Well sooner or later I was bound to chip in.
I've been diving an Azi for 18 months now, 150 hours maybe total.
Despite some of the comments above, I've found it to be a spot on bit of kit from an SCR perspective.
I've dived Draegers... all sorts and there are pro's and cons to both.
Since I've got the experience of the Azi (and I made the choice to go that direction) here's my tuppence worth.
Build Quality/design:-
Very good, full shell made from what appears to be structural Nylon... very robust and virtually unbreakable.
Mares 1st standard stages... good quality and any dive centre can arrange service. Never had a problem even at 35m in 5 degs of water in a muddy puddle in Leicesterhire...
All hoses are pretty much standard low pressure hoses, either 1st stage type of low pressure inflator hoses... spare available anywhere.
Radial Stainless scubber... the dogs danglies... you will not get better in an SCR (IMHO)
Mouthpiece, excellent design... one of the few that can be opened and closed single handedly (With one hand... not just by yourself!!! :teeth: )
The wing is on my opinion poorly designed, but is probably that shape (square) to stop it being trapped by the case.
The harness was the first thing I changed... didn't like the jacket style harness and went for a Custom Diver copy I made up myself.
Oh yes... and it's black... if that sort of thing appeal to you...
In Use:-
Scrubber and mouthpiece... see above.
Flow rate is infinitely adjustable so can be tuned to your metabolic rate (I tended to use mine and 6l per minute on 40%) No messing about with nozzels etc.
Built in second cylider for either bailout or longer duration (2 X 4l) gave me 200+ minutes of gas time.
Trim... comments right about the weighting of the system. Two steel cylinders make it bottom heavy... 2k of lead in the top soon fixes that. Had no problem with trim, with only 5kg on my belt for sea diving.
Weight... it is heavy... 27kg+ fully loaded... not much different to twin twelves.
WOB - due to the radial scrubber work of breathing certainly feels less than a YBOD or Dolphin
Duration - Some of the documentation gives a 5 hours scrubber duration but with 2.2kg of Sofno I'd take this with a pinch of salt... use your common sense!
Noise... on the surface it can honk like a goose (or bagpipes if you are that way inclined!!) Can be disconcerting and will get you funny looks. That being said there's no doubting that you've turned that gas on
Any noise disappears once below about 6m to to the exhaust rate deminishing.
Tools... best set of any tools with any SCR I've come across, flow meter etc serious quality.
All that being said... it is only an SCR.
For SCR it was my weapon of choice (You'll understand that terminology if you've seen the way I dive!!!!)
SCR is an introduction to rebreather diving and a sound footing for the foibles of bouyancy control etc with the simplicity of Nitrox rather than constant PPO2 and no electronics. (Although I wouldn't touch one without a FiO2 monitor of some sort) It has it's place... I get much more duration than out of my twin 12s once deeper that about 15m... I've quite happily done a full weekends diving on one fill of cylinders and scrubber)
I now dive almost exclusively YBOD and my shiney new Evo is waiting to get wet. Azimuth from my perspective is now a prime candidate for the Frankenstein treatment... since my homebuild is still just a pile of bits.
Oh and the point of the Nothern Diver prices... they don't have any... they dropped the price over a year ago to sell off their last two units... they sold very quickly. (If you can get one new for this price I'd say go for it... after all it's a simple matter of a Kiss or similar (Hydrogom) valve to close the unit
)
Waiting for the exocets to head my direction...
