AP Diving Inspiration Rebreather Overview

In a market with a growing number of closed-circuit rebreather options, one product line has consistently outsold, outlasted, and out-engineered every alternative: the AP Diving Inspiration. With more units in active service than all other recreational and sport CCR manufacturers combined, the Inspiration is not just a rebreather. It is the reference standard against which every other unit is measured.

Here is a detailed look at what makes the Inspiration range unique, how it has evolved over 25 years, and why it continues to be the platform of choice for divers who take their life support equipment seriously.

A Heritage Built on Engineering, Not Marketing

AP Diving was founded in Helston, Cornwall, where the company still designs, manufactures, and tests every unit today. Their scuba equipment manufacturing heritage spans over 50 years, with CCR production running continuously for more than 25 of those. This is not a startup that pivoted into rebreathers. It is a company that helped define the category.

Ninety percent of all components in every Inspiration unit are manufactured in-house, from the injection-molded plastic fittings to the brass manifolds and hose connections, to the harness components sewn in their own facility. This vertical integration is not just a talking point. It means quality control from raw material to finished unit, and it means parts compatibility stretching back to the original units produced in 1997. Components from a unit built that year can be interchanged with a unit built today if necessary.

AP Diving operates one of only three testing laboratories in the world capable of testing rebreathers to 200 meters (600 feet), a facility representing a $2 million investment in engineering validation. Every unit is CE certified through independent third-party testing, with quality assurance audits conducted bi-annually by Lloyd’s of London.

The Model Range: XPD, EVP, and EVO

The Inspiration comes in three chassis sizes, each sharing the same electronics, safety systems, and core engineering. The difference is size, which affects scrubber capacity, gas volume, and suitability for different diving profiles and body frames.

All three models can be configured from purely recreational specifications (with depth limits of 20m or 40m) to full technical diving capability with trimix decompression software. The upgrade path uses software system keys, so advancing from Rec to Tec40, Tec60, or Tec100 does not require new hardware. Your instructor can configure the unit for your current certification level, and you upgrade the software as your training progresses.

Dual Oxygen Controllers: AP Diving’s Defining Safety Feature

This is the single most important engineering decision that separates the Inspiration from every competitor on the market. The AP Diving Inspiration uses two independent oxygen controllers, C1 and C2, both permanently encapsulated in the scrubber lid for water and vibration protection.

Under normal operation, C1 serves as the Master controller, actively managing the ppO2 in the breathing loop by firing a solenoid to add oxygen. C2 operates as the Slave, independently monitoring the loop and cross-checking C1’s performance. If C1 fails for any reason, whether from a cell issue, a wiring fault, or a power interruption, C2 detects the failure and automatically promotes itself to Master within milliseconds. Multiple audible and visual warnings alert you that the transition has occurred, and ppO2 control continues with the same accuracy of plus or minus 0.05 bar.

Every other recreational and sport CCR on the market uses a single oxygen controller. If that controller fails, the diver must recognize the problem and manually intervene. AP Diving’s position is that in a life support system, a single controller represents an unacceptable single point of failure, and the engineering data supports them.

The 2020 Vision Display and Fiber Optic HUD

The 2020 Vision is a wrist-mounted, full-color, high-resolution display built on IPS technology for brightness and clarity from all viewing angles. It shows real-time ppO2 from all three oxygen cells, which controller is active (C1 or C2), your setpoint, scrubber status, battery levels, and atmospheric pressure on the surface. Underwater, it adds dive time, current depth, maximum depth, and decompression information when the Nitrox or Trimix software options are installed.

The system uses conditional coloring to highlight current status. Normal operation shows green indicators. Warnings shift to amber or red depending on severity. A built-in compass is accessible with a single button press, and Bluetooth connectivity enables dive data download to PC via AP Connect software.

Connected to each oxygen controller is a fiber optic heads-up display. Four LED lights, one red and one green per controller, transmit through flexible polyethylene fiber optic cables directly to the HUD near the mouthpiece. The beauty of this design is that the display end contains no electronics, no batteries, and nothing that needs waterproofing. Light travels through the fiber and arrives at your field of vision. Two green lights means both controllers are happy. Any red means check the wrist unit immediately. The HUD continues functioning even after other electronics have depleted, providing essential status information for an emergency ascent with manual gas addition.

Scrubber Monitoring: The Temp-Stick

The CO2 scrubber is the component that removes carbon dioxide from your exhaled gas, and knowing how much scrubber life remains during a dive is critical. AP Diving’s approach uses an array of temperature sensors positioned down the center of the scrubber canister. As CO2-laden gas passes through the Sofnolime, the exothermic absorption reaction generates heat. The Temp-Stick tracks this thermal wave as it progresses through the scrubber bed, giving you a real-time graphical display of remaining scrubber capacity on the 2020 Vision screen.

This system works reliably in both cold and warm water, handles the pressure changes of ascents and descents, and even provides accurate readings with a partially used scrubber from a previous dive.

Counterlung Options: Front or Rear

AP Diving was the first manufacturer to offer a choice of counterlung placement. The front-mounted Over The Shoulder (OTS) counterlungs have been the industry standard since 1997 and offer the lowest work of breathing of any rebreather counterlung currently available. They feature easy-to-locate manual inflators and an overpressure relief valve.

The rear-mounted Back Mounted Counterlungs (BMCL) provide a clutter-free chest area that many technical divers prefer, particularly those accustomed to sidemount or backmount configurations. The BMCL offers excellent breathing performance in normal diving positions and promotes a more horizontal trim attitude, reducing drag. Both options are available across all three chassis sizes.

Real-World Credentials

Engineering specifications tell part of the story. Real-world performance under extreme conditions tells the rest. AP Diving’s Vision electronics provided life support for James Cameron’s Deep Sea Challenge, the solo manned dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench at nearly 11,000 meters. The system kept him alive at the deepest point on Earth and, more importantly, brought him back safely. That same engineering philosophy, the same commitment to redundancy and reliability, is built into every Inspiration unit.

Your Path to an Inspiration

As the exclusive distributor of AP Diving products in the Americas, Silent Diving can help you configure the right Inspiration for your diving. Whether you are a recreational diver ready for your first CCR or a technical diver planning deep exploration, the Inspiration range has a configuration that fits. Our network of 16 authorized dealers across North, Central, and South America ensures you have local support for sales, training referrals, and service.

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