Hookamax surface air supply - anyone with experience?

D

dinwood

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Joined
11 Feb 2007
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130
Location
European coast
www.inwoods.org
Hi,
I'm on the verge of buying a hookah diving system for keeping the growth on my prop etc under control here in the med. The best value for money I can find is direct from a US firm called Hookamax. Before I shell out for one, does any have experience of this brand - or for that matter, knowledge of another one I might have missed in my searches? This comes in at £700 delivered, VAT paid.
I've read most of the other posts on this subject, and to spare people's sore fingers, I'm a qualified SCUBA diver & know the theory side pretty well.
 
hookah

I bought a hookamax 2 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did. It has already paid for itself by saving on liftouts. It is easy to use and makes cleaning the hull simple and when word gets around you will be the most popular guy on the anchorage. I have a diesel generator so went for the 110v compressor, my genset makes 240v so I got a step down transformer of the type used in the building trade you can get them from B&Q.Go for it.
Brian Holden
 
If your already qualified, surley a set of scuba gear is cheaper?
Would have thought you could pick up a complete set for under £500 if you went for a second hand in test cyclinder and new BC and regs, that said you need be be reasonably close to somewhere to get refills...

Sorry if this was diverting from your OP as I don't have any experience, with these surface supplied compressors.

Also I'm not sure i'd have a whole lot of confidence in this type of surface supplied gear although if your only at prop depth then I guess it's minimal risk if it does shut down, blow a fuse etc...
 
Moonshiners said:
If your already qualified, surley a set of scuba gear is cheaper?
Would have thought you could pick up a complete set for under £500 if you went for a second hand in test cyclinder and new BC and regs, that said you need be be reasonably close to somewhere to get refills...
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.... I had all the gear apart from weights and tank, (which are usually included as part of the deal on scuba holidays), so bought a tank for about £150 and a few weights.

This left me free to dive around the boat for fun, and also inspect and clean the bottom, inspect the anchor, and clear the prop. Also changed anodes aswell.

Never had any trouble obtaining refills. There's usually a dive centre in/near yachting places, (worldwide).

As a diver, I wouldnt want to be restricted by being tethered to the boat.
 
mitiempo said:
Here's a link to a thread on Sailnet. Posted by a bottom cleaner who has used a hookah for 12 years as have all of his employees. He gives advice on what equipment to use. The price you have is way too high from what I've read. I hope this helps. http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/54801-please-need-help.html#post490835
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links. I missed out on a used professional unit on Ebay a few days ago. I have been going to purchase one of these "bottom cleaner" types of Hookah for some time but always felt they were a real rip off price wise. Plenty of web sites explaining how to build your own but I was always suss about the actual compressors. These links are reassuring and back up my suspicions on the ripoffs in the diving businesses. The basic units are about $1300 here but use about $200 worth of components. Wonder if the Chinese make them?
 
Hull cleaning

I have done a lot of hull cleaning on mine and friend's boats. I find it not too hard to do it free diving with just a mask and snorkel. Sure a badly fouled hull is too much to do in one session but if it is your own boat you can do portions each day so it is never really bad. (It is good exercise and not too hard) olewill
 
dinwood said:
Hi,
I'm on the verge of buying a hookah diving system for keeping the growth on my prop etc under control here in the med. The best value for money I can find is direct from a US firm called Hookamax. Before I shell out for one, does any have experience of this brand - or for that matter, knowledge of another one I might have missed in my searches? This comes in at £700 delivered, VAT paid.
I've read most of the other posts on this subject, and to spare people's sore fingers, I'm a qualified SCUBA diver & know the theory side pretty well.
Click to expand...

Get it, you won't regret it, even though it does not have the freedom of a tank to go off exploring very far beyond the boat. Bought a similar system (www.airlinebyjsink.com) earlier this year and it allows me to keep the prop and propshaft clean - the antifoul takes care of the hull at the moment - am wondering now if I will need to antifoul ever again, as a couple of hours with a sponge is all it takes to clear any slime from the hull. It is surprising how much a small amount of growth on the prop reduces performance. A film of hard fouling on the prop and shaft reduced our max revs from 3400 to about 1950 but, as few people ever try to use their max revs they rarely notice the loss in performance or the increase in fuel consumption at cruising revs. What is also amazing is how the cloud of scraped-off fouling in the water brings in the fish - mind you, none seem big enough to catch. Would recommend also that you consider a full face mask such as the "Mantis" - if you spend two hours in the water, it sure saves on the jaw-ache and, if you have any doubts about the purity of the water(!) your face is fully enclosed so no bugs around the mouth. Additionally, with the strap system the mask is never(?) going to come off accidently and it is much easier to clear of any ingress of water - also it does not fog. My next purchase is a dry-suit for winter use - I know, i'm a WUSS (Warm Underwater Scuba Specialist(?)).
 
Thanks to all respondents.
For general interest, my reasoning for this solution is:-
1. I don't have space on board for a full SCUBA kit, so I'd need the smaller "pony" system, costing £2-300.
2. This would supply air for ~20mins at shallow depths, so I'd need more than 1 tank full to keep the bottom clean each time.
3. In our travels from the Solent to the W med, so far we've only spotted 1 diving air compressor within walking distance of a marina. Cost of taxis would soon mount up. I suspect laziness would mean the tank was mostly left empty, so not avaiable for emergency work.
4. Hence, despite the MUCH higher cost, a Hookah system.
5. Hookamax is by far the cheapest I can find! I'd b very glad if someone can prove me wrong before I order one.

David Inwood


Moonshiners said:
If your already qualified, surley a set of scuba gear is cheaper?
Would have thought you could pick up a complete set for under £500 if you went for a second hand in test cyclinder and new BC and regs, that said you need be be reasonably close to somewhere to get refills...

Sorry if this was diverting from your OP as I don't have any experience, with these surface supplied compressors.

Also I'm not sure i'd have a whole lot of confidence in this type of surface supplied gear although if your only at prop depth then I guess it's minimal risk if it does shut down, blow a fuse etc...
Click to expand...
 
mitiempo said:
dinwood
I guess you didn't see my link. Here's the important part.
Click to expand...


Looking at EBay there seems to be plenty of suitable air compressors of the oil less design. The one of interest is listed as a tattoo compressor. In the blurb;

"This piston type Airbrush compressor works perfectly with airbrush, can be widely used in craft work spraying, cosmetics, tattoo, tanning, hobbies/models, fingernail painting.

It can be also used for providing air source for medical, environment protect, breed aquatics Industrial, food industrial, chemical industrial, laboratory and so on".

Looking at all the ads for the bought hookah units they make a point of not showing details of the compressors in the photos. I suspect there might be a remarkable mark up here, fear may be generated to make people opt out of putting there own gear together.
 
hookah

I have used a compressor set up by a friend. It had a standard Clisby compressor.drained of oil and cleaned internally then operated on castor oil. I imagine vegetable oil might be more available now. There was a fairly substantial filter after the compressor. In fact the filter and tank were one and the same being filled with cellulose wool to collect air laden oil. It all seemed fine and could be run off the boats engine via a clutch. You need an air intake mounted up clear of any exhaust. If you made up your own you could get the output air analysed for impurities as the people with scuba compressors do. good luck olewill
 
Bought one recently direct from the manufacturer for around $650 delivered to the Caribbean. Works fine. Bought a used bcd for $100 and some weights for about the same! Main purpose is bottom cleaning.

I am padi qualified but don't actually enjoy diving so the Hookamax is ideal. Does everything I need without the hassle of having to find refills.
 
William_H said:
I have used a compressor set up by a friend. It had a standard Clisby compressor.drained of oil and cleaned internally then operated on castor oil. I imagine vegetable oil might be more available now. There was a fairly substantial filter after the compressor. In fact the filter and tank were one and the same being filled with cellulose wool to collect air laden oil. It all seemed fine and could be run off the boats engine via a clutch. You need an air intake mounted up clear of any exhaust. If you made up your own you could get the output air analysed for impurities as the people with scuba compressors do. good luck olewill
Click to expand...

With all due respect & speaking as a scuba instructor I'd be very wary of trying to cobble something together yourself, more so off a friend (for their sake should, god forbid, anything go wrong).

My suggestion would be try it with mask & snorkel & a few weights (it's tricky without a bit of weight added) if you haven't done so already. If for whatever reason you don't want to do it with mask & snorkel, don't dive as a hobby and/or tank refills aren't readily available then a hookah I would have thought would be just the job, might even be able to make a few quid here & there...
 
djbreeze said:
With all due respect & speaking as a scuba instructor I'd be very wary of trying to cobble something together yourself, more so off a friend (for their sake should, god forbid, anything go wrong).

My suggestion would be try it with mask & snorkel & a few weights (it's tricky without a bit of weight added) if you haven't done so already. If for whatever reason you don't want to do it with mask & snorkel, don't dive as a hobby and/or tank refills aren't readily available then a hookah I would have thought would be just the job, might even be able to make a few quid here & there...
Click to expand...


I doubt there would be anybody with a yacht in Australia that has not cleaned their boats with snorkelling gear. The major problem we have in this area in the fishing industry and the charter fishing business is so called scuba divers. Plenty of complaints today from operators. Boats would be circling fish then suddenly a boat load of scuba divers would appear, dive in, raise their flags and scream at the fishermen to piss off. Something in that gas sends these turkeys troppo. The fishing grounds I'm talking about are 8.2 miles offshore.

Olewill, chatting to one of the original ab divers in Australia a few years ago. His first Hookah was something similar but he used peanut oil. Reckons he can't go near peanuts now.
 
That one was on my shortlist, but they no longer make it. Their replacement costs $2,500, plus delivery & VAT!

rtchina said:
I'm no a diver but bought a Brownies system
http://www.browniedive.com/hooka/pressure.shtml
It uses 8 amps and works fine for bottom cleaning. Packs down quite small. I found the fused cig lighter usless so changed it, but apart from that, no problems.
Click to expand...
 
Bottom Cleaning

I did a lot of research on hookas last year and came to the conclusion that there are two components that need to be selected with care, the compressor and the regulator. The cost of putting a perfectly acceptable system together is around £250 and for that you get something that's designed to run on 220 - 240 v 50Htz.
NOT 110v 60Htz. I am a bit wary of 12v systems.

For the compressor look for something that's oil less and delivers over 2 cfm at around 100psi - the more the merrier on the cfm and a regulator that works at 100psi.

Like many here I am now paddi qualified but I dont like diving much, but I do want to maintain the hull without lifting out. So going deep is not my objective.

I am now looking at air tools that work underwater without producing lots of bubbles to take the effort out of the job, a powered rotating brush could be useful.
 
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