Testing of the Drager-KISS CCR
Starting out I spent about an hour at the bottom of a 10
foot deep pool, using only 2cf (56Liters) of oxygen. I noticed that while resting, no motion at
all, the PP02 in the breathing loop stayed exactly the same, I had to fix some
leaks in the hoses and my BC Schrader valve but no other problems. I began to dive the unit in open water
keeping to the shallow end of the pond (
My last dive on this
unit was a trimix decompression dive down to 178 fsw. I planned the dive to 200 but stopped short,
as the wall I was on ended and would have required a horizontal swim or a
shovel to get deeper and I was too busy monitoring the unit to deal with
navigation or digging. Still the unit is
perfect, I need to get more time on it so that everything is second nature,
bailouts are no problem as I have many hours on the breather as a SCR and that
helps buoyancy too. In addition to the
rebreather and all my normal diving stuff, I carried a 46cf cylinder of EANX
50. in the event of a loop failure, I could switch to my bailout reg at depth,
going to a OC deco schedule slate I carried, breathe the diluent up to 70 fsw
and then switch to the EANX 50 for the balance of deco and ascent. I have only once had to bail out from my breather
when it was SCR and then it was due to the breakthrough of the scrubber. This was on my 5th open water dive
on the SCR during training and I wanted to know the sensation of high C02, so
we went diving with only about 20 min left on the canister and planned a short,
shallow dive to allow an encounter with hypercapnia. In retrospect it would have been easier and
safer to do this test on the surface with an empty scrubber and that is the
test I recommend for new rebreather divers.
We all learn one way or another and I’m not afraid to admit my
mistakes. I have a friend who is running
a dive charter every Wednesday so I will get to play on the unit more
often. I will keep updating this site as
I gain time on it.
18Mar03
I just returned home
from a 4 day technical dive trip aboard the Nautilus Explorer. I dived my CCR Dolphin 5 times on this trip
and had no problems with it at all. Now
my drysuit, that’s another story. My deepest
dive is now 216 FSW and the unit preformed very well, the work of breathing
starts to pick up after about 185 FSW but is not difficult. I slowed my exertion and breathed slow and
deep to compensate. The balance is very
good with the new backplate and harness
and I float slightly head high. I
am carrying a 46 cf bottle of bailout gas, nitrox 50%. I have a second stage reg fitted to my
diluent supply ( a 19cf bottle) that will allow me a few breaths while
ascending to a depth where the 50% mix is useful. The Explorer computer allow a switch to OC
and can continue to calculate my deco from there. I have settled on a diluent supply of trimix
10/50, that is 10% oxygen, 50% helium, and 40% nitrogen. The function of the rebreather is such that I
can blend my own gas as I dive, and have the appropriate mix for the depth I am
at. The helium keeps narcosis at bay and
as I ascend and make stops, I bump the 02 add button to keep the mix around the
1.0 PP02 setpoint. When I reach 30fsw
during deco, I bump the 02 up to 1.4-1.6 ATA and speed decompression and off
gassing of the HE and N2. At 20fsw, I purge the loop to 100% 02 and stay on
that for the balance of my deco and also for a few minutes after exiting the
water, remember that you are still off gassing and 02 is going to help
that. The 0 fsw stop is in some ways the
most important one. Keep exertions to a
minimum and stay on that 02 as long as you can, gas is cheap and just because
you did everything according to the rules, doesn’t mean you wont get bent. The only way you can guarantee not getting
bent is to stay out of the water.
The trip itself was a kick in the
arse. The boat roster read like a who’s
who in the rebreather world. Guys like
Dave Hancock ,diving an Innerspace Megalodon CCR, Leon Scamahorn who invented
the Meg along with Steve Stollen his software engineer, Gordon Smith, inventor
of the KISS rebreather and his wife, Kim, Dr. Greg Grant, a hyperbaric
physician also on a KISS RB, Bruce
Partridge diving a CCR 2000, Ken Rymel, on his Inspiration. The trip had 23 divers in all, I counted 4
KISS units, 5 Drager Dolphins including my CCR Dolphin, 5 Inspirations, and 4
Megalodons, 1 CCR 2000, one diver on
twins and 3 open circuit single tank divers who spent most of the time
wondering what the heck the rest of us nuts were up to.
2Jan04
Another year has
passed and my CCR Dolphin has not let me down, I have only aborted one dive in
the last year with a possible CO2 hit onset, hit the water in a fast current
with a couple hours already on the scrubber, made it to the bottom without
getting blown too far from the anchor line and just felt like crap, stayed down
for about 10 min trying to catch my breath and finally hand over handed it back
to the anchor line and called the dive, tore the unit down, replaced the
scrubber and got back in about 20 min later and everything fine. Lesson
learned, don’t push the scrubber duration.
Nuff said.
Earlier this year I
had the pleasure to be on a week long technical dive trip led by John McDougal of
A&M Aquatics from
There were 17 helium
cylinders on board and 23 oxygen cylinders, a custom mixing panel and Barnacle
Bill to do all the blending and topping off of tanks. We had
Multiple oxygen and helium analyzers, and John had even hired a DMT or Dive Medical
Technician to be on board and diving with us.
The diving was great,
visibility awesome, and the animal and invertebrate life was thick. In the agemenmon channel, we dove to find the
largest soft coral formations most of us have ever seen, great candelabras up
to 6 feet wide and cloud sponges larger than that. We did two dives on the Gulf Stream, a ferry
boat that sunk in 1947 after running aground on Dinner Rock and resting between
140 and 185 fsw, nice dive to penetrate, as most of the deck planking is gone,
only the complete keel and deck bracing are still there. Kinda like diving in a framed in building. The only dark part of the trip was our DMT, Darrin,
got bent after a 250 foot trimix dive with about 40 minutes of deco. We got him evacuated to VGH and into the
capable hands of Dr. Greg Grant, a hyperbaric doctor and good friend of mine
where he took a few rides in the chamber and is doing much better now. Apparently an undeserved hit as he had
followed his tables to the letter and had no other predispositions that he knew
of. Goes to show ya, it could happen to
anyone.
My deepest dive that
week was to 300 fsw with a total run time of 64 minutes, I carried two sling
cylinders for bailout but never had to use them, the RB preformed perfectly, my
explorer dive computer never even hiccupped and I didn’t have to consult my
bailout tables at all. I logged over 10
hours of BT in a weeks diving with only one dive being less than 200 fsw. Im calling the CCR Dolphin a capable
machine. There are really no other
things I need to do with it, so now what am I going to do with my spare
time? Maybe aquire a new RB and play
with it. HEheheh. Dive Safe