Price???

[Mr.X]

If you look in the Rebreather World Kiss gallery you'll find some pictures of people adding bars to the Sport Kiss. Thanks to the boxy design it's quite easy, two bolts to attach it to the box, another two to hold it in place. They also make good handlebars to lift and move the unit. If you use 3 ltr tanks the pods are protected fairly well on the side, or the bar's width on the side could be adapted as I believe Decoweenie did.

But for recreational diving (40 m, no deco/overhead) they're fine and a real alternative to SCRs.


Am not sure who actually came up with that drain design, but it was first used on Undersea Technologies' UT240. Stuart Clough and Pete Ready go way back, they worked together on the Carmellan Research rebreathers (modified MK series) and Stuart is the S in PRISM.

Tracy Robinette also uses that drain design on the Divematics Shadow Pack III, and I gather at one point or another was also involved with UT.

I saw the bars on the SK. Nice idea, but I like robustness built-in as a part of an overall design. Speaking of which I went to my Classic yesterday and had to spend a few hours tracking down goofy readings on my first generation triple display. Seems I had a bad molex, but the entire sliding the plexi-glas on the triple display was a huge nuisance...of course the design has now been upgraded. The KISS is nice, but has some cheesey bits. If I can’t rectify the issues it’ll be my Megalodon.

Since we are into history a bit... here's an item I saw on ebay the other day:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bio-Marine-Clos...7624286690QQcategoryZ4703QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Will Smithers had one early on and had a passle of trouble with quality and especially customer service. I know he made several trips to Biomarine (what existed of it) in Pennsylvania(?) to get his unit repaired. In the end he told me that he decided to junk the unit...it may have been dissected. However, it was one of the earlier ECCR's made for the just emerging consumer RB market that Carmellan, Kellon, Stone, AP, Cochran, Oceanic etc. were after. Out of the bunch the Inspiration made it to the top of the heap in the late 90's. The Cis. was just out of price range for many, the MK 15's a little too rare and the Drager Atlantis was the SCR intro. model.

Boy have we progressed in something so short as a decade! :blinking:

 

[zbskii]

Hehe I just got certified like 24 hours ago!
-Brett

Just out of curiosity, how is it that you own a Sport KISS but have never dove one?

 

[zbskii]

Another thing to keep in mind with the Sport Kiss - You can fix anything on it yourself. We took apart the ADV and completely took apart and put together the DSV in about 20 minutes between dives. Also, in my experience you don't need to really add any oxygen if you keep a constant depth. Another reason I chose the Sport Kiss - they're made about a 6 hour drive away from me. I can easily get parts and advice. With the insporation you have to send stuff to the UK IIRC.
All the units above have good track records. There's tons of info and tons of opinions on this board, read, read, read - it helped me make my decision.
-Brett

 

[Fr0sty8]

I would have also added a bit more info of other great CCR's available. To name a couple, the Meg from Innerspace and Optima (O2ptima) from Dive Rite.

 

[caveseeker7]

I guess the "greatness" of any model is endlessly debatable,
but the original question asked specifically about the BI and the SK.

The PRISM only came into play because it's an eCCR with common
o-t-s CL layout and I'm certified on it. If Ron Micjan for example
would have posted the comparisson would have likely been between
a Meg and a SK. Padiscubapro could have compared the Meg, Inspo
and SK. I've neither used Meg nor Optima.