| Hi Chris
I'm at a similar stage to you re the 'breather, but a little further on, ie itching to order.
So mine is not even a novice user perspective as I've only used an Inspiration once (to 4m).
1) the Inspriration seems to be a good piece of kit, there were fatalities early on, but I think that a lot were due to experienced OC divers assuming that they could strap the thing on and jump into depths that they were used to, definatly a no-no IMO.
You'd not be a sheep to buy one, but have a look at others first - persoanally I like the KISS and that's probably what I'll go for, possibly sheepy in my case, because strangly I know more KIS divers than Inspiration ones.
2) BSAC do a RB aquaint course where you get to see and (I would hope) dive on several diiferent types - it's mainly aimed at people like ourselves who are considering and RB or those that may be buddying up with a RB diver.
3) Ongoing costs are O2 sensors, sofnolime, gas, cleaning, servicing.
It's hard to put anuual figures on these because it depends how much you dive. However, everyone that I've spoken to seem to think that you'll never make back the cost of the unit in saved gas costs, but you will probaly find that you will user helium for shallower dives that you would on OC.
4) Other equipment - many people seem to go for a VR3 computer, not sure if I will, but this can cost up to 700 quid, although gas is usually available, some people keep OC cylinders to decant from, others also go for a booster pump.
5) Longer dives mean greater thermal exposure, and also bladder capacity problems. The latter can be solved with nappies or overboard discharges, the former buy undersuits, argon inflation etc .
6) Clubs - The BS-AC (I'm a BS-AC diver, so can't speak for the others) have sanctioned the use of the Inspiration, Kiss, Drager, with some restrictions.
I'm sure some of the others will reply too, espcially those who actually own the units, but I hope that this is usefull even though it's from a non-owner.
Myself, I'd love to see someone prove me wrong about the running costs, as that would make justifying the cost of one to the misssus so much easier.
Best
Paul  |