I have traditionally maintained O rings by removing them, inspecting and cleaning if warranted, lightly greasing, and replacing.  I have tried to be careful about stretching the o rings or damaging them on nearby screw threads and sharp edges.  In general, this has worked fine for me for many years. Recently, though, I saw a maintenance comment from Retra that suggested leaving the o rings in place on the battery cap, and just greasing the visible portion.  I asked Retra about this and the response that removal or leaving them in place was fine with the caveat not to stretch or damage the o rings during removal.

Similarly, my dive computer mfr warns that in removing o rings from the battery cover, remove the O rings from one side only, avoiding the threaded portion of the battery cap so as to minimize the risk of damaging the O ring.  I also have a couple of lights for which removal of the O rings is difficult and I worry about damage and/or stretching, and I have considered just lubing them in place absent some evidence of grit or dirt.

So, it got me to wondering what other folks do:

Are you a take-it-off person or a leave-it-there to lube it person or does it depend on the O ring and equipment in question for you?

Edited yesterday at 03:48 PM1 day by JohnD

I am a member of the "hands off the orings" club. 95% of the time if just lightly wipe off and lube the visible surfaces with the orings in place. Only if there is lot of grit visible do i remove them. My Nauticam housing back oring never gets lubrication, but i remove and rinse it in the sink fairly often as it collects fine grit from shore diving. The groove gets wiped out with a qtip.

Every Jan 1st I will do a big maintenance pass of most of my gear. This is a good opportunity to clean out the oring groove on strobes, lights, housing.

Yep, I’m pretty much with Dave on this. I seldom remove them - especially the housing main o-ring - unless there is obvious sand or grit visible. Shore diving can create this. But week diving from a liveaboard rarely requires an o-ring removal with the potential for damage or mis-placing.

I never never never remove the main oring unless I have some good reason to do so.

I'm doing some shore dives and each time I'm forced to remove everything. This is the main o-ring when I open the housing after a thorough wash and 1 hour bath 🤧

I don't typically remove the housing O ring either during dive trips, I was thinking more of dive and focus lights and such, where the o rings are smaller and have to be slid over threads or pinched hard or stretched.

37 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

I never never never remove the main oring unless I have some good reason to do so.

I'm doing some shore dives and each time I'm forced to remove everything. This is the main o-ring when I open the housing after a thorough wash and 1 hour bath 🤧

Did you build a sand castle around your housing?! 😀

24 minutes ago, JohnD said:

I don't typically remove the housing O ring either during dive trips, I was thinking more of dive and focus lights and such, where the o rings are smaller and have to be slid over threads or pinched hard or stretched.

Yeah, don't remove those small orings. Very lightly lube them with each battery change.

It depends on the exact situation, whether or not you get grit and also the type of enclosure. Clam shell housings are different than housings with a separate back for example. You can get away with lube on flat housing backs, ikelite specifically say not to on theirs, but clamshell housings need to be lubed. It also depends on the o-ring itself, the tiny 1mm dia o-rings on dive computers are much more fragile than the 4mm dia port o-rings on N120 Nauticam ports.

My Z240 o-rings get serviced every battery change as they have drops of water clinging to them and usually some grit, My nauticam OM-1 main o-ring is also pulled every time it is opened after a dive - it's a clamshell housing and usually has water drops clinging to it which you risk pushing into the housings when you close it again.

My INON torch never gets these droplets, it has a sand seal ring which is basically an external o-ring that the cap edge contacts as you screw it down, so the o-rings on that torch never get droplets or grit. The o-rings are pulled every couple of years for a clean and service.

My Retra strobes, I've been using a blower bulb to blow away any water drops, they mostly seem quite small and only on the outer o-ring and I have been following the advice to lube/service them less frequently. They are not too hard to deal with though and they seem to resist getting grit with the tight fit of the cap.

I think the risk of damage to an o-ring is quite small for most people - some people naturally have what I call mechanical sympathy , they know how to handle things and not break them, others not so much. But apart from very fine o-rings like you might find on dive computers they are reasonably robust and don't damage that easily if handled well.

I remove the Nauticam door O-ring (both housings are clamshell type) with each opening. I clean the groove, look for debris, sand, hairs, Q-tip fuzz etc. Same with my strobes, I remove the Inon strobe O-rings with each opening, clean and lube.

The only flood I have had was a FIX housing for my S90. I changed the battery in a rush, went diving, flooded. Afterwards I found a tiny, black hair on the O-ring wrapped around it. Neither me nor my wife have black hair.

I have seen many divers yanking on their orings luke they were pulling taffee while applying lube. Stretching them out horribly.

It's not necessary to remove orings most of the time, so just don't unless it looks like a day at the beach!

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Dave_Hicks

42 minutes ago, Nemrod said:

I remove the Nauticam door O-ring (both housings are clamshell type) with each opening. I clean the groove, look for debris, sand, hairs, Q-tip fuzz etc. Same with my strobes, I remove the Inon strobe O-rings with each opening, clean and lube.

The only flood I have had was a FIX housing for my S90. I changed the battery in a rush, went diving, flooded. Afterwards I found a tiny, black hair on the O-ring wrapped around it. Neither me nor my wife have black hair.

A black hair wrapped around an oring could only happen if the oring was removed. That is not likely from wiping and lubing in place.

1 hour ago, Dave_Hicks said:

I have seen many divers yanking on their orings luke they were pulling taffee while applying lube. Stretching them out horribly.

It's not necessary to remove orings most of the time, so just don't unless it looks like a day at the beach!

Yes these are the people without mechanical sympathy, they'll probably find some other way to flood their strobes even if they stop servicing them, it's a skill UW photographers need to learn and avoiding ultimately won't solve the issue. It's very dependent on the situation whether you need to pull them, but if you see water droplets that needs to be dealt with.

1 hour ago, Dave_Hicks said:

A black hair wrapped around an oring could only happen if the oring was removed. That is not likely from wiping and lubing in place.

I did not clean, lube or pull the O-ring off on this particular occasion as I describe how I normally would have. What I think happened is that the FIX S90 housing is a clam shell type. When I opened the housing the door with O-ring rubbed across the room table I was working from. The room cleaning lady did have curly black hair (like a perm) so I think it likely hers from cleaning the room and wiping the table down as part of her duties. I am not blaming her, I was the one who deviated from my normal routine and did not inspect the O-ring for FOD. FOD can come from all sorts of places. I think that is how the hair got on the O-ring. Many times I have found sand and debris on the door O-rings and down in the groove after a dive and upon opening the housing.

The OP asked what other people do. I explained my routine.

"So, it got me to wondering what other folks do:"

I did not say it was necessary or required. I remove, clean and lube with each opening and I answered the original question.

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by Nemrod

I tend to pull the o rings after every day of diving on my camera housing and Inons. I tend not to do that with focusing and video lights. I do mostly shore diving, and it’s hella sandy around here. I also tend to feel grit, debris and imperfections on the rings more easily than I can see them.

I remove the oring of my Nauticam LX10 clamshell housing after every diving day, clean the groove (which has water dropplets) with a pair makeup applier spongy thingies, check, clean the o-ring and micro-lubricate it with Nauticam grease - it's mostly to help as I run it around the fingers a few times to feel for any grit. I'm also more of feeler for this.

If there is any I remove it and replace the o-ring after it feels smooth and double check there is nothing visible on the o-ring or housing groove.

Lights I do every once in a while, when the oring is unclean, feels a little dry or if the lights where in direct contact with sand.
I used to lubricate the outside of the o-ring only but am now happier removing them as it's a good way to check the groove as well, as I've had suprises.

I shore dive every second day, 3 days a week on average.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by bghazzal