Although I'm a freediver, I went to the bbooth and have to say, if I had to dive any Rebreather, this would be the one I would want. It looks straight forward and the size was smaller than I expected.
I own Poseidon Regs and if this unit is in any way designed like my regs, this will be the shiznit for rec tech diving - at a price that is less than many CCR's on the market.
Price? What price did you hear, because I have heard it was going to be close to $15,000 / unit.
Hopefully that is a false rumor, because I would love to get my hands on a few rebreathers eventually. Maybe I will have to take out a 2nd mortgage.
The Cis-Lunar Mark 6 Discovery CCR will be about $5800. The old Cis-Lunar Mk 5P was about $15K 15 or so years ago.
I am going to get one for dive travel.
Wow,
$5800 is still a lot of money by most of our standards ( I think at least) and whatever I buy, I have to buy two of as my wife is my dive buddy. Unfortunately it is going to be some time before I am able to come up with about $12,000 to invest in dive gear, plus the costs of certifications needed and supplies.
It would be a great thing to have, that's for sure.
Humm....buy a dive boat or 2 rebreathers? <----That's me thinking!
$5800 is actually a great price for a quality RB, you won't find anything comparable to it for under $7000 right now. When you start saving Ace, don't forget about your instruction, consumables, and spares; that will push the total costs up significantly, at least doubling your investment.Originally Posted by acelockco
Well back to reality for me. Guess I will be using scuba cylinders for a while longer. I really would LOVE to have or even try out a rebreather, but I just can't afford that kind of money right now. I just got married and bought a house, so unfortunately rebreathers are not at the top of the list of things I need to spend money on.
A spare set of 2 sensors should set you back $200-$250, and sofnolime is about $150 for 44 lbs, which will last about 40 hours of diving.
My Inspiration with Vision electronics is about $10,000, so $5800 for a fully closed circuit is a real bargain.
Keep in mind you can still dive recreational profiles with any CCR, but only the more compact ones like the Mark 6 make it feasible, so that means you do not have to wait to buy her one, lol.
I am contemplating taking an instructor course so as to be able to train new divers on the Mark 6 for the shear fun of it.
Of course the more instructors that are out there and the more new rebreathers made mean more divers having access to use this stuff. It is a great thing for diving, as it will only drive the prices for the gear down. Eventually rebreathers will be right in line with dry suits; expensive but something your average diver could afford if they really wanted it.
When I started diving, I never saw a diver with a rebreather. Now I see at least one of them on most of the boat dives I do. We even see them pop up at the quarries from time to time.
P.S. Now that your Inspiration is going to be replaced with a newer, better and less expensive unit what happens to the value of your Inspiration? Maybe I should start thinking about a used Inspiration?
Cis-Lunar Mk VI Photos
Ok, here are the photos I took of the new Cis-Lunar Mk VI Discovery rebreather designed for new divers to start straight into rebreathers and skip open circuit altogether.
Their below dive surface valve/ bailout valve (DSV/BOB) is the lightest and smallest DSV/BOV I've seen and handled. The 2nd photo is where the Juergensen Marine vibrating/LED Heads Up Display DIVA is.
Their below po2 controller and integrated dive computer is a masterpeice of engineering. I really liked the flexible, small gauge wire going to it, as well as how thin and light it was. There are two of these on the Mk VI.
There will be a technical version for us techies.
We've interviewed both Dr. Bill Stone and Dr. Richard Pyle about the Mk VI and future plans. We shot the interview in HDV. The HDV video is in post right now.
We have video footage of the cad-cam 3D animation drawings of the hydrophobic membrane scrubber as well as Dr. Stone, in no uncertain terms, said it was a hydrophobic scrubber suitable for lithium hydroxide and such will be an option.
Some other interesting things in the video were they took the concept of the Mk VP's manual diluent puffer across the cell faces and incorporated that concept into the Mk VI, but it is done automatically by micro-solenoids that present the gas to the cell face in the form of a vortex. They said ongoing cell validation consumes just a few CC's of gas each time so it is insignificant from a gas use standpoint.
I was assured repeatedly on camera by both Stone and Pyle that neither would have gotten involved had there not been a master plan for a subsequent tech version. Stone said this will most likely have two heads for redundancy.
From a marketing concept, what they have done is spot on with an entry level version to develop a market base and generate sufficient numbers.
Their compact DSV/BOV is an engineering masterpiece, using Juergensens DIVA HUD mounted horizontally at the top of the unit.
The unit shown at DEMA was a working prototype, the injection mold resins will be different, the hoses and ends will be different, etc.
Getting Dr. Stone and Dr. Pyle involved on the project was quite the coup on the part of DP Scandinavia, and DP has the significant capital for continued development.
Those naysayers on the MkVI really need to watch the video when it is ready.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
