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Hi !
Last weekend I got the chance to try a russian navy rebreather in a pool.
This unit is still in use by the russian's but now free available on the market.
It is a fully closed rebreather which can be used with two different gases.
One gas is pure oxygen,the other is a ean40.There is no electronic involved,all
mechanical.The ean40-unit is not a must.it can be attached to the rebreather if
neccesary.If the ean unit is attached,then the gas-switch is done automatically
at a
certain depth . The unit consists of one counterlung,two scrubbers,the
regulator with a
"flushing unit",a 1 liter(200bar) pure oxygen tank,a bailout tank (2 liter air)
and a bailout
regulator.The ean unit consists of another 1 liter tank, and another flushing
unit and
a connection tube to the loop.The ean40 unit has the size of 2 beercans and can
be
clipped to a d-ring.
Minimum tank pressure must be 30 bar.Max tank pressure is 200 bar.
The weight of the unit is approx 15 kg (incl ean-unit).
The size is comparable to the atlantis 1 without his blue NTX-tank.
there is no plastic used !!! everything is made of aluminium.no fancy
"clip-connectors",
all with screws,looks very professional & reliable.
The housing is also made of aluminium and all parts are easy accessable.
Diving:
(please don't blame me for the high ppo2 this guys are using.i'm just repeating
whats in their spec's.and anyway you don't have to use it at the maximum.its
your own
decission !!!!)
When you open the oxygen-tank,then the unit is automatically flushed with
o2.The only thing
you have to do is then flushing your lung.From 0 meter to 15 meter the unit
works as a
pure o2-rebreather.When you descend further the o2-valve closes
automatically,the ean-unit opens and flushes the pure 02 out of the loop (lasts
approx 30 sec's) with nitrox.From now on you
breathe ean40 (max depth acc. manual is 40 meter).As this is fully closed,each
breath will
slowly reduce your o2 part,because 40/60 is added if neccessary.
On the ascend the process is reverted,between 15 and 12 meter the ean-valve
closes and
the o2 valve opens again and flushes the loop with pure o2.
In my opinion the critical depth is between 6 Meters to the gas-switch depth.If
you pass
this zone quick,you should not get into oxtox-trouble :-)
No-deco times from the manual are:
20-25 meter 1.5 hours
30-40 meter 30 hours
Average usage time at depth with 30liter/min breathing rate for the ean-unit
20-25 meter 2 hours
30-40 meter 1 hour
The scrubber contains 4.5 kg of draeger-sorb.practical tests in Bonaire have
shown, that one fill worked for 2 weeks / 2 dives a day / approx 1.5 hour dive
time per
dive.
Also dives were made at 30 meters for 2 two hours with still gas left in the
1 liter tank !!!!
For this deco dives a aladin x nitrox where used,programmed to ntx40.As you
decompress
with pure oxygen it was assumed that you are far on the safe side.
and now the price:
The unit in its originalstate goes for $ 1100 over the table.
Add lets say another $ 1000 and then you have it modified with wings and a
harness
attached,a translated manual (from russia into german),all tanks hydroed and
approved
by the government,the bailout valve exchanged to fit DIN-regulators).
The one i dove had the scubapro tec bcd attached,the inflator was replaced
by an air 2 to be used as the bailout-regulator.
There is one diveshop here in switzerland,who imports the units,modifies them
upon
request and guaranties the repair, maintenance & spare-parts.
The mouth-piece can be replaced by the original fullfacemask (this mask has a
small
manual operated window-wiper built in ! )
I'll try this unit again next week in lake zurich at a greater depth than that
of the pool
to get a feeling how it performs at depth and will let you know.
I personally think of using this unit as the "decompression machine" for trimix
dives
because of the reduced weight.
regards
Didi
(Zurich - TDI-Switzerland)
... ......... .. .. ..... .... . .. ...
.. ..... ......... ... .... .... ... . .... ..
^^^^
..******..
\ * O />
\\ . ** /> (O O) .... and the SCUBA-Diver says:
\\ * /> I "Shit happens all the time !"
//.** \> (*)
// *. \>
/ *.*.*.\>
* * * * * ******** * * * * * *** ***** * * ***** *
*********************************************************************
Didi Wagner ------------> didi@F1*.te*.ch*
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