Hookah power gas vs battery

[RDW]

I am going to staying on my boat for a 15 month period and I think I want a hookah type unit. I would like to have it to be able to work in the boat but more for recreational exploring. I will be one of 4 adults on a sail boat (46 foot).
The gas powered unit has more power and runs longer and supports more divers. Gas means carrying an explosive fuel and caring for a gas engine. Battery has weight, less time on a dive, probably easier to maintain.
I am looking for any advice, especially from anyone with direct experience.
My considerations are what is easiest to use, followed but weight and space, followed by cost.
Thanks in advance.
RDW

[a64pilot]

One diver at a time, or a max of two?
Diving from big boat or dinghy?

If one or max two divers, and from big boat, I'd go with an electric compressor, I use an oil less of course 120V compressor, not a Hooka, I use one of my second stage regs and bought a hose meant for breathing air.
If you want several divers down at a time and or want to do it from the dinghy, I'd say go with a self contained gas powered compressor. An issue you will need to deal with is corrosion though, it's not so bad if you leave the compressor on the big boat

Oh electric will be easier of course, cheaper and cost less, plus there is the very real possibility that you can get the exhaust of the gas motor into the breathing gas supply on a gas powered one, so you have to be careful with that, especially if you

[RDW]

more recreational exploring, floating unit or in dinghy, away from the sail boat, up to 4 adults
RDW

[Fiveslide]

I would be terrified of a gas engine, that produces toxic exhaust, pumping the air I'm meant to breathe. How do these gas powered hookahs prevent pumping fumes into the air hoses? Are they safe, is my fear irrational?

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[HopCar]

To support four divers at the same time, I don't think battery power is going to be an option. Weight of the batteries is just going to get ridiculous if you want to operate out of a dinghy.

[denverd0n]

Aren't you carrying gas for your dinghy already? So a little more gas, and one more gas engine, doesn't seem like any big deal to me. Like others have said, I don't think a system that can support four divers is going to last a usefully long time on battery power (unless you are carrying one darned big battery!).

To Fiveslide... People have been using gas-powered hookah systems for decades. Properly designed, they are quite safe.

[captlloyd]

Originally Posted by Fiveslide

I would be terrified of a gas engine, that produces toxic exhaust, pumping the air I'm meant to breathe. How do these gas powered hookahs prevent pumping fumes into the air hoses? Are they safe, is my fear irrational?

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Nothing to be terrified of. The compressor air intake needs to have a long enough piece of tubing on it to make sure the air being taken in is far enough from the engine exhaust. Not hard to do but definitely something that has to be managed.

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by Fiveslide

I would be terrified of a gas engine, that produces toxic exhaust, pumping the air I'm meant to breathe. How do these gas powered hookahs prevent pumping fumes into the air hoses? Are they safe, is my fear irrational?

===

Your concern is not irrational at all. Carbon monoxide reaching the compressor intake is a very real risk and has killed people. The only solution is to keep the exhaust outlet and the compressor intake as widely separated as possible. I carry a small hookah rig for emergency bottom work and run it from our inverter system. For use with a dinghy I'd recommend using a SCUBA tank as the air supply.

[phstol]

RDW,
I have made maybe over a 100 dives from a gas powered hookah... never had a problem with contaminated air. We had an intake pipe about 3 ft long, nothing special ref the engine exhaust. I suppose there was always enough of a breeze to clear the exhaust.
More of an issue was the engine stopping b/c of running out of gas, or falling over if the dink got waked while we were below. So be prepared to be able to make free ascents. If you have done free ascents from depth, you will know there is always another breath in the system to get you to the surface safely as the ambient pressure decreases as long as you keep your pucker factor under control. Might be a stretch with 4 divers though. Never rise faster than the small bubbles.
Also be aware that if you have several divers simultaneously, and depending on their depth, the capacity of the hookah possibly will not be enough to supply them all simultaneously on inhalation. Just get them used to inhaling alternately. This could be a bit of a circus with 4 divers, we only were two.

This time I'm planning to use a 12 V hookah, planned depths less than 30 ft or so. Clean and easy.
Enjoy!

[teveau169]

Hookah units have been around and used safely for many years. To answer the gas fume question several brands have long exhaust tubes that keep the exhaust fumes away from the air I take port. For more than 1 or 2 divers (you want to have 4 at a time) you will need a large and expensive gas unit. You also will be restricted to shallower depths for all divers.
Google hookah systems and you will find several manufacturers. Unfortunate,y the best hookah manufacturer is no longer with us, Captain Rocket on Big Pine Key in Florida Keys created and built the best. His company closed after he departed this life a few years ago. .
Gas vs electric also entails battery drain or generator use vs carrying gasoline assuming your primary fuel is diesel. However a good gas can solves the fume situation. And proper storage as well as no smoking will reduce any explosion risk to near zero. After all there are literally millions of boats fueled by gasoline. Perhaps your dinghy o/b motor is gas fueled???? Good luck in your decision. Let us all know as well as your experiences with whatever hookah you obtain
One last point: seriously consider taking a poney bottle as a backup safety air supply just in case!
Tebeau

[RDW]

Phstol, why are you switching to battery power. We will probably do shallow dives. What brand have you used.
Thanks for your comments.
RDW

[IceOps]

Originally Posted by wayne.b

===

Your concern is not irrational at all. Carbon monoxide reaching the compressor intake is a very real risk and has killed people. The only solution is to keep the exhaust outlet and the compressor intake as widely separated as possible. I carry a small hookah rig for emergency bottom work and run it from our inverter system. For use with a dinghy I'd recommend using a SCUBA tank as the air supply.

I have been diving with gas powered free floating hookah for several years and have also used Scuba bottle systems for work. Unless you keep someone in the boat/float to monitor your tank air, you are going to need a really, really long high pressure hose for your pressure gauge - grin

I like the AirLine system over the Brownie (trade names) because the AirLine costs less. AND a big reason I like the AirLine is that it uses regular garden hose type fittings for the air hose connections - easy to replace and are available, and are much cheaper than proprietary ones from Brownie. The hose fittings take a beating on a boat between dives.
I also concur with the pony bottle idea. A kinked hose can be terrifying (just swim toward the compressor unit to relieve the strain on the hose) at 40 ft with a heavy bag of lobsters in you hands - grin

[timbenner]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

Aren't you carrying gas for your dinghy already? So a little more gas, and one more gas engine, doesn't seem like any big deal to me. Like others have said, I don't think a system that can support four divers is going to last a usefully long time on battery power (unless you are carrying one darned big battery!).

To Fiveslide... People have been using gas-powered hookah systems for decades. Properly designed, they are quite safe.

I bought an electric hooka at a pawn shop for cheap. My problem with the gas hooka is storage. Can't put it inside the boat because of the gas, then leave it outside and it corrodes.

[PuttingDoctor]

To support 4 divers you'll want a floating unit and you'll be resricted to 30' depth or 2 divers to 60'. The electric unit are great for working around the boat but limiting.

[a64pilot]

I use a Hooka for cleaning the bottom, changing zincs etc. Any "real" diving I Scuba, having said that, the prettiest fish and most stuff to see is shallow, and shallow of course bottom time is much longer. Issue of course being getting bottles filled, I prefer HP steel tanks myself, I dislike aluminum 80's, but they out number anything else by at least 100 to 1, they are the standard.

At least though take the class and get certified if your not, this goes for anyone breathing compressed gas underwater, it's the shallow depths that are the most dangerous for embolism, and you may be a long way from help.

My SAC rate, which is Surface Air Consumption is .67 swimming, which means at one atmosphere, I consume .7 cu ft of air in one minute. A beginner diver will be doing good to be less than 1 cu ft per min, exception being Women, they consume much less air than men.

If for example your SAC rate is 1 and your at 99' depth, you consuming 4 cu ft of air per min, times four people and then you have to have a compressor that can supply 16 cu ft of air per min at 150 psi or so.
I know you won't be at 99', I picked that only as that is three atmospheres of pressure to illustrate how much air you have to have.

Get people excited when they see that shark or something and their breathing rate goes way up, let them start running out of air, and they want even more.
Point being is with 4 people you have to have one BIG compressor.
Maybe having two Hookas is a better plan, one for two each?

On edit, only person that I was diving with that got bent, did so in maybe 30' of water, we were Lobster diving on reefs off the East coast of Fl and he started showing the skin rash and discomfort that is consistent with decompression sickness, so off he went for a chamber ride.