Buying The Best Rebreather

When you are interested in finding the best rebreathers it is a good idea to first do some research to learn more about these devices and how they work. Basically, rebreathers are sets of breathing equipment that have the duty of supplying the user with a breathing gas that contains a mixture of fresh oxygen and recycled exhaled gas. The recycling actually allows these devices to be more lightweight and smaller in size. Best of all is that it can be used in the same areas and for the same length of time as other more conventional open circuit breathing sets.

When shopping for the best rebreathers, you may want to search under different names. For example, in the armed forces they are more commonly referred to as CCUBA, which stands for Closed Circuit Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

The technology that these machines are based on can be used in a wide range of applications and environments, including but not limited to the following:
• Underwater where it is best known as a CCR and SCR. It can be easily distinguished from an Aqualung which works with an open circuit.
• For work in mine rescue when poisonous gasses may be present.
• In outer space astronauts use a variation of the rebreathers in space suits when there is no available source of oxygen.
• In hospitals they are used as anesthesia breathing systems to allow patients to breathe the gasses without them escaping into the atmosphere where they can be breathed by others.
• In submarines and hyperbaric chambers they are used to provide a fresh source of air to the habitat.

Dräger Ray Rebreather

Photo by Lars Plougmann

In order to purchase the best rebreathers for you, it is important that you acquaint yourself with the many different types that are currently available on the market. The oldest type is the oxygen rebreathers which were first used by navies. The main drawback of this device is that it only supplies oxygen. Although they are not used often in diving anymore they are still widely in use in many industrial applications. A more common choice these days for both military and recreational diving use are the semi-closed circuit rebreathers. They can last underwater for a much longer period of time and can even operate in greater depths.

Many consider the best rebreathers to be the fully closed circuit models because they do not produce any bubbles and can be used for incredibly long periods of time. They typically supply a mixture of two different types of gasses in a loop: oxygen and another gas in order to dilute it.

These devices will usually allow you to manually control the amount of oxygen and diluting gas that you are supplied with while using it. As too much oxygen can be dangerous, adding it manually can be quite risky.