New Dive Rite RB

[NotDeadYet]

Hi Folks,

the new Dive Rite RB was launched at DEMA and there is a phot report of it at www.therebreathersite.nl

Odd looking beastie, uses Extendair cartridges and has the Hammerhead built in as an OEM system. Front mounted lungs sadly, I would have thought as Dive Rite traditionally pitch towards the cave market they would have done backmounted lungs. Only a 3.5hr scrubber too.

No sign of a price but I wouldn't imagine it was cheap if it uses the Hammerhead.

[KISSer]

Saw that on the RB list - it's an odd looking beastie. Using a lot of OTS components may help them pass the liability buck around a bit and should also keep the R&D costs down for them, so maybe the price tag won't be too bad... in the US at least.

I hope someone is going to take the HH production in house if they want any sort of volume out of this too - at the moment it seems as if KJ hand crafts each one (and seems to then hand repair each one too ).

It'll also be interesting to see what they do for cyls outside the US - the pix all have 4Ls(?) that fit neatly under the scrubber but looks like 3's would be banging your Rse the whole time.

Still, another entrant into the market can't be bad.

[NotDeadYet]

It would be good to see some more. I'm surprised that no more of the bigger players have gotten into it. I wonder what frightens them more, the liability aspect of a rebreather accident or the damage it does to their image? Apart from AP, none of the big manufacturers have anything to offer in the CCR market. Aqualung pulled the plug on the Apeks rebreather (which was very nice) and everyone else is pretty much one man band outfits. A company with the tooling abilities and resources of Apeks would have been a perfect manufacturer, I can't imagine there was much they couldn't do in house. Maybe we would have seen a better value unit? I'm not knocking the Inspiration but can't help thinking that a lot of what you are paying for is the paperchase APD had to go through to get it on the market rather than the unit's components. I remember when the prototypes were knocking about and they reckoned £1800 at most for it.

Sorry for rambling, bored at work...

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

Front mounted lungs sadly, I would have thought as Dive Rite traditionally pitch towards the cave market they would have done backmounted lungs.

I suspect this is down to wanting to make the CE rating for WOB as currently we are the mass market. AP have pioneered the route here and proved that you can sell thousands but the 'not invented here' attitude in the USA means that it will take quite a while for a home market to build up.

Anyhow, I like my counterlungs where they are. If I want a flush I can hug myself and flatten them out rather than having to suck them down. I certainly prefer their water-trap function to be below the scrubber. They are no more intrusive than my old BCD and if you don't have gauges clipped off at your waist why do you need a clear front?

nigelH

[apitkin]

I guess they've gone for over-the-shoulder counterlungs to make it easier to purge water from the loop - an important safety feature in a cave (and on wrecks etc...) and they are a cave-diving orientated company. And yet they've put the scrubber at the top, which won't help the diver into the feet-up trim you need in a cave.

There's an interesting discussion about this (and a lot of other good stuff in the same thread) on TDS:

http://thedecostop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3853

I recall I heard a rumour the price was going to be $6-7k, but I could be confabulating. I know someone who works at Dive Rite - I'll see if I can dig up anything more.

Mind you, the scooter still hasn't shown any signs of being available, and that was at last year's DEMA.

What we really need is for them to produce a nice compact side-mount rebreather that we can use for bail-out or on its own in a cave.

Andy

[narked at 90]

Originally Posted by apitkin

I guess they've gone for over-the-shoulder counterlungs to make it easier to purge water from the loop - an important safety feature in a cave (and on wrecks etc...) and they are a cave-diving orientated company. And yet they've put the scrubber at the top, which won't help the diver into the feet-up trim you need in a cave.

There's an interesting discussion about this (and a lot of other good stuff in the same thread) on TDS:

http://thedecostop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3853

I recall I heard a rumour the price was going to be $6-7k, but I could be confabulating. I know someone who works at Dive Rite - I'll see if I can dig up anything more.

Mind you, the scooter still hasn't shown any signs of being available, and that was at last year's DEMA.

What we really need is for them to produce a nice compact side-mount rebreather that we can use for bail-out or on its own in a cave.

Andy

hi andy if you havent seen duncan's side mount rebreather already take a look at www.sump4.com i can tell you it's a great piese of kit and works very well! duncan prise is on here just give him a shout.. best regards john routley

[Digger]

Second that. Send him an e-mail, I'm sure he'd be happy to show it to you, but you won't get him in the sea mind. I only managed to get a provisional sea dive because of the amount of ferreting about I'd promised on a wreck in Dover!

Digs.

[Mark Chase]

I took a look at the unit and it looks awful. I particularly don’t like the horizontal scrubber that forces the diver to only use extend air cartridges. Not good for travel. The location of the 02 sensors is suspect as well. Surely they will get too wet like that??

If your going to make a CCR to be better than the new YBOD then it has to be chock full of redundancy and safety features, MK15.5 or the Oriborous or OH so simple and light like the KISS & Travel KISS. For the money the InspirationII takes some beating. The standard unit is cool too but sadly let down by the house brick handsets.

Front clutter is the price you pay for WOB. Is does keep you warm though? Unlike Nigel I find loads of problems. I cant see my equipment, torch head, reels, stages when I look down and I struggle to reach across the two lungs to get to my shoulder dump for the dry suit or any other equipment on the opposing side of the unit. NOT good if you have lost the use of an arm.


ATB

Mark Chase

[Duncan Price]

Originally Posted by apitkin

What we really need is for them to produce a nice compact side-mount rebreather that we can use for bail-out or on its own in a cave.

Would you like to place an order?

BTW the Megladon is being modded as a sidemount unit.

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

Front clutter is the price you pay for WOB. Is does keep you warm though? Unlike Nigel I find loads of problems. I cant see my equipment, torch head, reels, stages when I look down and I struggle to reach across the two lungs to get to my shoulder dump for the dry suit or any other equipment on the opposing side of the unit. NOT good if you have lost the use of an arm.

I'll give you the dump being hard to reach, more so the slide valve on the ADV - 'close' is OK being grab and pull but 'open' is a pig.
I clip reels to the D-rings on the wing so they're out of sight anyway. Stages are waist and the outside clip on the harness at nipple height and I've always done them blind even on the twins. I would like a fixed replacement to the inside and outside rings but I haven't come up with a plan yet.
The counterlungs don't give me a problem seeing - it's that loop hose that always seems to get in the way when I look down. Reading the contents gauges always seems to need one hand to depress the hose just a bit but that might be because it lines up beautifully with the bottom of the half lenses (distance vision) in my mask.
I can see into my waist pouch and manage the pockets on my thighs quite well but I guess that's straight down between the lungs and doesn't count.

nigelH