Karl's Free Rebreather Resource Page
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
The information on this page and that which follows is NOT complete, NOT tested, NOT approved by any agency or organization and using it to actually build a rebreather COULD INDIRECTLY GET YOU KILLED.
Rebreathers are a form of technical diving equipment which come with significant risks. Many people, including REBREATHER INSTRUCTORS, have killed themselves using this equipment. Unlike regular scuba diving gear, you can be able to breathe even though there is no oxygen - or too much carbon dioxide - in what's going into your lungs. This usually results in you passing out without warning, and of course underwater that is immediately followed by a drowning - YOURS!
Electronic rebreathers are even worse in many ways, in that electricity and seawater - along with high oxygen content - don't really mix very well. You can get short circuits and other "fun" events, which can lead to the computer going haywire or even starting a FIRE in the equipment. YOU ARE LITERALLY SWIMMING AROUND WITH SOMETHING AKIN TO A BOMB ON YOUR BACK! If the resulting explosion from an "OOPS" does not kill you outright, the smoke from the fire almost certainly will - BEFORE you can burn to death in the underwater conflageration..
Then there are the usual risks associated with diving - sharks, air embolisms, "the bends", being trapped in a cave or wreck and running out of something to breathe, loss of visability, etc.
One simple form of a rebreather is a plastic bag you place over your head. You know what will happen if you do this.
It is harder to kill yourself with the plastic bag than it is with a rebreather - especially a home-built one!
In short, thc content here is NOT for the faint of heart, it is NOT recommended that you do ANY of this, and no, I am NOT going to help you commit hari-kari. If, despite all that, you choose to use any of the information on the following pages, you are accepting full responsibility for what you read and do.
NOTE THAT WHAT IS PRESENTED HERE IS NOT A COMPLETE, DIVEABLE DESIGN OR CONFIGURATION. It is merely one PART of such a configuration, which I am developing for my own use. Some of what is presented here are "back revisions" of what I am working on today. I am willing to answer questions from readers, but I cannot give you diving advice as a professional, because I am not one!
It is merely some of the PARTS which I have built for my own amusement, none of which have (yet) been in the water.