Help in choosing bc.

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I mast to agree with doctormike, if something trying to do 2 different things it almost always not good in both.
The reason that i gave those 3 bc, it because that i can get them in Israel. So wich one is beter quality and more comfortable hollis or scubapro?

You can't get a BP/W in Israel? Aren't there tech divers there...?
 
The bcs that i mentioned are bp/w.

Got it...wasn't familiar with those models.

The Hollis looks like a BP/W, with clips in the harness - a bit non-standard, but certainly something that has it's advantages, especially if you have limited shoulder mobility. I have never found them necessary, I prefer a one piece harness, but that looks fine.

The Scubapro looks like a BC that's trying to be a BP/W, but seems one piece (non-modular), lots of fixed D-rings and it looks like it has a lot of padding. All of those things are disadvantages of jacket BCs that the classic BP/W addresses. Also, it looks a lot more expensive than a regular BP/W...
 
My primary delema is from:
1. Dive Rite Nomad xt- from what I read it can be used for both side mount and back mount.
2. Scubapro X-Tek Comfort.
3. Hollis Elite 2 with C60LX.

Thank you ahead for your response.

I realize you may have other reasons to limit to those choices besides just what is available to you locally. But, if you don't mind having something shipping Internationally, I'm pretty sure Dive Gear Express will ship to you.

In your situation, I would take a hard look at this for USD$300:

https://www.divegearexpress.com/dgx-custom-singles-harness-backplate-wing-package

The wing is identical to the Dive Rite Travel EXP wing. An aluminum back plate would be okay for you for warm water diving. It might even be preferred over stainless steel, if you'll be diving in just shorts and/or a rash guard - particularly if you'll be using a single steel tank. And an aluminum plate might continue to work well for you if you move onto double steel tanks for tech use. Or you can pay an extra $10 to get a stainless steel back plate.

I have no personal experience with this rig. It just looks like a good, inexpensive rig to me, that I would probably try for myself, if I needed a new rig.

Others have recommended DSS. My rig is a DSS BP/W, which I have been using since immediately after I finished my initial OW training. I do think the DSS BP is probably the nicest BP you can buy. But, I got mine for cheap, used. I don't think I'd spend the extra money to buy a brand new one. Not when a BP like the DGX one is about half the price. And I recently replaced my DSS wing with a Hog 23# donut wing, which I like better than the DSS LCD30 I have been using. For warm water (even in a 3mm full wetsuit and a single steel tank), the 23# wing is plenty of lift for me and it is more compact and more streamlined than my old wing. And it is field repairable, which the comparable DSS donut wings are not. I'm clumsy and I got 3 pinch flat holes in my DSS wing bladder in the last year, so being able to repair it in the field has become an important criteria to me. I'd much rather fix it myself and keep diving than have to send my wing back to the manufacturer to get a pinch flat fixed every time I get one (hopefully, never again!).

Caveat: I am somewhat like yourself. I have been diving just over one year. I have completed my Master Scuba Diver cert and am now close to completion on my tech diving training for doubles with Adv Nitrox and Deco Procedures. So, take my thoughts for whatever you think they are worth.
 
I don't know anything about the 3 options you mentioned. One question I would be asking is, will you be overweighted in these in warm water? Reason I ask this is that when diving in the Aegean in September, I was diving with an XDeep Ghost, steel tanks, and a 19 cu ft pony, and I had no extra weight. I was still overweighted, which made me think about possibly getting a carbon fiber BP. I was also diving in a 5 mm wetsuit. I did not shed the pony to see if that is all it took to get me neutrally or positively buoyant.
 
I was diving with an XDeep Ghost, steel tanks, and a 19 cu ft pony, and I had no extra weight. I was still overweighted, which made me think about possibly getting a carbon fiber BP.

Does it really offer any noticeable weight reduction over Al? -- I figure you'll need at least 4 layers @ 90 & 45-degree angles and then the weight of material would get in the same ballpark. It could make a nice DIY project for the log winter months though.
 
Does it really offer any noticeable weight reduction over Al? -- I figure you'll need at least 4 layers @ 90 & 45-degree angles and then the weight of material would get in the same ballpark.
Although weight may be the same, buoyancy might not.

An example of just that: I've got a couple of 10L 300 bar tanks and one 15L 200 bar. They have pretty much the same gas capacity, and topside they weigh pretty much the same, give or take half a kg. However, due to the larger volume of the 15L, it's more buoyant and I need more weight when I'm using it than if I'm using one of the 10Ls. So, if the OP chooses 300 bar tanks they may be overweighted with a thin wetsuit, while with a larger 232 bar tank with the same nominal gas capacity they might not be.
 
I don't know anything about the 3 options you mentioned. One question I would be asking is, will you be overweighted in these in warm water? Reason I ask this is that when diving in the Aegean in September, I was diving with an XDeep Ghost, steel tanks, and a 19 cu ft pony, and I had no extra weight. I was still overweighted, which made me think about possibly getting a carbon fiber BP. I was also diving in a 5 mm wetsuit. I did not shed the pony to see if that is all it took to get me neutrally or positively buoyant.
In this scenario, tropical....I think a better thinking process, is what tanks would be smart to use....and which would not be. An al 80 will always have great buoyancy issues in tropical water....but for some divers it is not enough volume for the depth and duration they desire. They could mitigate this by making themselves more efficient in the water, and significantly lowering their SAC rate....but for 100 to 130 foot dives, it is hard to argue against a larger volume tank. Some are stupidly heavy--perhaps weighted so heavy that only a dry suit diver should be using them.


The point here is that for tropical diving...there are "some tanks" that it would be stupid to use....that you should NOT accept from a dive operator when on a dive trip...

You should not be using any BC or wing as an elevator to lift extremely heavy tanks--this puts you at serious risk if you somehow get a BC failure....You should always be able to swim your tank up, from the bottom depth of your dive, with no use of a BC. Choosing the right tank, should make this easy.

With a 3 mil wetsuit, or none at all, I can use my 18 pound Halcyon wing, to keep an HP120 steel neutral , no matter what. It does take a lot of the volume of the wing at depth, but with freediving fins, I don't actually need the wing at all to swim to the surface and stay there easily...however I do need the wing if I want to be neutral 1 foot off the bottom.

Many divers would choose a 30 pound wing for the hp120.....though you really don't need any more lift than it takes to be neutral, so for many, the 30 just gives them extra room for carrying more weight they probably don't need.
Cold water divers are another story, as they have the big buoyancy swing with their wetsuits at depth, so they really DO need the extra weight....and so really do need a larger wing to accommodate this for the thicker suits and deeper dive sites....and at technical depths, this makes a drysuit essential, as the loss of suit buoyancy is so pronounced, and at 200 feet and deeper, the insulation value of a 7 mil wetsuit is about equal to a cotton teeshirt :)
 
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Although weight may be the same, buoyancy might not.

An example of just that: I've got a couple of 10L 300 bar tanks and one 15L 200 bar.

Well, buoyancy issues of a 15L tin can that holds 200 times its volume of air wouldn't be quite in the same ballpark with 400g of 3mm-thick Al vs 300g of 4mm-thick epoxy-fiberglass. Not that I'm arguing with "buoyancy might not"... but I suspect eating beans for breakfast will give me more buoyancy swing than Al vs plastic BP. :wink:
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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