Inspiration Vs Evolution: Pros & Cons of Each Please?

[wreckweasel]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

Hmmm... 2kg... 5hrs... f*** me!!!

Quit trying to get the price up... 2kg of nose candy, I ask you. Last week it was a pork pie (with ketchup mind). Well.. according to the toilet doors.

[Janos]

Originally Posted by wreckweasel

Quit trying to get the price up... 2kg of nose candy,

LOL, but it's 2kg of sofnolime, not nose candy. And only £3 for a "slime fill", whatever one of those is. The mind boggles...

Janos

[DaveB]

Clare & I have just dunked our shinny new Evolutions in Stoney to check them out - they are lovely toys, but I have a few questions. I have double posted this to the AP List, but realise not everyone reads that!

Question for Vision divers - is all this typical?

1. Both heads are quite stiff to remove, mine particularly. (It takes me a couple of minutes hard work and bruised fingers)

2. On two occasions after taking the black cage off the head to allow greater air circulation for drying I have had subsequent cell connection problems. Cured fairly easily by a quick rotation of the connector cap.

3. The threads cut into the head that hold the cells are agriculturally done at best. I have tidied up all the plastic swarf that was still there, but 2 of the threads are still a very tight fit.

Lessons learned.

1. The best way to tidy the temp stick lead is to stuff it back into the head, including the connector block. The remaining short lead lies on top of the scrubber without interfering with the head closing.

2. I can’t hear the buzzer with it curled up in the top of the case – but it does just fit at 90 deg to the ADV. (On an inspiration I had it on my right T piece – the Evo hose is too short for this.)

3. The case catches go on much easier if you push them on from the side rather than pulling the T piece over the hook.

4. Remember to undo the wrist display before taking the unit off (and walking away!)

[Baz]

Guys .... let me clear up the case of the 5hr scrubber thing posted here.

The unit belongs to me and yes it is a school unit but, it was not being used on a course, the student had his own unit and was not involved in the testing in any way.

The statement is correct but it needs to be explained. We had been testing the scrubber stick and wanted to get a better feel for the life of the scrubber. The unit is in Oz and as such the water temp is around 18 deg. The first test was held in shallow water (less than 20m) and the scrubber stick did not issue a primary scrubber alert until around 6.0 hours of shallow diving. The second test, which is the one mentioned was conducted in shallow and finally deep water. The last dive, the deep one pushed the scrubber over the edge, the unit issued the alert on the bottom at 50m. Upon ascent the graph receded back to what the unit classed as an acceptable level. The final test we did was all deep dives (50m) and the alarm was issued after 3 hours.

What we wanted to know and now indeed do, is that the stick is magic and I would trust it. I now can tell my students exactly that based upon experience. Which we have because we have dived the unit.

regards Baz

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Baz

The statement is correct but it needs to be explained. We had been testing the scrubber stick and wanted to get a better feel for the life of the scrubber. The unit is in Oz and as such the water temp is around 18 deg. The first test was held in shallow water (less than 20m) and the scrubber stick did not issue a primary scrubber alert until around 6.0 hours of shallow diving. The second test, which is the one mentioned was conducted in shallow and finally deep water. The last dive, the deep one pushed the scrubber over the edge, the unit issued the alert on the bottom at 50m. Upon ascent the graph receded back to what the unit classed as an acceptable level. The final test we did was all deep dives (50m) and the alarm was issued after 3 hours.

What we wanted to know and now indeed do, is that the stick is magic and I would trust it. I now can tell my students exactly that based upon experience. Which we have because we have dived the unit.

regards Baz

Very good points.

Even on the standard unit we are coming up from a dive and feeling where the cold front is on the scrubber to find out how used it is. After 4 hours on the standard unit I can tell you the front was just about 1/3 of the way up the stack on my unit after diving in 18c to 35-40m with 80+min BOTTOM times 110-120min run times on the first two dives.

The 5 hour duration of the Evo on shallow diving is born out by a fellow Evo diver who got that time out of his unit and completed a 50m dive on the end of the 5 hours. He is also an instructor and he also needed to know how the unit performs.

All trained CCR divers should know that the scrubber duration is temperature, C02 production/RMV, and depth dependent. I think the units were tested on a 40RMV @ 4c to give the 3 hour duration. That’s pretty tough conditions.

As a result I have dived with CCR divers pushing 5 -6 hours on the scrubber in warm conditions and obviously with much lower RMV's and CO2 production (The C02 production can be calculated based on 02 consumption). However they are just guessing how the scrubber is doing. The Evo / Vision temp stick actually tells you how the scrubber is doing for the same effect. Conditions will dictate how well the scrubber performs and its duration not a blanket figure of X hours.

This could be the end for all those gas munching CCR divers who no longer had to worry about RMV Now instead of Oh I can get two hours out of my twin set, it will be Oh I can get 5 hours out of my scrubber .

ATB

Mark Chase

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

Hmmm... 2kg... 5hrs... f*** me!!!

My ickle sidemount RB is 1.25kg, 70min rated life... I've pushed it to two hours but wouldn't like to do that too often. 2kg at 5hrs+??? No ta...

Slime fill, £3... an array of thermocouples from AP, £1000... a CO2 hit, priceless...

No I think it should be Hmmmmm 1.25kg... two hours ... f*** me!!!


Vision scrubber 2.45 Kg.... 3 hour rated
Evo Scrubber 2.00 Kg.... 2 hour rated

A drop of 0.45kg reduced the rating by 1 hour. So what do you think the reduction of 1.20Kg will do to the scrubber duration figures?

As I understand it The Kg of lime does not represent a linier reduction in scrubber time. Its all about dwell time through the stack and surface area of sofnalime exposed to the C02.

At a glance, Pushing a 1.25kg scrubber to two hours seem right up there with pushing a 2kg scrubber to 5.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Tim Wright]

Most of this all seems to be covered so it really comes down to personal choice. A group of 10 recently all got their units, one classic inspiration, 8 inspirations with vision electronics and one Evo....Our group of 8 all decided on the inspiration for the main reasons as follows....

1. Longer scrubber duration
2. 3L bailout onboards are sufficient for alpinist diving AND inflating wing and suit, with a bit of gas spare for the odd lift bag
3. We will be gas diving them next year, felt it more necessary for 3L cylinders

I have a fully loaded unit (trimix enabled and scrubber monitor). Some will blurb on about duration, I know of someone who got 6 hours on an evo, but this was in warm water and nice relaxed diving conditions (Red Sea). I recently dived mine in the UK, got 3hrs 10 minutes and the scrubber warning appeard. It was a calculated dive and I was expecting this to happen so well prepared for it and carried out a drill for it, on ascending the alarm went and the scrubber gave me "some back", i.e. cancelling the alarm.

If you are going to travel, dive in nice warm waters and not push the duration, an evo is a superb tool. If you feel you want the extra bit of duration or not having to change the scrubber so often, go for an Inspiration. As a matter of interest I got a full weekends club diving, 4 dives, all around 40 minutes in length and didn't have to change the scrubber. Another consideration, for just 0.45kg sofnolime more (i.e. around 20%) you get 3 hours, for the evo you get 2 hours on 2kg. That over time would be more expensive to run should you be looking at long term costs.

At the end of the day you pay your money and take your choice. Wait for the new style case on the inspiration, it will be well worth it. Whatever you choose, you won't be disappointed. CCR has changed my view and wished I'd bought one YEARS ago.

Good luck.