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| A rebreather recycles rather than vents the exhaled breath. The exhaled breath passes into a closed loop, where it is pushed through a chemical absorbent (scrubber) to remove the carbon dioxide, and returns through the other side of the loop for the diver to re-breathe, hence the name "closed circuit rebreather" or CCR. One of the main advantages of RBs is efficiency, a CCR is at least 10 times more efficient than OC (open circuit), and, and even more efficient as you dive deeper because your need for oxygen does not change as you go deeper, the CCR only provides the O2 that you metabolize. On a CCR you can dive for an hour, at any depth, and only use 2-3 cubic feet of oxygen, compare that to your aluminium 80. As you can imagine your bottom times can be hours longer than with OC. You also stay warmer diving a RB. OC sucks heat out of you with every breath, you breathe in cold air, warm it with you lungs and then blow it out into the ocean, with a RB your warm breath comes back around again and again, and the chemical reactions in the scrubber canister are providing more heat too OC divers come back from a dive with dry mouths, along with the heat you exhale goes moisture, not so with RB, warm moist breaths are the rule here. RBs are also silent. Because there are no bubbles or noise you can now get video and stills that you never thought possible; marine life will not be startled by your OC system. |
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