MOVING THE OXYGEN PORT ON A RGU

or
PREVENTING A BOLUS OF OXYGEN FROM
BOWLING YOU OVER

WARNING

This is another damn fool project. No one in their right mind would do this. If you repeat this you are a fool and will probably die using your creation, leaving some very unhappy loved ones. I did this just for the experience and to solve the technical problems. Everyone that I talk with says this unit is a piece of junk and should not be used as a life support system. Experimental life systems can be deadly. You have been warned.





Many of our mentors and websites instruct us to inject oxygen as close to the outlet of our DSV as possible. The RGU system as delivered injects Oxygen into the outer ring of the manifold and directly into the inlet. That could be a big oops. A 1/4 inch double barb fitting and some epoxy fixes that. First I whacked off the regular inlet port and sealed it with epoxy. Then I drilled a hole and inserted a double ended hose barb fitting in the hole. Next I sealed it in with more epoxy.



Then I flipped the manifold over and used more epoxy to seal up any leaks between the sections of the manifold. You can see the epoxy in the manifold.

The result of this is that the added oxygen is injected into the inlet of the scrubber with the expired air. The oxygen is replacing the oxygen depleted by my body in the air stream. This improves gas mixing. In diving operations, manual addition of a bolus of oxygen, if needed at depths below 20 feet is done during the beginning of an exhale cycle to further improve mixing. Thanks Dr. Bob for that word bolus. I try to use it once a day.