Want To Buy: Hookah Diving Rig

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by pbiJim

I'm seeing the same thing in my area. The market is firming up. Most of the cheap boats out there now are cheap for a reason. Good deals are fewer & further between. The good deals don't hang around long at all. I've called on a boat that came up for sale within 3 hours of it being listed & found that it was already sold.

There was a little lull in used boat prices the first two weeks in January, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. I missed the boat on that one, both literally & figuratively.

thread drift,
I lost one last weekend, very similar

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by pbiJim

So then, common rubber hoses are a problem, but commercial nylon hose (like the coiled type), maybe not so much?

I'm familiar with how rubber is produced & I understand how the off gassing occurs. As far as I know, Nylon does not share this issue, even if it is not a food grade.

The coiled nylon type might present a problem with kinking though.

I'm just tossing this out for discussion. I'm not trying to insist that sub-grade hoses are a good choice.

Thank you for the reply.

I think this comes down to two things. First, you just don't know what's done in the manufacturing process. Even if the basic material used to make an industrial hose is safe how do you know what was used in the making to give it some additional properties like a UV stabilizer, a surface finish or a mold release compound or a plasticizer or who knows what?

And, bottom line, as fstbttms points out, the savings aren't all that much. When you're talking about life support equipment, and that is exactly what a underwater breathing device is, you don't want to take chances.

[Travis McGee]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

I would opine that most people would find this very, very difficult to do. I know I would never want to try it and I make my living doing it (with a hookah.)

I agree, I clean my hull (48') with mask, snorkel and fins, and I would not want to attempt that. It must have been a very clean maxprop with well greased/anti-seized hardware. Good job to any free diver who managed that trick, you earned your beer that day!

[Travis McGee]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

I'm no expert. But as I spend 1000+ hours every year breathing through it, I ain't taking any chances. Why bother questioning whether to breathe through the $1.25/foot hose or the $.50/foot hose?

Exactly! There are places to cut corners, but a place NOT to cut corners is when breathing compressed air under water.

[shufti]

Interesting thread - I've wondered about theses 'hookahs' for awhile now ( I remember an episode of 'towards 2000' or similar tech show featuring someone developing one - must have been 30yrs ago now) - but never knew what they were called hence didn't do much googling on them.

Out of interest - you guys who scrub your hulls with snorkle/hookah/scuba - what do you use to scrub and does the growth come off pretty easily - or is it a case of hard, tough scrubbing needed to clean the hull? Also - how often do you do it?

[Travis McGee]

Originally Posted by shufti

Interesting thread - I've wondered about theses 'hookahs' for awhile now ( I remember an episode of 'towards 2000' or similar tech show featuring someone developing one - must have been 30yrs ago now) - but never knew what they were called hence didn't do much googling on them.

Out of interest - you guys who scrub your hulls with snorkle/hookah/scuba - what do you use to scrub and does the growth come off pretty easily - or is it a case of hard, tough scrubbing needed to clean the hull? Also - how often do you do it?

The water temp where my boat is currently is about 54*, so "not often enough!" When it's warmer, I try for every month or two. I wear a "shorty" wetsuit mainly to protect from abrasions, esp. from barnacles. With a wetsuit, you need some lead on a weight belt to be neutral under your hull. I wear diving gloves, and I use a piece of scrap plywood about 1/4" thick X5" x 8" or so as my scraper. This takes off the scum, growth and most barnacles without taking off too much bottom paint. For tough barnacle patches and the prop, I use a st. steel paint scraper about 2" wide at the working end. I clean around the waterline while catching my breath, then I go down again with my scrapers....

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by shufti

Out of interest - you guys who scrub your hulls with snorkle/hookah/scuba - what do you use to scrub and does the growth come off pretty easily - or is it a case of hard, tough scrubbing needed to clean the hull? Also - how often do you do it?

I use a scotch pad with handle for algae, putty knife for barnacles. I use one of these;

to stick myself to the hull while doing the waterline.

[tomfl]

Most of us have seen tons of threads about stuff like which anchor is the best or what a blue water boat is. My take is a questionable quality hooka is more dangerous than a questionable quality anchor or blue water boat. Very few of us would try and make our own anchors or build a blue water boat, so why do that with a hooka. Also agree you should at least have basic certification to dive with SCUBA or a hooka.

There are lots of commercial ones around and quite frankly they are not all that expensive, especially compared to anchors or boats. I looked at several models and was impressed by Hookamax. It has a standard Honda 5hp gas engine and an oilless compressor. Unlike some hookas it also has a tank which contains a reserve air supply, a Y valve, and the usual stuff like a first stage regulator, hose, vest/weight belt the hose connects to, and a second stage regulator, and mouth piece.

When the reserve tank gets to pressure the compressor shuts off and the gas engine idles. The result is a lot more hours per gallon because most hookas run the compressor all the time and vent excess air. My setup has two 100 foot hoses but I doubt I have ever been deeper than about 30 feet.

It is bulkier than hookas like a gas Brownie and much bulkier than the small electric ones. But a lot smaller and cheaper than Scuba tanks and a compressor to fill them. My experience has been positive but I would point out a lot of commercial operations that use hookas provide full face masks to reduce dry mouth and mask fogging. I have no connection with Hookamax, just an owner.

Hookamax Dive Systems

[lorenzo b]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

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.

Spoken like a true salesman.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by lorenzo b

Spoken like a true salesman.

Hey, they're your lungs, champ. Knock yourself out.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by shufti

Out of interest - you guys who scrub your hulls with snorkle/hookah/scuba - what do you use to scrub and does the growth come off pretty easily - or is it a case of hard, tough scrubbing needed to clean the hull? Also - how often do you do it?

Most professional hull cleaners use Scotchbrite Doodlebug pad as their cleaning media:




I make my own pad holders:




I also make my own suction cups:




Ease of growth removal is completely dependant upon what kind of growth is being removed and how long it has been allowed to grow. Slime is typically pretty easy to wipe off. Shelled animals are more difficult. You get the idea.

The answer to your question about how often you should clean is; often enough that the softest cleaning media can be used to remove the growth. Just what kind of frequency that is will be dependant upon the fouling conditions where your boat lives and the condition of your anti fouling paint. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. If you can't use the softest media possible to clean your hull, you have waited too long to clean it and will now be removing paint uneccessarily when you do clean it.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by 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.

Here's one just posted:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...nc-120395.html

[Opie91]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Most professional hull cleaners use Scotchbrite Doodlebug pad as their cleaning media:




I make my own pad holders:




I also make my own suction cups:




Ease of growth removal is completely dependant upon what kind of growth is being removed and how long it has been allowed to grow. Slime is typically pretty easy to wipe off. Shelled animals are more difficult. You get the idea.

The answer to your question about how often you should clean is; often enough that the softest cleaning media can be used to remove the growth. Just what kind of frequency that is will be dependant upon the fouling conditions where your boat lives and the condition of your anti fouling paint. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. If you can't use the softest media possible to clean your hull, you have waited too long to clean it and will now be removing paint uneccessarily when you do clean it.

It appears that a little lubricant helps also,

[bobsadler]

Originally Posted by pbiJim

I've seen this done before, usually with larger bottles. It works OK for shallow use, but as you go deeper, the air pressure in your hose decreases relative to your ambient pressure. When you have the 1st stage of the regulator mounted to the bottle on your back, the first stage compensates the intermediate hose pressure relative to the ambient pressure. Leaving the 1st stage top-side will eliminate that benefit. The demand valve on the second stage will probably need to be tuned a little on the stiff side.

Correct.

I probably should have said that I'm only using this rig to go to keel depth plus a bit (i.e. always <3m (10ft)) and for that it's fine.

[Nicholson58]

I just scored a Brownie 390 gas for a thou off list price on Amazon. Owner had bought, never used and dumped it. If all I needed was bottom service I might not bother but we want to dive reefs comfortably and to be able to retrieve a stuck anchor as well. I considered building my own but the package is quite nice.