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Rebreather Review |
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Friday, 07 October 2011 08:33 |
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 Rebreathers have become an arrow in the quiver of leading Australian cave divers to push the boundaries of Australian cave systems. In this article some of Australia's leading cave and rebreather divers compare and contrast some of the rebreather technology currently available for cave diving.
This review of the APD, Halcyon, KISS, Megladon and Mk15.5 rebreathers has now been updated with the addition of four more models: Optima, Poseidon, rEvo, Sentinel.
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Dive Systems |
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 There are four main dive systems used by Australian cave divers:
- Back mounted twin independent cylinders
- Back mounted manifolded cylinders
- Side mounted cylinders
- Semi-closed or closed circuit rebreathers
Each has its own advantages and disadvantages for cave diving, and no single configuration is suited to diving all cave systems. It basically comes down to selecting the right tool for the job. |
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Back Mounted Twin Independent Cylinders |
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In this configuration, two cylinders of equal capacity are banded together with stainless steel or webbing bands and attached to a stainless steel or aluminium back plate with a buoyancy compensating wing sandwiched in between.
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Side Mounted Cylinders |
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These are configured with regulators as for twin independent cylinders with the only difference being the SPGs are usually mounted on short (6” or 9”) hoses. The cylinders are attached to a side mount harness usually by way of clips about halfway down the cylinder and bungee cord around the neck of the cylinder.
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Back Mounted Manifolded Cylinders |
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This configuration differs from the twin independent system in that the valves of the two cylinders are joined with an isolation manifold. Only stainless steel bands can be used. Only one SPG is carried and one second stage regulator typically is on a long (1.5 or 1.8m) hose.
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Rebreathers |
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There are a considerable variety of rebreathers available on the market today and each has their proponents. Basically a rebreather is a machine worn on the back of the diver allowing unused exhaust gas to be reused rather than letting it be vented into the water as in open circuit diving.
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