With the pathfinder, "recreational" is a marketing term. Its not any more complex thatn an scr.. you still need bailout, plumbing.. and a brain to fly it.

 

[tbone1004]

Poseidon MK7 is a Type R according to PADI I believe and it is a full CCR, there's a few others, but the MK7 is "the" recreational rebreather.

Will a SCR work for your dives? sure, but you'll be racking up a bit more deco due to the relatively constant FO2 instead of the constant PO2. You want shorter deco, you have to go CCR, the units don't weigh much if any more than an SCR and aren't really all that much more complex, especially if you go to something like the MK7 which has a scrubber cartridge like the explorer, and full lockouts for everything, pretty idiot proof.

 

[muzikbiz22]

Slinging a bottle isn't the concern. I don't mind carrying an 80 or 40.

Maybe a better way to ask this question, will a "recreational rebreather" allow me to do the dives I want to do, without the added complexity of a CCR?

Simple answer is Yes. I personally dive the Hollis Explorer, for lots of the same reasons/types of dives you have listed. It works great, it is NOT complex, and it is fun. All units that are being called our here are great, as well. I'm a fan of the Explorer for a couple of reasons;
1 - Simple gas, Nitrox. Don't have to worry about taking an O2 hit or running all over town trying to find O2.
2 - The CO2 monitor. Don't have to worry about "that" either.
3 - Assembles in 10 minutes.
4 - BOV
5 - You can "fly" in Auto or Manual.
6 - There's a great & growing community of Explorer divers worldwide, as well as "Explorer friendly resorts & dive ops".
7 - Aesthetics. It's clean looking and doesn't resemble a high school science project.