I have been called on the carpet for my disparaging remarks concerning the Ray in other reviews.

This review is designed to take a fair and balanced view of this system.

If you think of something I should have said, or disagree with some point made here, feel free to email me, and help improve this guide.  If you find this guide helpful, please take half a second and hit the "yes" button at the bottom of the page.  Thank you.

I own at least two Ray rebreathers that I know of, I have dived them a bit in their "Factory" condition.  That is to say, before changing them in ways not approved.

The main problem with the Ray is that it is a semi-closed rebreather. In this day and age, there is no reason for anyone to put up with the limitations of the SCR.  If you are going to pay extra for oxygen, sodasorb, etc, might as well get your money's worth.  In the short analysis, there is virtually nothing that a stock SCR can do that a pair of doubles can't do better and cheaper.

Ok, now that is out of the way, The other disadvantage is that Drager gave up on the Ray some time ago. This may not be as bad as is sounds, because it is virtually guaranteed that you will be able to get parts and support for it for as long as you want to dive it.

One huge advantage the Ray has over other systems, such as home builts, Biopaks, and Russian rigs, is that you can get certified on it, and this alone puts it ahead of all those others if you should want to use it on a dive boat.  There will still be Ray instructors around for a number of years, particularly in the carribian, where they sold well.

The Ray was a well- researched and well-taylored piece of gear.  Dragerwerks put a lot of  energy into finding out how people used their products.  They also listened to complaints and suggestions, and studied incidents to figure out the perfect rig for their consumers.

Overwhelmingly, divers disliked the work of breathing of the dolphins and atlantis.

In response to this, Drager gave the Ray Over the shoulder counterlungs, and they worked well. The Ray does breathe easier in many respects than its predecesors. 

People complained about the hassle of taking their RB apart after every dive to clean the mung out.

Drager made The ray easier to care for.

There were incidents of flooded loops because of the attention to detail required to assemble Dolphin loops. (admittedly, not real difficult, but you know...) So the Ray was made simpler.

People wanted a cheaper unit, and Drager cut costs.

I still have no explanation for the scrubber, but i guess some things were meant to be a mystery.

Then Drager looked at how their customers used their gear.

For the most part, people go on dive boats.  Dive boats are almost universally set up for a 2 tank dive, with about a half hour in the water at each location. generally 60 feet or less each, total 60 minutes on loop.

Brisk sales of their half-fill cannister for the Dolphin told them that most people were only getting perhaps an hour and a half out of thir rigs anyway.

Drager made the Ray good for 70 feet, 70 minutes.  In most cases, the diver doesn't even have to change anything between dives.  This is convenient for the divemaster, but of negligible value to the rebreather owner.

In fact, it may be this very thing that doomed the Ray. Here you are, lugging this thing halfway around the world just to do the exact same dives as everyone else, but pay 5X as much. Where's the advantage?

It kind of highlights the fact that you aren't doing yourself any favors. 

Rebreather divers, presumably, want to distinguish themselves from regular scubie-doos,  even if the advantage is imaginary.  If you take away that veil, well, people run away in large numbers.

 If Drager learned anything, they may have learned that you should make your product for the way people  THINK they want to use them, not for how they really do.

Could Drager have saved this system? I believe they could have. There is room for a bigger scrubber back there, and  places like tecme have shown that there are better ways to attach an oxygauge.

Why they didn't, best guess: they didn't want it competing with the flagship Dolphin, which it definitely could have, with some power-ups.

The Ray, of course, doesn't have all the orifice selections that the Dolphin does, but it takes no kind of genius to realize that the bypass box is identical to that of the Dolphin, and so dosage units are easily installed with a .490 drill. (assuming you use the correct regulator for the cmf to work.) Remember, also, that the bypass unit itself is also the dosage unit.  This means if you want to use an orifice, you should plug the hole in the bypass unit, or replace it with one from a dolphin.  Either way, if you have oxygen monitoring, it is a silly conversion, since you have just converted an SCR into an SCR for the same effort you could have converted it to CCR.

But of course, the fact that the bleed  it comes with is not a true CMF orifice also means that if you do the math, you can use other mixes for other depths.  I (while using the oxygauge, of course) dove mixes as lean as 37 percent with no discernable ill effect.  This was, of course, until the oxygauge was damaged due to its inexplicably chosen location at the bottom of the water trap.

In short, the Ray is an extremely easy to dive unit, and if you can put up with the inherent problems of an SCR, is not half bad.  It is easy to use, easy to clean, and not terribly bulky.  If you are already certified on other SCRs, I am not even sure you need to be certified on this unit.  I never was, but then, the subject never came up, so I am not sure what the official position is on this question.

If you want an SCR carcass to make an MCCR out of, this is likewise, a good starter unit. I would not recommend it for an ECCR, because there is no convenient place to put the electronics. 

If this article helped you decide whether or not the Ray is right for you, please click "Yes", below.  Thank you.