Scuba divers! Need basic question answered please....?

Question

I am a new diver looking to purchase my first scuba kit. On the mares website, the product advisor page asks whether the optional feature 'NITROX' is necessary. What is nitrox?

Answer 1

Here's a helpful discussion about Nitrox in general

http://www.techdiver.ws/nitrox_eng.shtml

As you can see from this article, the main reason for using Nitrox is increased bottom time and shorter surface intervals.

Here's my experience:

The places I go diving, I can be in the water for an hour and then surface for an hour.  Repeat three or four times.  That's enough diving in a day to leave me pretty tired.  Nitrox doesn't add anything.

That said, yes, I spent the money on equipment that can be used with Enriched Air.  It wasn't that much more and it gives me some flexibility that I don't have otherwise.

Answer 2

Nitrox is a breathing gas mix. It's also sometimes called enriched air. It's a gas with a higher oxygen content than what you're breathing now (21%). Typically, it starts at 32% and goes up to 40% oxygen by volume. The higher O2 content allows for a longer bottom time, but also limits you to a shallower dive profile than a traditional tank of 21%.  Most people confuse it as a gas mix that lets you dive deeper. Not so. It's toxic at depth.

When you buy some of your equipment, if you plan on diving nitrox at some point , you'll want to purchase a dive computer that does both air and nitrox and you'll also want to purchase regs that are compatible ( made of the right material) and properly oxygen cleaned and rated for the O2 content of the max mix you'll plan on using when you finally become Nitrox certified. You'll also need a separate tank(s) for diving nitrox, also properly cleaned and marked as Nitrox on them. You can always switch these back to air..but you'll have to pay for cleaning them again if you decide to switch them back to Nitrox, before you fill. The higher concentration of Oxygen makes for possible fire or explosion hazards if there are any traces of hydro carbons, which is why the cleaning by a dive shop Pro is needed.

If you plan on only going as far as Open water cert, there's absolutely no need for you to even think about the added expense of a dive computer that's Air/ Nitrox or regs/tanks for nitrox. The reason being that your max dive depth is only going to be 60 feet. Nitrox doesn't become worthwhile (it costs more) unless you go a little deeper than that. There's no advantage to it at 60 for increased bottom time, that's worth spending the money. The return on your dollar isn't there.

Answer 3

try www.primescuba.com they might be a help good luck