The KISS Rebreather.... (by Gordon Smith...)

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Gordon is a member of the Rebreather E-mail list who has sat quietly in the background lurking... Then one day I get this message... and Gordon tells me he has made his own rebreather and here's the pics....

Check out the latest on Gord's KISS Rebreather in a review by Steve Millard right here.

One Side...	The Other Side...

Gordon tells me that he is 47, has been diving since 1979 and has built 4 rebreathers... and in his words, "3 of them actually work!" He does much of his diving with his favorite dive partner, "Natasha" who was kind enough to double as the lovely model in the above pictures.

First dives...

	Here we have Gordon and Natasha only moments after her first rebreather dive!
And to the right... Bill Brooks on another of Gordon's rebreathers preparing for his first fully-closed dive.

Natasha's first rebreather dive, mothpiece in OC mode, rebreather circuit off. You can see the pO2 gauge on her left wrist.

Gordon's Rebreather History...

• Unit #1 - Gordon's first attemp at building a rebreather failed miserably.

• Unit #2 - was a reconfigurable semi-closed test bed unit which has since been retired.

• Unit #3 & #4 - are currently in use and are identical with the exception that #3 has 30 cubic ft. tanks and #4 has 13 cubic foot tanks. Unit 3 weighs 90 pounds with a steel backplate and unit 4 weighs 65lbs with a plastic backplate.
  
  Both units have split counter-lungs, 2-O2 sensors, OC bailout on mouthpiece plus a separate octopus. The units use an axial flow scrubber (2KG of Draegersorb). There is a demand valve regulator on the inhalation (left) side, and a the exhaust valve is a modified apex drysuit valve. *of special note, Gordon has a constant mass flow valve to let O2 into the loop at a rate slightly lower than the rate he metabolizes Oxygen. This gives him very long, slow, pO2 changes in the loop.

Many thanks to Gordon for sharing his efforts.

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Revised: September 07, 2005.
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