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There is a lot of discussions engaged about the Odyssey rebreather who is announced as SAFE unit because using a passive addition method. Odyssey rebreather principle is not something new, it has been using for years and I do not believe that proportionnal purging principle which create a passive addition is safer than other system. What happens if you have a failure on the purging system? A complete failure (zero purge=zero gas addition) is probably easily detectable due to lack of bubbles emission, but what about a partial failure of the purging system? Let say that instead of purging 25% of every breath you purge only 10%, then you are in big trouble? It will generate a partial gas addition and the risk of hypoxia or DCI (%O2 below what is planned for deco) will be a reality. Despite of what is said, the Odyssey has a single point failure which makes it not safer than other system. The only way for a semi-closed rebreather to be safe is to be fail safe. For me, it means that any incident will result in a impossibilty to breath from the system. On an open circuit, an incident will result in a free flow, no gas or increased breathing resistance. Also, WWW pages claim that the odyssey can be used for cave diving, i am far from being convinced. As a french cave diver, I dive with double independent in solo (do not be Moron, i dive in France not in US) which is the standard in France, so using a rebreather for cave diving means for me that I need a total redundancy, probably two independent systems (2 rebreathers! What a juicy market for a rebreather dealer). With the new semi-closed rebreathers coming to the market, I do not see any that meet this criteria. For info the WWW pointer of RBC is: http://www.gate.net/~dlv/odyssey/ I hope that my broken english will not obstruct to the understanding of my view. Safe dives Frederic PS: I do not claim to be a rebreather specialist, just my "EURO"0.02 contribution ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederic BADIER Dowell Schlumberger Schlumberger Riboud Product Centre 26 rue de la cavee (BP 202); 92142 Clamart Cedex, France Tel : (33) 1 45 37 20 00 Switchboard Tel : (33) 1 45 37 20 41 Direct Line Fax : (33) 1 45 37 25 13 Sinet : badier@cl*.do*.sl*.co* (or DSA::BADIER) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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