Question CCR Suggestion for Remote Boating Trips - Sanity Check

[broncobowsher]

There are plenty of other rebreathers with a LOT more proprietary parts than a rEvo. Which parts are you thinking of?

I remember looking at some (at DEMA when looking at all of them) and when every part is made in house, and is only available from them and them alone. Or the one made from the plumbing supply section of Home Depot.

As been stated before, none of them are perfect. Which one has the features that matter to you? There is a lot about a rEvo that would make it a good choice for you. Scrubbers, easy to clean counterlungs, minimal loop connections (leak points).

 

[MrBlenny]

It's got a bunch of issues, but that's not one of them.
Do yourself a favor and look at how many proprietary parts there are on a Revo, and look through threads about the stupid things like expensive required routine maintenance (supposedly it's cheaper now) and the need to send in for counterlung repairs.

I have an authorized repair shop a few hours away, and was actually going to call them later today regarding what to expect for maintenance costs.

If the Fathom had a hybrid option I'd be giving it a really hard look, but I believe the whole point of the Fathom is that it's a dirt simple mCCR, so I don't see that option happening. Maybe as I learn more I'll change my mind, but needle valves seem to have some real virtues.

 

[rddvet]

, but I believe the whole point of the Fathom is that it's a dirt simple mCCR, so I don't see that option happening. Maybe as I learn more I'll change my mind, but needle valves seem to have some real virtues.

I sure hope they don't. But I doubt it anyway

 

[mr_v]

I have an authorized repair shop a few hours away, and was actually going to call them later today regarding what to expect for maintenance costs.

If the Fathom had a hybrid option I'd be giving it a really hard look, but I believe the whole point of the Fathom is that it's a dirt simple mCCR, so I don't see that option happening. Maybe as I learn more I'll change my mind, but needle valves seem to have some real virtues.

Call Divetronix and ask the owner (Richard?) what he dives and why. Yes, lungs are expensive, but we are still talking hundreds, not thousands. Most rEvo costs are in computers. Spare parts catalog on rEvo or DiveGearExpress site shows what you'd pay for typical replacements. There is nothing outrageous there.

 

[Scuba Cobra]

Anybody mentioned a Megalodon yet?

They (a nice 2.7) can be picked up used for less than $4,500. Service kits are $50 from Jonas Dive so it's pretty easy to stock up on extra O rings. They're extremely robust units and pretty bomb proof.

I'm also biased though.

 

[MrBlenny]

Anybody mentioned a Megalodon yet?

They (a nice 2.7) can be picked up used for less than $4,500. Service kits are $50 from Jonas Dive so it's pretty easy to stock up on extra O rings. They're extremely robust units and pretty bomb proof.

I'm also biased though.

That one is on my list as well and was actually at the top before Leon moved to Texas. Before that ISC was an hour from my house... Just curious, have you ever heard of putting a leaky valve on one? Or does the design make that untenable?

 

[Wibble]

Great info. So, short of swimming on my back (no real reason to), the sorb will stay dry?

The sorb's dry -- OK, damp due to the chemical reaction producing water. As both cannisters are 'up', no water can flow into the sorb (short of a full flood).

So the lack of a CL water trap in the Revo is mitigated by the design topology. Do you find the (comparatively) oversized cover to be difficult to properly seat? I know from some pond plumbing projects that larger threaded caps and fittings can be a pita to deal with, but that may not really correlate here.

The cover's easy enough to seat. You first run your fingers around both sets of O-rings for hair or suchlike. They should be lightly greased as with the inside of the cover (I do this once every 20ish builds or when it's getting dry). The cover does need pressure at both ends to seat, otherwise it'll see-saw, one side down the other pops up. Not hard though.


I -- against the build instructions -- add a half cloth to the exhale lung... You may or may not know that the Revo has a square yellow absorbant cloth that's about 30cm/12" square which is rolled up and placed in the bottom inhale lung. This is to absorb any free-water that makes it into the inhale lung. Problem is it doesn't particularly end up there, the issue is the exhale lung when loose lips or poor mouthpiece replacement dribbles a little water into the exhale lung. If you're flat in the water this ends up back in the loop and gurgling as you exhale. Too much and it can end up in the mouthpiece.

I don't like that, so have cut a cloth in half and roll it into a 15cm/6" long roll and stuff this under the exhale connector behind the cables. It nicely stays there and will absorb enough odd drips of water to stop the annoyance.


My favourite things about the Revo include the two scrubbers which basically mean you never change both scrubbers (except an exceptionally long dive -- never needed to myself), one scrubber's half the size of all other rebreathers. I like the fully redundant electronics meaning the Petrel controller with 3 cells and the Nerd backup monitor with two cells of its own -- so cell worries are much less and replacements can be less frequent than systems with 3 cells. I like the simplicity of the loop, only two hoses and no attached lung T-pieces. The scrubber monitoring system works really well with a simple duration to read. I like the lungs being so accessible so you can clean out the lung butter without a hosepipe. I like that there's no special tools required to maintain it.

Just returned from a week's simple reef diving off of Africa with the Revo. Such a great design and so flexible. Why people actually choose to blow bubbles beats me.

 

[MrBlenny]

The sorb's dry -- OK, damp due to the chemical reaction producing water. As both cannisters are 'up', no water can flow into the sorb (short of a full flood).


The cover's easy enough to seat. You first run your fingers around both sets of O-rings for hair or suchlike. They should be lightly greased as with the inside of the cover (I do this once every 20ish builds or when it's getting dry). The cover does need pressure at both ends to seat, otherwise it'll see-saw, one side down the other pops up. Not hard though.


I -- against the build instructions -- add a half cloth to the exhale lung... You may or may not know that the Revo has a square yellow absorbant cloth that's about 30cm/12" square which is rolled up and placed in the bottom inhale lung. This is to absorb any free-water that makes it into the inhale lung. Problem is it doesn't particularly end up there, the issue is the exhale lung when loose lips or poor mouthpiece replacement dribbles a little water into the exhale lung. If you're flat in the water this ends up back in the loop and gurgling as you exhale. Too much and it can end up in the mouthpiece.

I don't like that, so have cut a cloth in half and roll it into a 15cm/6" long roll and stuff this under the exhale connector behind the cables. It nicely stays there and will absorb enough odd drips of water to stop the annoyance.


My favourite things about the Revo include the two scrubbers which basically mean you never change both scrubbers (except an exceptionally long dive -- never needed to myself), one scrubber's half the size of all other rebreathers. I like the fully redundant electronics meaning the Petrel controller with 3 cells and the Nerd backup monitor with two cells of its own -- so cell worries are much less and replacements can be less frequent than systems with 3 cells. I like the simplicity of the loop, only two hoses and no attached lung T-pieces. The scrubber monitoring system works really well with a simple duration to read. I like the lungs being so accessible so you can clean out the lung butter without a hosepipe. I like that there's no special tools required to maintain it.

Just returned from a week's simple reef diving off of Africa with the Revo. Such a great design and so flexible. Why people actually choose to blow bubbles beats me.

I see you are in the UK, so I'm guessing the water runs about the same as the 9-14C I get here. Assuming you dive locally, do you use the axial or radial scrubbers?

In my mind, simplicity is a great asset when no real sacrifices are made (part of why my car is a manual.) So is redundancy, which makes the Revo an interesting mix. The cell rotation schedule is a topic that I know has been discussed thoroughly in another thread, so I won't ask about here.

I also find the Nerd interesting, but wonder if it would interfere when I get my face right up to my camera's viewfinder?

Africa sounds awesome! Hope it was a great trip.

 

[broncobowsher]

The only thing I should point out about the RMS (rEvo Monitor System) is the first couple generations were JUNK. 5 years ago when I was ordering mine everyone who had it complained about the failures, frequent and expensive, for a system that isn't needed just a nice feature to have. Both my instructor and myself had the same feeling of it isn't worth it. Save the money, go without. Since then the system has finally gotten a lot more robust. On a new order today, I would consider it. Something to watch if you are looking at a used rEvo.

As for the NERD, yes it is compatible with photography. As mine is setup, it isn't in your face but in the corner of the mask in the non-dominate eye. As long as nothing is red, no immediate action is needed. Something red, stop taking pictures and figure out what is going on. My NERD is just like my Petrel controller except it doesn't fire the O2 solenoid. The one extra thing the NERD does is watch tank pressures (ditched the pressure gauges and went with transmitters), a pretty common upgrade.

 

[Wibble]

I see you are in the UK, so I'm guessing the water runs about the same as the 9-14C I get here. Assuming you dive locally, do you use the axial or radial scrubbers?

In my mind, simplicity is a great asset when no real sacrifices are made (part of why my car is a manual.) So is redundancy, which makes the Revo an interesting mix. The cell rotation schedule is a topic that I know has been discussed thoroughly in another thread, so I won't ask about here.

I also find the Nerd interesting, but wonder if it would interfere when I get my face right up to my camera's viewfinder?

Africa sounds awesome! Hope it was a great trip.

You’ll like the "hybrid" aspect of the Revo then… It was originally developed as a manual rebreather with an orifice (aka leaky valve) which continually injects your resting oxygen consumption. As a hybrid, the oxygen solenoid was added to inject oxygen at the command of the Petrel controller.

There’s two benefits from this configuration. The orifice means the solenoid doesn’t need to fire that often (ignoring depth changes, etc.), so there’s a small PP3 solenoid battery. But most beneficial, IMHO, is that the setpoint can be set to 1.2 and manually run the unit at 1.3 with any solenoid injection being a slap around the face for not adequately predicting and monitoring the PPO2.

The Revo controls are nice too as there’s a neat button block for injecting diluent and oxygen on the RH shoulder and the wing inflate/dump on the LH shoulder. With AI transmitters to the Nerd, there’s no more crap on the front… leaving plenty of space for camera kit

Don’t know about Nerds with cameras, maybe someone else knows.