Leaking dome port?

Hi all,

as the topic suggests, I seem to have a leaking dome port. From what I can tell the water is coming in from where the dome joins the plate. I'm assuming this because there's no sign of water anywhere but inside the dome itself. The weird thing is this, my last 5 dives with the dome:

-32m, slight leak after about 20min on the bottom, ascended, no safety stop, a few dribbles in the dome

-38m, same day, no water at all from what i can tell (and I was watching pretty closely!), maybe 6-8min ascent.

One week later:

-85m dive, bounce, looking for wreck, total dive time 62min, no water.

-umm, deeper than the last, total dive time 254min, no water in dome.

Two weeks later (today):

-5m, 20min, noticed dribbles in the dome after 15min, increasing. left camera hanging from boat for 2-3min (dome down), more water after the hanging. Considerably more water than the first dive I noticed the issue.

My guess is that whatever leak that occurs gets 'sealed' by pressure at depth, so the deeper stuff doesn't matter, but it doesn't explain how i can have effectively 2 hours sitting at 6m on deco and have no water come in?

Any suggestions on how to proceed? Is it stuffed?

TIA

Dean

To hazard a guess, I'd say that you also have an air temperature/expansion/contraction effect. If the warm air in the housing is cooled then even as you move upwards the seal may still be better than a shallow dive in warmer water where the contraction of air inside the housing is less. Does that make sense?

I'm sure that you can get the dome repaired - probably just a new 'O' ring which needs reseating carefully.

To hazard a guess, I'd say that you also have an air temperature/expansion/contraction effect. If the warm air in the housing is cooled then even as you move upwards the seal may still be better than a shallow dive in warmer water where the contraction of air inside the housing is less. Does that make sense?

 

I'm sure that you can get the dome repaired - probably just a new 'O' ring which needs reseating carefully.

Hey Dean,

Send your port up and I will check it out for you. In the meantime a loaner is on it's way tomorrow.

Hope this helps.

P

Ahh, thanks heaps peter, you're a lifesaver, will box it up and send it up asap.

I've seen an Aquatica domeport separate from the it's mounting plate while sitting on a boat - the housing had been loaded in a cool environment and sat in the sun for about an hour on the boat. The heat expansion caused the dome plastic to push away from the plate it mounts to. The aquatica dome is siliconed onto the base - in this case, it pushed out far enough that it created a small leak. This diver pushed the dome back down and dove without incident - but this sounds like it could be your problem. Hope this helps!