Want To Buy: Hookah Diving Rig

[paccrest]

Looking for a Hookah diving rig to use on my 45' sailboat for shallow water diving and bottom maintenance. If you know of any out there please hit me up.
Bret
SV Liahona

[fstbttms]

Gas or electric?

[skipmac]

You can get one from these guys. Maybe not the cheapest but good gear and they've been making them for a long time.

Brownie's Third Lung Diving, Hookah Surface Supplied Air Systems |

[Strait Shooter]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Gas or electric?

Electric.....

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Strait Shooter

Electric.....

Are you answering the question for the original poster or making a suggestion?

[lorenzo b]

Go to home Depot, get a nail gun compressor ( oil free ) with teflon piston rings, 100 ft of hose, and a secondary breather for a scuba outfit.
$300 mas o menus

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by lorenzo b

Go to home Depot, get a nail gun compressor ( oil free ) with teflon piston rings, 100 ft of hose, and a secondary breather for a scuba outfit.
$300 mas o menus

You can get by with a cheap-o Home Depot, Chinese-built POS oilless compressor, but your suggestion that he buy pneumatic tool hose to use as breathing hose is a dangerous one. You should never use anything but food-grade (Grade E) breathing hose in any surface supplied air system.

[fjwiley1]

fstbttms is litterally "dead-on" about proper breathing hose...

[mikereed100]

I just put one of these together using this compressor:
Sears.com


I was worried that it would be too small but it seems to work fine. It's lightweight, easy to stow and will run off my 1000watt inverter. I use the hookah for bottom cleaning only. Don't think I'd trust it for anything else.
You can get 225 psi food-grade hose online for cheap if you shop around. Most dive shops will sell you a used regulator. Ebay is a good source as well.

It ain't rocket surgery but you do have to be careful to use an oil-less compressor and the right hose. Just the other day I saw a guy cleaning his bottom using a vacuum cleaner for the air supply!

If you are planning on using it for diving you are better off getting one of the commercial units from Brownie or Airline. Talking with those who have them, it sounds like they usually just end up gathering mold in the bilge.

[paccrest]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Gas or electric?

Honestly, not sure yet. Probably electric.

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by mikereed100

I just put one of these together using this compressor:
Sears.com


I was worried that it would be too small but it seems to work fine. It's lightweight, easy to stow and will run off my 1000watt inverter. I use the hookah for bottom cleaning only. Don't think I'd trust it for anything else.
You can get 225 psi food-grade hose online for cheap if you shop around. Most dive shops will sell you a used regulator. Ebay is a good source as well.

It ain't rocket surgery but you do have to be careful to use an oil-less compressor and the right hose. Just the other day I saw a guy cleaning his bottom using a vacuum cleaner for the air supply!

If you are planning on using it for diving you are better off getting one of the commercial units from Brownie or Airline. Talking with those who have them, it sounds like they usually just end up gathering mold in the bilge.

Any health concerns using a rig like this. I mean long term not drowning.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

Any health concerns using a rig like this. I mean long term not drowning.

There is nothing special about the compressors used in any commercially-available, recreational-level hookah. They are all oilless compressors originally designed for another purpose. As I mentioned earlier, you can get by with a cheap, Chinese-built compressor like the one pictured. The main differences between that compressor and the U.S.-built ones used by Brownie's and Air Line are quality of manufacturing and durability. But any oilless compressor is probably going to provide safe air.

[TacomaSailor]

"Talking with those who have them, it sounds like they usually just end up gathering mold in the bilge"

We spent two years cruising Western Mexico with several boats owned by professional divers or dive instructors. One couple had used their boat for many years in the Caribbean as a dive charter boat and was very well setup for recreational diving. Another boat was owned by a guy who used to be a dive instructor for a shop in SoCal. A third boat also had a compressor and tanks and both owners were certified instructors.

I only saw those three boats put on the tanks and dive twice during the two years we spent cruising together.

But - we snorkeled together almost daily, sometimes for three or four hours at a time. We all shot, while snorkeling, most of the meat we ate. All the folks who had scuba gear could easily free dive to 35 or 40 feet and found no need to use scuba gear.

I had planned on getting my scuba certifications but after seeing how much interesting stuff was within a free dive - I decided to just keep my mask and fins.

I cleaned the bottom and prop every 10-days with just a mask, fins, and snorkel and it only took me about an hour. We removed a stuck Maxprop and replaced it with a fixed prop using only snorkels.

Just my observations as a non-certified diver whose wife is still trying to talk him into a Hooka.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by paccrest

Honestly, not sure yet. Probably electric.

Know that most electric compressors powerful enough to provide comfortable underwater breathing in a hookah rig are going to draw 10+ amps AC. So you need to be able to provide that, if you are going to use it away from shorepower.

[ontherocks83]

Any suggestions for weights or buoyancy control when using a hookah so you're not constantly fighting getting pulled to the surface?