Re:We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?
by nradov on Wednesday August 29, 2018 @02:31PM
(#17870487)
As a scuba diver I often use >2000 liters of helium on a single open circuit deep dive. I feel kind of bad about wasting a (mostly) non-renewable resource but with rebreathers still being expensive and dangerous there isn't any good alternative.
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Re:We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?
by benzofuran on Wednesday August 29, 2018 @06:40PM
(#17872709)
You’re doing high percentage trimix deco dives and still see rebreathers as dangerous?
Re:We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?
by nradov on Wednesday August 29, 2018 @07:37PM
(#17873001)
Yes there's a lot more that can go wrong with rebreathers. Open circuit is much more forgiving. As long as you can breathe you can stay alive. No single mistake will kill you and there are multiple opportunities to fix any problem. Whereas with a closed circuit rebreather there are failure modes which are essentially "silent" (or at least easy to overlook in a stressful situation) that can kill you quickly. Most rebreather deaths involve some sort of diver error, but I don't trust myself to be perfect every time.
Re:We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?
by benzofuran on Friday August 31, 2018 @06:46PM
(#17889063)
I’d recommend giving them a shot - I honestly feel way better after rebreather deco than OC. Portable gas blending is awesome.
If you’re using a rebreather properly and have sufficient bailout, they’re pretty reliable these days. You can switch to OC for sanity breaths if you see an issue and use the draeger ball-gag mouthpiece if you’re concerned about O2 hits.
Re:We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?
by wallstquant on Wednesday August 29, 2018 @10:26PM
(#17873708)
If we ever get fusion it should produce he as a byproduct. So dive away and pray for fusion to come someday.