Housing Service Intervals

I am specifically looking for recommendations on Aquatica housings (since this is what I have) but I'm sure this would be an interesting discussion for everyone.

Every bit of research I have done on this recommends a "once-a-year" overhaul for an Aquatica housing. My housing has been on 2 dive trips this year (though the second one doesn't really count because my D2X crapped out on the first day of diving).

Considering that O-Rings are damaged more by use than age (comments on this would be great!), I'd really be interested to hear your opinions on the frequency of these overhauls.

How do you decide? By usage, time, or something else?

Thanks!

-Jay

Manufacturers should recommend something like "every 100 dives or every 2 years" what occurs first...

At least those numbers look safe to me...

But definitely must consider usage as first indicator, time as second.

With regulators, that makes sense because of the movement of parts that breaks down lubricants and o-rings. With a housing, the concerns are a little different - you're worried about o-rings breaking from use, certainly, but you also have t be concerned about corrosion. If you only dive twice a year but don't clean your housing well, then yearly service is a good thing still. Aquatica housings have sacrificial anodes on the base that need to be changed, but that is a combination of usage and cleaning.

As far as the statement that 0-rings are damaged more by use than age, I'm not totally convinced that that is true. Drying out and cracking still occurs, even without use.

That being said, I've never sent any housing, aluminum or otherwise, in for service. I have serviced buttons on my own, but that takes a lot of confidence in your own abilities to do work and acquire the right parts.

Tough question <_< , the obvious is that we have to recommend a time frame for maintenance, what is not so obvious is the who is reading this recommendation, some folks do very few photo dives in a year and are maniacal about maintenance, other are photo pros on live aboard that are day in day out in the water and have little free time for taking care of the gear cause theyre busy pampering us in between, there is a a brochette of situations. My take on this is, do not neglect your stuff and if neglecting it is innevitable, then learn to do your maintenance yourself.

The most frequent causes of problem are linked directly to the user not rinsing long and good enough. if you pay attention to your equipment you will learn to discern when controls are getting stiffer or sloppy, better yet read between the line and schedule yourself a realistic maintenance schedule, one based on your need.

i'm affraid its not a thing you can slap a number on, oh and BTW, please if you are planning a dive trip in a few months, don't wait the last week to verify your gear , give your gear a pool run at least a month prior to the trip to confirm everything is green to go.

If you are insecure about your schedule, contact your dealer or your manufacturer and discuss it with them, after all we made the thing in the first place and customer support start by you picking up the phone or dropping us a line.