Paolo build himself a very nice simple low cost oxygen rebreather
Paolo lives in Trieste and made a visit to me last summer in 2008, talking about Pirelli’s and homebuilt units. After his visit he send me several emails and even Pirelli spare parts for my collection! This page will not be the last we hear about Paolo. He is now in the progress to restore his fathers Pirelli oxygen rebreather. In the mean time he bought a OMG rebreather. But this page is about his “little red home made rebreather”, a nice example how to build a nice diving apparatus with little materials and money!
Paolo test dived the unit in the swimming pool of his friend who also owned an old water pit. For his friend the 3 meters of depth were a true problem, but not for Paolo. Together with the family they dived the pit. He took all precautions for a safe dive and managed to reach the bottom. There he found a 94 years a German WW1 and a Italian WW1 helmet on the bottom! An incredible find! Paolo dives his rebreather also in Croatia. The use of containing the small rebreather. In the water he then unfolds the rebreathers and enjoy the dive without bubbles! I hope you like these pictures as much as I do.
Paolo promised me to show me the progress of the old Pirelli unit. To be continued.. 😉
First published in Januari 2009
Paolo, thank you for our conversation and your visit in the Netherlands. Your mall rebreather looks nice and it must be fun to dive it! Don’t get caught by the Milicia using your dangereous oxygen device underwater without bubbles 😉
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!