Rebreather running costs

[Slates]

My diving is taking me to the point where a rebreather looks sensible. I've done a try dive on both a red bare and AP unit and really enjoyed the experiences.

One thing that has got me stumped... servicing... this is slightly 'how long is a piece of string question' but those of you with units, how much do you spend (on average) servicing them each year?

[Paulo]

£250 a year for cells.

Service kits for regs when needed. O rings as needed.

Under £50 a year for me.

But then if you need an AP factory job done, ring the bank manager before you ring AP

[JonG]

Depends on the unit TBH, mine is self service apart from regs.

Actual additional costs would be cells and o-rings then any part that may have worn or failed.

BOV is o rings that i can do plus Apeks 2nd stage service.

[jturner]

My diving is taking me to the point where a rebreather looks sensible. I've done a try dive on both a red bare and AP unit and really enjoyed the experiences.

One thing that has got me stumped... servicing... this is slightly 'how long is a piece of string question' but those of you with units, how much do you spend (on average) servicing them each year?

Like Paulo said, cells are the killer cost unless you want to run them until they expire (I don't suggest that is a good idea by the way). My APD unit should be get the head serviced more often than it does but with care and TLC, I have kept it happy as larry for several years at a time (YMMV, and APD and others wouldn't recommend that). The regs need the odd tweak from time to time but a decent local service tech can do them easily enough. But cells are always expensive, always age and expire even when on the shelf, and cannot be serviced and trying to stretch them beyond their service life isn't wise at all.

[dwhitlow]

If you resist the temptation to upgrade (I didn't), and nothing expensive breaks, the largest cost is a replacement O2 sensor (~£60) every 3-4 months.

In 9 years of owning an Inspo my average annual servicing cost , including sensors and excluding upgrades (BMCL, G-box, 2020, independent PPO2 monitoring), has been around £300.

I've had two large bills and one was a cracked lid (it had been dropped onto concrete) and the other was a '5 year service' where I asked them to service everything and that included a replacement temp stick.

The consumable cost (lime, trimix, oxygen, batteries and air) is another £200-300 giving an annual total cost of around £500-600 for 60-100 dives, many of which would require trimix. To do the same dives on open circuit my gas bill would be more than that, my diving less rewarding, and I'd be forever chasing gas.

[dwhitlow]

But cells are always expensive, always age and expire even when on the shelf, and cannot be serviced and trying to stretch them beyond their service life isn't wise at all.

That is an area to never cut corners. The consequences of doing so range from missed dives to death!

I adopted a few simple rules:

- avoid cells from the same batch
- avoid changing more than one cell at a time
- replace a cell after 12 months in the unit
- never use a cell over 2 years old

I run 4 cells and every 3-4 months cell #4 is removed, the oldest is moved cell #4 and a new cell is fitted.

Before adopting the 4th cell I always carried a spare cell sealed from AP. Now I have the option of disconnecting, or just ignoring, any failed cell.

[Doomanic]

How are the Solid State cells that Poseidon developed doing? Anyone using them?

[witchieblackcat]

Imagine that every dive you do is on Nitrox. That's about the cost of the gas and lime. If you dive with helium then you can possibly divide your helium costs by between 5 and 10 depending on how expensive helium is for you.

Cells are £60 each as said above. I change mine annually and I do that religiously. I don't think I've ever had a failure (both APD 14s and 16s in five years (I mix and match depending on how I feel when I order).

My unit is serviced annually by a professional. It's about £200.

If you damage something or it just breaks or wears out (and you'd be surprised how quickly piezo buttons wear out) return to base costs can be steep. I've had nothing truly horrific but it's probably been £100 a year.

If you can get in with a group buy you can probably save £20 a tub on lime.

[WFO]

Running costs for me 1 cell every 6 month
Sorb £15 a fill per 6hrs
Oxy next to fk all, £8 a month to rent the J and maybe 3 cylinders a year but most of that's doing OC nitrox

£5 a year on O rings and a wipe of grease.


If any rebreather needs sending back to the manufacturer for some "random number generator" rip off servicing then it's overcomplicated

[NWdiver]

For me...

1x Cell every 4 months = £70 = £210 / year
Annual Servicing?? I have a Inspo so all of these massive bills should apply to me. They don't. Anything "plumbing" based can be serviced at home. Parts are cheap and manuals available from AP. The "electrical" bit is relatively small and the vision electronics are in general pretty reliable. I've sent my head back once for a service whihc resulted in a solenoid change.

I'd say £100-£200 / year is fair if you're regularly servicing 1st stages, MAVS, BOV etc. I tend to wait until they start playing up so I think I spend the lower end of that. If you still think it's a big deal, buy a unit that you can fix wit ha hammer.

So we'll say about £350 / year on relatively fixed costs. The rest is best worked out per hour.

Sofnalime = £70/20kg = £3.50/kg = £9.10/fill = £3/hour(ish)
O2 =£0.02/L =£2/hour at worst
Dil... Air is free. 16/40 probably costs me £9/fill. So up to about £3/hour
Batteries

£9/hour would be a good estimate for me.

50 hours a year would be £800/ year in total or £16 /hour.


In short... A fair bit more expensive than air diving. Much cheaper than mix diving. About the same as nitrox diving.

Most of my costs are still due to diesel / hotels / boat fees / beer.


But... that's not like for like. None of that factors in that, for me, OC required a 4 hour round trip to get anything more exotic than air. CC means a twinset of banked diluent at home and a hired BOC o2 cylinder.