Hi there!

Sorry about the delay, but finally are the pictures of our new BOV for the Pelagian DCCCR.

So what's the fuzz with yet another BOV? Don't we have plenty of them already? Sure we do, but after checking around I found that many divers had some issues with them including:

1 - Hard to operate the valve.
2 - Jaw fatigue.
3 - Can not look down to see gauges.
4 - Can not do a proper positive / negative leak check.
5 - Too small bore gives high WOB.
6 - Can not breathe properly from OC reg at deeper depth.
7 - Paying hard earned cash and still waiting for a BOV that likely will never arrive.

Soooo...(drum roll)...what I cooked up is something that should take care of most of the above issues and also offer some interesting additional features.

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First thing was to see if any decent breathing could be done with an oval membrane. Logically, a standard size membrane should work best, but using a large membrane means a relatively large BOV. As the 2nd stage sits inverted there is some assist by the water pressure once the valve has kicked in. This helped to keep things nice and compact. Looking down is easy and the whole thing is neutral in the water, so no jaw fatigue, (providing your loop hoses are some what neutral).

By keeping the DSV section as small as possible and still maintaining a large inner bore, the end result is the world's most compact BOV.

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Bob Howell used the same membrane but sitting in its host regs' normal position and using a non-balanced lever. The Pelagian BOV uses only the finest balanced ScubaPro S600 parts, no expense spared!

The first generation of our DSV used a 30 mm bore to keep WOB at bay. The barrel was machined to 0.02 mm tolerance from the DSV body to allow an o-ring less design. Unfortunately this approach did not really take care of point #1 and some weak characters could not operated the on/off valve without buddying up with Arnold Schwartzenegger or a big wrench. So after some fairly complex programming, a dedicated machine was set up to mill an o-ring groove on the barrel circumference. This means that even a tiny Japanese girl can operate the valve with relative ease. A bonus is that there is absolutely no leakage and you can do a positive / negative test over night. All things have their price and we had to give up 2 mm on the breathing bore, so now it is 28 mm. This is still a larger inner diameter than many currently available BOV's and DSV's and there is no noticable difference in WOB from our first generation.

The DSV and OC sections are separated. This means once you have bought your Pelagian DCCCR you will already have paid for nearly half, (DSV), and only need to fork up an additional half and a bit when you want to ad the OC section. Compare this with other popular RBs where you have to buy the whole thing only to scrap your standard DSV.

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A similar phenomenon happens when you want to ad the Draeger Panorama full face mask. You buy another complete DSV to fit the mask. On the Pelagian, you only remove 4 screws, pull out the standard mouthpiece plate and ad an optional P-plug plate, (double o-rings, no expense spared!), to fit your FFM.

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Currently this BOV is done so the DIL hose hooks up from your left shoulder. If you prefer right side hook up you can swing the 2nd stage body around as the interface is concentric, but you will then get the exhaust valves on the front. If you would prefer to have right side connection AND exhaust valves on the rear, just let me know and I can machine it that way. After a while I might do both versions as standard and then there is no additional lead time.

So how can you get this fantastic gadget? Easy. Just order it and it will arrive in less than a week. Currently we have limited stock, due to problems sourcing parts from ScubaPro. Next larger batch will be ready in the end of July.

How can you fit it to your RB? Easy. Just get rid of your current RB and buy the whole Pelagian! If you are deeply in love with what you are already diving then lets see: If you dive a Meg then the Pelagian BOV fits straight out of the box. If you dive a Prism, or any other RB with 40 mm spigots on the original DSV, then you can stretch the hoses a bit or buy a set of our fantastic hoses as they will fit your T-piece perfectly. If you dive some home build RB that uses Draeger Ray hoses our BOV will fit perfectly.

Depending on demand we might also start producing our BOV for the KISS and Inspiration / Evolution.

All the best,

Andy Fritz
REBREATHER LAB