Gordon Smith's KISS Rebreather

Gordon says "I'm just a homebuilder". Yup. And Orville and Wilbur Wright were just bicycle mechanics with an interest in flying. Here is a lineup of 8 KISS rebreathers all set for delivery. Sadly, not a *single* one was delivered to my doorstep. I'll need to remedy that forthwith.

Here are the cores of the rigs in a lineup. I count 10 in all. The system is designed to have a pony bottle attached to each side, one for diluent and one for 02. The actual rig can be attached like any single cylinder to a vest or set of wings. These are easy to travel with, and are very elegantly designed.

One more shot of the lineup. Top left center are two rigs with cylinders installed. That's a compact package!

This is a special model, the "Mini-KISS" for lack of a better name (Gordon calls it the "Baby 'breather" but I like "Mini-KISS" better and it's my website after all ;-)

This smaller edition was designed for Kim, who's modeling it here. It can use either 6 or 13 cubic foot supply cylinders. The ones shows are 6's. Gordon reports that Kim uses about 2, (yes TWO) cubic feet of 02 for an hours dive at 100 feet. Nice! Most guys use a 6 for an Argon suit-inflation cylinder. Here we are using 1/3 of that for main 02 supply for an hour. Good reason to use a rebreather!

Here's the side-view. The two stainless hoses over Kim's left shoulder feed 02 to the supply and metering valve, and then return the 02 to the loop. Let's see: That looks not unlike my cellar, with the odd keg of Sofnolime tucked under the table!

From the front we can see the position of the addition valve assembly, perfectly placed for a manual addition if needed. Kim is holding up the combined open and closed-circuit DSV, another hand-made component furnished with the KISS. A quick turn of the knob and you are on open-circuit, and a quick turn back takes you to the loop. This is a great safety feature.

The back of the rig is clean and uncluttered, with a low profile. It looks not unlike the Halcyon-80, unless you notice that it only carries 13's on each side, and not 40's (or 80's!), which are needed with the far less efficient SCC mode of the Halcyon.

Keeping it simple means 3 separate PP02 meters, with absolutely no interconnection between the three systems. PP02 is read on all three meters, and this makes for an extremely reliable system.

That's about it (so far) for this excellent design. Gordon will be happy to make one of these for you if you are smart enough to convince him that you will stay safe on one. I think this is a very viable design, and deserves serious study and consideration.

		Gordon says "I'm just a homebuilder". Yup. And Orville and Wilbur Wright were just bicycle mechanics with an interest in flying. Here is a lineup of 8 KISS rebreathers all set for delivery. Sadly, not a single one was delivered to my doorstep. I'll need to remedy that forthwith.
		Here are the cores of the rigs in a lineup. I count 10 in all. The system is designed to have a pony bottle attached to each side, one for diluent and one for 02. The actual rig can be attached like any single cylinder to a vest or set of wings. These are easy to travel with, and are very elegantly designed.
		One more shot of the lineup. Top left center are two rigs with cylinders installed. That's a compact package!
		This is a special model, the "Mini-KISS" for lack of a better name (Gordon calls it the "Baby 'breather" but I like "Mini-KISS" better and it's my website after all ;-) This smaller edition was designed for Kim, who's modeling it here. It can use either 6 or 13 cubic foot supply cylinders. The ones shows are 6's. Gordon reports that Kim uses about 2, (yes TWO) cubic feet of 02 for an hours dive at 100 feet. Nice! Most guys use a 6 for an Argon suit-inflation cylinder. Here we are using 1/3 of that for main 02 supply for an hour. Good reason to use a rebreather!
		Here's the side-view. The two stainless hoses over Kim's left shoulder feed 02 to the supply and metering valve, and then return the 02 to the loop. Let's see: That looks not unlike my cellar, with the odd keg of Sofnolime tucked under the table!

		From the front we can see the position of the addition valve assembly, perfectly placed for a manual addition if needed. Kim is holding up the combined open and closed-circuit DSV, another hand-made component furnished with the KISS. A quick turn of the knob and you are on open-circuit, and a quick turn back takes you to the loop. This is a great safety feature.
		The back of the rig is clean and uncluttered, with a low profile. It looks not unlike the Halcyon-80, unless you notice that it only carries 13's on each side, and not 40's (or 80's!), which are needed with the far less efficient SCC mode of the Halcyon.
		Keeping it simple means 3 separate PP02 meters, with absolutely no interconnection between the three systems. PP02 is read on all three meters, and this makes for an extremely reliable system.