Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] What do Hydro-caps do?

[VBra676539@aol.com]

Karl,

Alright! Now you have experienced both of the best days of boat ownership and have money in hand. Congratulations.

As to the caps, no, you don't really have to buy them first. Hydrocap will send you a brochure with dimensions and the like. The address and whatnot is in the psubs vendor list. I think the screw in caps are something on the order of 2 & 1/2 inches high (don't quote me).

George's diesel boat was built for a customer and operated for a time, but that's about all I know about it, other than it was in the shop when I was in Maine last fall and partly dismantled. 

How are you going to carry the batteries? I don't know about venting them through the exhaust. Captain George must have had some idea but I don't know what it was. I email him every week, and will try to remember and ask him about it. You wouldn't need much, however. THere is virtually no offgassing to atmostphere with the caps. The only real problem is to replenish the oxygen which is drawn from the battery space atmosphere and combined with hydrogen to make water. That results in a vacuum after each dive, and a stronger one would develop during charging, where considerably more hydrogen is produced.

The PC-1204 (now called Clelia) that Harbor Branch owns and operates, has a set of tubes plumbed to the battery pods. Quarter inch in and three-eights out. They just put low pressure air to the small tubes at a steady flow rate and vent it out the other. This works very well for them (they use AGM batteries, too) and they never open the battery pods at sea unless an actual problem develops. We never fooled with that when I ran the sub in Europe as we had heated sub hangers with vent systems for the charging cycles.

Keep us up to date of the sub's progress. I will get myself to NZ for the launching or sea trials or something. But will need some warning. That airline ticket will be tough to explain to Momma.

Best Regards,
Vancew