What are the advantages of using a CCR?

What are the real advantages of closed circuit diving? With a sixty pound package, a diver can go out on a weekend boat trip or drop off on a remote island, and can spend several hours underwater. There is no need to carry hundreds of pounds of spare tanks or take a noisy compressor that takes forever to refill a tank. A dive boat can take a load of divers out to a remote dive sight with no more gear than a normal afternoon jaunt.

CCR SCUBA divers have a subtly advantageous ability to enjoy diving more than open circuit divers. A CCR diver doesn't worry about running out of gas. He or she is limited only by decompression. This too can be minimized by selecting a partial pressure of oxygen at 1.0 or 1.2, which virtually gives the diver limitless bottom times in 60 feet or less of water. In all practicality, a diver is not going to stay underwater over two hours at a time. Dehydration, fatigue, hunger, and attention span all come into play with bottom times extending beyond a couple of hours. So, for most shallow water diving, the rebreather diver has bottom times as long as he or she would wish for.

The CCR diver does not have a worry about overexerting or overworking the SCUBA equipment nearly as much as diving open circuit SCUBA. Worry about air consumption and overexertion eat at the open circuit diver.

The CCR diver easily adds helium to eliminate nitrogen narcosis, so the energy draining narcotic effects of depth never need occur.

Additionally, for the adventurous, closed circuit rebreathers extend the usable depth for SCUBA diving to several hundred feet.

Warm & moist air: This is due to the chemical reaction of the carbon dioxide being scrubbed out of the gas in the loop by the scrubber material. The by-product of this action is heat and moisture. This helps the diver to stay warmer and hydrated longer. The gas a diver breathes from an open circuit tank is “refrigerated” and will drop the diver’s core body temperature quickly.

Time: 3 hours of gas ( Unit specific) . With open circuit, the diver inhales the breathing gas and exhales what they do not use into the water column. With a CCR, the diver inhales the breathing gas and exhales what they do not metabolize. Then the gas that is not metabolized is recycled. As every lung full of gas goes much further, small cylinders can be used.

Silence: Dives are quiet and peaceful as there is no noise from regulators and bubbles. This allows the diver to get much closer to the wildlife and have a more relaxing experience.

Size of equipment: smaller than regular open circuit gear.

Best mix: The diver is always breathing the “best mix” at every depth. When diving open circuit nitrox, the diver is breathing the best mix when at the deepest part of the dive. With a CCR, the diver is breathing the best mix at all times, as he is controlling the amount of oxygen that goes into the breathing loop.

Trimix: Most units are trimix compatible. It is also affordable as only small cylinders need to be filled. This gives the diver an option to dive trimix on every dive, even on recreational dives.

What is a Rebreather?

Frequently Asked Questions on Rebreathers

CCR Rebreathers ( Close-circuit )

SCR Rebreathers ( Semiclose )

To view a Molecular Products declaration of SOFNOLIME transport class as non-hazardous.

To view the material safety data sheet (MSDS) for SOFNOLIME.

PADI and TDI Instructor and diver courses - Diver's Network - Subic, Manila, Anilao, Philippines.