The Breathing Rates card sits at the top of the Gas Mixes section, above the gas cards. It holds two fields on an open-circuit plan; a rebreather plan carries a second pair elsewhere in the brief.
Breathing Rates
The two fields
- Working SAC (L/min): charged for the descent, bottom time, travel between levels, and every part of the ascent that is not a stop. The planner starts at 15 L/min.
- Deco SAC (L/min): charged for mandatory decompression stops, where you are hanging rather than swimming. The planner starts at 12 L/min.
Both accept 5 to 40 L/min, in steps of 0.5. Anything the planner scheduled as a decompression stop is charged at the deco rate; everything else, including ascending between two stops, is charged at the working rate.
Neither rate touches the schedule. Depths, stop lengths, runtime and TTS are identical whatever you enter. What changes is every gas figure that follows: the volume used per gas, the pressure remaining in each cylinder, the reserve, and the turn pressure. Set them before you read the Gas Consumption view.
The bailout pair on a rebreather
A closed-circuit plan keeps both fields, and they still describe your open-circuit breathing. On top of them it adds a Bailout SAC Rates card, in the CCR settings section:
- Working SAC (L/min): everything in a bailout ascent that is not a decompression stop. The planner starts at 45 L/min.
- Bailout SAC (L/min): the decompression stops of a bailout ascent. The planner starts at 25 L/min.
Both accept 5 to 60 L/min. They are higher than the loop figures on purpose: a diver who has just come off the loop is a diver who has just had a problem. Leave either blank and the plan’s ordinary working and deco rates are used in its place.
The loop’s own consumption, diluent and oxygen, is not estimated. The rates on this page account for open-circuit gas only, whichever mode you are in.
Next
Decompression settings is the next section: the model that shapes the ascent, and how conservative it runs.