Tiny Doubles...

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It takes me all of 10 minutes is disassemble a set of doubles. The same amount of time to reassemble. Probably the same amount time for the VIP. I do my own VIP so no cost. So really the only cost is hydro which amortized costs $5 per year. In the big scheme of things when you four sets of double plus another half dozen singles it is a drop in the ocean.

The best part they do not roll around in the back of my truck.

All true if you do it yourself but the vast majority of divers don't, remember this is life support gear and no one but specially trained techs should touch it, otherwise you will die. :) I am sure you know I am kidding but there plenty of divers who believe that or just don't want to do the work for whatever reason. I see tech doubles in our shop for service all the time. Those folks will have to pay for 2 vips instead of one and they also have to pay for a dissambly/assembly charge. Even if vips and hydros are free, you will spend nearly (if not more) double the cost of a single tank when purhcasing the equipment and that does not take into consideration a new set of bands, all for little more or more likely less gas. For most divers it makes more sence to spend the same amount on 2- 80s instead of 2- 40s, a manifold and bands.
They are cute and fun to dive but from a cost perspective a total waste.
 
I have a set of twin 7 litres with an isolation manifold that I use for shore diving, they're nice and light and compact and great down to around 20-30m. For regular boat diving down 30m to 50m I have a set of twin 12s and for anything deeper I have twin 15s. Weighting stays the same because as the volume of the cylinders increases, so does their weight so I don't need to adjust anything

The only things that change between doing any of these dives are the size of the cylinders, whether I take two deco, one deco or no deco cylinder and the gas.
 
They aren't for everyone, that's for sure. If you are more worried about the cost of doing VIP and Hydro on two tanks instead of one over the benefits of redundancy, balance and good trim, then they aren't for you. For me, I don't think the cost of redundancy is a total waste.
 
The only people I see get excited about this are people who are in the industry. If this is such a great thing, home come dive shops don't offer them for rental so we can try it out? No, they'd rather sell you a $500 set of doubles that costs you a lot more to service and requires a change to your BCD and regulator configurations. Oh and their will be a distinctive speciality on diving doubles while they are at it. Heck, I'll bet they even charge you for 2 fills when they go to fill it. Then there is the matter of 2 45's is only enough for 1 dive. Go for a second dive on the boat (hope the boat allows doubles for rec diving) and you'll need a second set of doubles or an HP120 and a transfill whip. (here comes the tank filling speciality)

I've seen his blog quoted from several sources and it's clear to me this is just marketing. I agree with others, if you can't trim out an AL80 and your buddy isn't a reliable alternative air source, you have other skill problems. As it's been said a million times, skill problems shouldn't be solved with gear.

FYI- I do like his concept of different size doubles for different purpose.... but I'm not buying all that gear for recreational diving. (That was the context of his post.) If the LDS had those available, I'd consider it.
 
It takes me all of 10 minutes is disassemble a set of doubles. The same amount of time to reassemble. Probably the same amount time for the VIP. I do my own VIP so no cost. So really the only cost is hydro which amortized costs $5 per year. In the big scheme of things when you four sets of double plus another half dozen singles it is a drop in the ocean.

The best part they do not roll around in the back of my truck.

It takes me a lot longer than ten minutes, fooling around with aligning the crossbar and the bands. But I only do it once a year. For most people using a dive shop for fills and VIP, it does double the cost of those two items. I'm not sure it's 'practical' in the sense that single tanks are so easy to deal with and cheap to buy. Almost invariably singles are lighter on land too for an equivalent amount of gas.

But diving is about fun and if someone has fun with small doubles, why not? I have my 72s, not exactly tiny, but I enjoy using them. I could see having fun with a small vintage set w/ center outlet manifold for a doublehose reg.
 
FYI- I do like his concept of different size doubles for different purpose.... but I'm not buying all that gear for recreational diving. (That was the context of his post.) If the LDS had those available, I'd consider it.

Actually... the context of his post is how HE dives.

Chatterton:
I always choose utility over fashion, but IMHO the twin set 5.5″ cylinders provide both for recreational divers. If you come down to Pompano, and see a guy a guy on the boat with Tiny Doubles, it is most likely me (or Megan). But maybe….. some day in the future (when we are disembodied heads in jars?)….. everyone will be diving them??? Then again, probably not as they are not for everyone, and it would be boring if we all dived the same.

Clearly there was no mention of everyone running out and buying doubles, and he does say "it would be boring if we all dived the same".
 
And I quote...

yes... HIS FAVORITE TANKS FOR HIM. Not for you (unless you want them to be) :wink:

One would call this an opinion, and not a directive.
 
Actually... the context of his post is how HE dives.

And I quote...

Chatteron:
For regular old recreational dives, my favorite tank(s) of all time are…..(drum roll please)…..my little twin LP steel 50′s (2400psi)!!!!! They rock!

And interpreted by ScubaMeg as well....

Have you ever considered using small twin tanks for a recreational dive?
 
And interpreted by ScubaMeg as well....

Yeah, Megan loves her tiny doubles... So do I. They're great.

If you're going to be in Pompano, you can ask us to lend you a set (we - the collective we - have 5 sets) to see for yourself (if you want)
 

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