KISS YOUR DOLPHIN GOODBYE
Andrew Gay sent me his pictures about a Kiss Style CCR. Since this kind of conversions a very popular at the moment, I am happy to introduce you to his project. Have fun with Andrews story.
The following photos show approx 6 months of thought, Do It Yourself and how to throw a lot of Dräger bits away.
My KISS Dolphin consists of the following:
OMS bladder
Home made S/S backplate and harness.
Home made S/S chassis. The chassis incorporates two side channels for mounting the O2 and Diluent, also the bottom of the chassis doubles as a stand and a horizontal cylinder rack.
Dolphin shell
Dolphin breathing loop (c/lungs, hoses, scrubber and dosing head).
Gordon Smith KISS Valve and Swagelok micro filter.
2 x Dräger Oxy gauges
DS4 for 02 add
Poseidon for Diluent add and shallow bailout
It is years since I dived a standard piece of diving kit, I tinker until I get close to what I want. The various web discussions on rebreathers sparked my imagination. So I purchased a pre owned Dolphin with the sole aim of making a Manual Closed Circuit Rebreather.
What you now see is version MK 3. If I do a MK4 it will incorporate a VR3 and some form of drain in the c/lung.
So far I have dived in the sea and in freshwater to 35 metres, only using air as a diluent. Over the coming months I plan to extend my diving to 50 metres, incorporate normoxic trimix as a diluent and sling a side or back mount bailout.
The rig so far dives very well. Posture and balance in water is good – the more I dive the rig the better it feels.
I do not want to go back to Open Circuit!!
Credits
A very special thanks to Kerry and Dave – you know who you are!
Therebreathersite was founded by Jan Willem Bech in 1999. After a diving career of many years, he decided to start technical diving in 1999. He immediately noticed that at that time there was almost no website that contained the history of closed breathing systems. The start for the website led to a huge collection that offered about 1,300 pages of information until 2019. In 2019, a fresh start was made with the website now freely available online for everyone. Therebreathersite is a source of information for divers, researchers, technicians and students. I hope you enjoy browsing the content!