There are a few articles on my blog about Closed Circuit Rebreathers and of course you hear of them going wrong all the time. This is a quick article about my new Sentinel, what happened when it went wrong and why I bought the bloody thing…

My fellow ‘tritone’, Tony Bridge, recently wrote a piece about the training so I thought I had better justify why I plumped for a Sentinel.
It is also a great time to do it: 2309 on a Tuesday evening in the Isle of Man, sitting in my office which overlooks the bay, a large glass of red wine on my desk and listening to ‘In Rainbows’ by the mighty Radiohead.
If you follow my ramblings you may have seen my article where I nearly bought an Inspiration. In fact I had already booked the course and was just about to send the cash. It was at this point that I re-read my own diatribe and changed my mind; there must be something better!
As you will see from my previous writings, I had done a lot of research in rebreathers and once I had decided against the inspiration, I had another look around.
I had seen the Sentinel at the Dive Show last year and it did look very well built. However, following a very ‘difficult’ experience I had with my VR3 (also by VR Technology Limited), the poor service and the tales of woe and despondency from divers who had been foolish enough to purchase the fearsomely expensive Ouroboros, I really was not going to look again.
BUT I spoke to a few of my diving buddies and following excellent reports, I went to take a look again, first hand: see Tony’s article.
Here is a riveting video: Kevin Gurr, the main man himself, talking you through the unit…
So, my key features:
Err… It’s also black.
The week after I had completed my training I attended a RYA Coastal Skipper Course and Examination and then moved straight out the Isle of Man.
Of course once I had settled in (four hours), I wanted to take my new unit out for a spin.
I excitedly charged and prepared the device then attempted to fire it up. Nothing happened! I checked the charger, finally establishing the unit would only partially boot when the charger was attached and even then the menus would not work correctly!!! I was furious. On a positive note, the secondary handset (showing the PO2 from the three cells), was still working. If this happened under water you could drive the unit manually; actually, a very easy thing to do.
I called technical support and Al Wright, from VR Technology, talked me though swapping round the magnetic switches to establish if it was one of those. Whilst we were diagnosing the problem, he posted a ‘reboot’ connector which, when plugged in to the TPM connection port, surprisingly enough, reboots the system.
As promised, it arrived the next day! This appeared to be good customer service; I didn’t see that one coming…
Unfortunately the reboot didn’t work; I sent a mail to Kevin (Gurr), Freda and Al; I was getting overheated.
Whenever I buy anything I always go mad on spares and had bought everything that was recommended for the expedition diver. Of course, as the handsets and electronics are sealed into the head (very sensible – no connectors), the ultimate spare would be a backup head!
Anyway, I received a call first thing in the morning and Al offered to send me Kevin’s head. I thought this was a little extreme, after all we are not in the 15th Century, but after further investigation Al meant Kevin’s Sentinel head! The ‘Vlad the Impaler’ in me had almost accepted too…
It arrived the next day and I packed up my head and sent it back with the carriage costs credited against my account. Great service and again, not at all what I expected.
The factory quickly established the fault was a reed switch in the main handset. They swiftly replaced this and shipped my head back to me; I can now think straight.
So, the upshot is…
It’s a fabulous unit but goes wrong like any other re-breather. The difference this time is that I really think Kevin has his service bang on… Well done VR Technology Limited.
I will keep everyone posted on my progress but if you want to know more of our exploits visit the expedition section of this site, our Triton Oceanic site and for more Sentinel training photos, visit my Flickr...
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Simon is an eclectic, eccentric, well travelled and generally funny bloke that has lived many lives so far. This site is all about stuff that he is involved in and his unique general take on life, the universe and everything…
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1 comment
Mike Taylor on 20/11/08 at 0221 hours
No worries Simon. If it goes wrong out here in Asia, simply slip local tap water into Tony’s Evian bottle and use his for the remainder of the trip while he’s on the loo
He spent most of the first week here chez bog, and I didn’t even need to borrow anything off him
Glad that you like the unit. Tony’s looked really well put together, and simple to use. And, rather annoyingly, he looked very comfortable in it. Diving with you must be doing something for him.