Joel Seymour IDA71 Kiss rebreather

Joel build a Kiss rebreather from a Russian IDA71

I have squeezed in twin 2l tanks into this design to give a flexible rig for open water diving. This is the bastard-child of Dave Sutton’s Son-of-Franken Rig with some additions/modifications. The heart of the system is Gordon Smith’s KISS injector, plumbed in green. I should mention it is all colour coded, green=oxygen, blue = diluent, yellow=bailout and black for anything else. Size was not as much of a consideration as with other IDA-71 units as the aim was to make a flexible unit which could run over a weekend without refilling and capable of safe descents to 200 ft.

I added  in a straight gas block with 1/4″ ports under the breathing bag (single bag design) with nine ports. The gas block is supplied via a gas switch on  the lower right of the device allowing everything inside the rig to be run off inboard or off board gas. The switch itself is pointing towards my back through the casing and I have to reach behind me to switch the lever. This allows me to switch gases easily but the switch cannot switch by being hit on something while diving.

One last modification was fitting a pair of OMS manifold protectors as ‘feet’ which protect the protruding manifolds and allow the unit to stand up easily for donning and storage. I just recently ‘clipped’ the feet so they do not rub on the back of my legs anymore. The stainless steel protectors will also allow me somewhere to mount an ass-mount bailout bottle should I want to in the future.

Oxygen is monitored by a dual sensor through a P-port of  Dave Sutton’s ‘Shop of Horrors’ and a VR-3 is used for decompression monitoring. The DSV is from Gordon Smith, his new integrated bailout device which works beautifully and will accept a ‘snog valve’ if I ever get around to wanting to install one. The harness is a DiveRite Transpac II which fits very nicely via a quick release mechanism (not shown) to the shell. I can use the same harness for CCR and OC with very little time to switch. I feel diving the same harness configuration in both types of diving adds to my familiarity of the equipment and adds to safety.

The system is a fully closed manual CCR with dual diluent and integrated bailout which can be run off either on-board or off-board gas for maximum flexibility to dive the widest possible range of different profiles without needing to modify the machine in-field.

Shell stripped before conversion

Inside of the lid with trim weights (10 lbs)

Hose arrangements inside the casing before breathing bag re-installed.

CMF valve

Off-board gas connection, quick release routed from gas block. 

Gordon Smith’s excellent DSV/Bailout

Square scrubber canister and tanks without the breathing bag

OMS Manifold protectors as feet

Rig ready to go

Testing the rig at the Blue Lagoon

Hose extensions

Thanks Joel for sharing your modifications!