caveseeker7
Contributor
Well, honestly hope you're correct about the support issue, it's immensely important.
You've seen it come up in this thread with regards to Aqualung.
The small manufacturers, for most part, have rather good support.
Jetsam (Sport & Classic Kiss) and ISC (Megalodon and COPIS Meg) have excellent reputations in that respect. Same with C2R (Ouroboros).
Steam Machines for most part, too, there have been some problems with fixing/replacing the analog secondaries. The gauge itself is the single most expensive part of the unit, and turning it into a secondary is labor intensive. Other parts have not be a problem, nor are they damaged as easily.
The two higher volume, molded rigs, the AP (Inspiration and Evolution) and DiveRite (Optima) have done quite well in regards to customer service overall. If they had problems supplying spares or servicing rigs it certainly wasn't due to lack of trying.
Dräger is a bit different, the company is huge, the diving division just a very small part of it. And most of that is military gear, the recreational division is tiny ... it just doesn't matter to them if they build 50 Dolphins or 500. Not if they can sell LAR Vs at $8500 a pop to militaries around the world that treat them as throw away items. Between the military gear and the firefighting/safety gear they produce I'm reasonably sure they got a nice boost after 9/11 and all the homeland security funding, why bother with Dolphins and Rays?
As I said, I could see a PRISM taking off with Hollis behind it. They are easily large enough to support the unit's production, distribution, promotion and advertising. And I believe they're serious about rebreathers.
They wanted to get one to the market in the mid-nineties, the Oceanic Phibian. Much of the engineering was done by Stuart Clough and Carmellan Research (the company that modified MK series CCRs used by Rob Palmer for the Blue Hole Expedition). Pete Ready was on the Carmellan team too. Long story short, Clough and Hollis went separate ways, and Clough was awarded the right to the CCR stuff, which lead to the Undersea Technologies UT240. Hollis was barred from building CCRs until 1999.
Love the irony of it, actually, the 'S' in PRISM stands for Stuart (with PR being Peter Ready and IM Iain Middlebrook), the unit's loop is excellent, details well thought out, the electronics beautifully simple and transparent, the whole well tested. Hollis gets a great little rebreather and the last laugh.
You've seen it come up in this thread with regards to Aqualung.
The small manufacturers, for most part, have rather good support.
Jetsam (Sport & Classic Kiss) and ISC (Megalodon and COPIS Meg) have excellent reputations in that respect. Same with C2R (Ouroboros).
Steam Machines for most part, too, there have been some problems with fixing/replacing the analog secondaries. The gauge itself is the single most expensive part of the unit, and turning it into a secondary is labor intensive. Other parts have not be a problem, nor are they damaged as easily.
The two higher volume, molded rigs, the AP (Inspiration and Evolution) and DiveRite (Optima) have done quite well in regards to customer service overall. If they had problems supplying spares or servicing rigs it certainly wasn't due to lack of trying.
Dräger is a bit different, the company is huge, the diving division just a very small part of it. And most of that is military gear, the recreational division is tiny ... it just doesn't matter to them if they build 50 Dolphins or 500. Not if they can sell LAR Vs at $8500 a pop to militaries around the world that treat them as throw away items. Between the military gear and the firefighting/safety gear they produce I'm reasonably sure they got a nice boost after 9/11 and all the homeland security funding, why bother with Dolphins and Rays?
As I said, I could see a PRISM taking off with Hollis behind it. They are easily large enough to support the unit's production, distribution, promotion and advertising. And I believe they're serious about rebreathers.
They wanted to get one to the market in the mid-nineties, the Oceanic Phibian. Much of the engineering was done by Stuart Clough and Carmellan Research (the company that modified MK series CCRs used by Rob Palmer for the Blue Hole Expedition). Pete Ready was on the Carmellan team too. Long story short, Clough and Hollis went separate ways, and Clough was awarded the right to the CCR stuff, which lead to the Undersea Technologies UT240. Hollis was barred from building CCRs until 1999.
Love the irony of it, actually, the 'S' in PRISM stands for Stuart (with PR being Peter Ready and IM Iain Middlebrook), the unit's loop is excellent, details well thought out, the electronics beautifully simple and transparent, the whole well tested. Hollis gets a great little rebreather and the last laugh.
