How was your rig flooded?

You need to add at least one more - defective equipment, had that happen twice to me.

Ditto. My only flood was due to a manufacturer's error resulting in an "undersized" port.

I did a classic flood about 5 years ago in Sipadan. Thank god that it was a P&S Digicam.

I was sleeping in a Hammock between dives. I woke by the shout "time to dive". In the stress I was missing a hair while closing the lid.

I am for the moment quite happy that it happened to me with a cheap kit ( moral support for Alex :-) ). I hope that it makes me a bit more aware nowadays. I have3 promised myself to skip the Camera if it happens again. If I really will skip the Camera on a dive is another question. i tend to prepare all the camera stuff before heading to the hammock nowadays.

/Erik

Hi All

I am a total philistine when it comes to housings.

I do very little of what Dave wisely suggests except try to avoid getting my rig knocked about.

This is my pathetic list.

1) Never ever lend it to anybody.

2) If its water tight leave it alone.

3) Grease the port and back o'ring very lightly before each time it goes together.

4) Watch for pinches. (Sometimes I undo the back a couple of times as my rig is pinch prone)

5) Have a look on the way down.

6) Avoid opening it up until its dry if I can.

7) Tighten up the screw on port of my Aquatica with a rubber tightener thingo!

Bingo! I have never had a flood on a housing but I think this is more to do with the 2x Aquatica's I have had for the last 15 years. Prior to that no floods either.

The Nikonos 3 I keep as a backup has never had an o'ring changed in 25 years and still has never leaked.

How long do O'rings last anyway?

A good mate of mine bought a brand new Subal housing a few years agop and, being an engineer, he checked it throughly stripped it and greased all the o'rings, tested the rig sans camera, and then took a shallow dive to check it out - all's well. Took it on the next dive and then whilst de-gassing at 5m a line of bubbles comes out of the housing and farewell to a brand new camera and lens. He can't understand why it happened all the clips were tight and the port was the same and it drove him crazy for a couple of months trying to figure out what went wrong. HE never found out why.

You need to add at least one more - defective equipment, had that happen twice to me.

Same here. I flooded my DSLR two weeks ago. The reason was a small crack in the (Ikelite) port, right next to the O-ring, which I overlooked while mounting the port. How the port got broken is however a complete mistery to me.

Let's see what my insurance is worth

Bart

I have flooded 2 P&S's - actually, my husband pinched an O-ring in one (his fault!! not mine!!!). The other was a Canon housing that I couldn't see any issues with...but it had about 200 dives (or more) on it, many of them shore dives with surf entries, rusty hinges....and it flooded during a dive to about 100 ft...if you ask me, it was just that housing's "time." Frankly, I was surprised it lived as long as it did!!

An experienced UW photog told me once that he tries to avoid messing with stuff too much - as he put it, "If it isn't broken, why fix it?" - meaning, he doesn't take O-rings out and clean them obsessively, etc. This is what I try to remember if I am doing boat dives, and it works well. However, most of the time, my dives are of the So Cal surf entry shore variety, so I do take out and gently clean my housing and strobe O-rings any time they are opened, as there is always sand in there afterwards!! I have started doing a check system - look to make sure O rings are not hanging out, look to be sure port is on securely and flush to the housing, ensure that camera is working and triggering the strobes....and then I fill up the tub in our guest bathroom and do a quick dip to look for bubbles and watch the leak indicator light. The last step saved me from a flood at least once.

I'd love to hear from other divers who do a lot of shore entries - what do you do???

Also, I've not been on a liveaboard since I bought my dSLR setup - can you just ask the crew not to put your rig in the rinse bucket when they take it from you?

I've never flooded a housing...

With that said, "can you just ask the crew not to put your rig in the rinse bucket when they take it from you."

That's possibly a very worthwhile thought...

Same here. I flooded my DSLR two weeks ago. The reason was a small crack in the (Ikelite) port, right next to the O-ring, which I overlooked while mounting the port. How the port got broken is however a complete mistery to me.

 

Let's see what my insurance is worth

 

Bart

Ouch sorry about that. The ones I had were not even visible or easily found, I had to send one housing back twice until the manufacturer found the issue. They insisted it was fine when I sent it back, even though I explained exactly the steps which would cause the leak in my cover letter, and when I felt uncomfortable before a trip for the first time after they checked it out, I sent it back. Then they found the issue. A defective internal portion of the gland (non user serviceable on a housing with about a dozen and a half dives) on the shutter release would start letting water in at depth when used. Fortunately I stopped shooting the first dive when I saw the flood right below the tray (splashes hit the camera), figuring it was user error the second time I figured out the problem. Dry as a bone until I started shooting. I got good at holding the housing horizontal

We've tried to think of everything, but no plan is infallible measure.

BTW, The paper diaper is superabsorbent goods.　

If your housing is flooded, you set some parts of paper diapper inside your housing in advance, its will rescue your camera and housing from in flood.

Yoko

mine flooded first dive after a preventative service!

Flooded my housing in the rinse tank test prior to dive. I rescued the camera and ended up diving without the camera for a weekend. Turned out to be my initial mistake by leaving the eyecup in place. However the housing failed the 2nd rinse tank test sans the camera. In hindsight pre-dunking your rig is a good thing to do.

I've also flooded a P&S camera in a pool. Camera got soaked but still worked fine after a thorough baking. To this day I have no idea what caused that flood. Housing and camera went on many dry dives after that episode.

"Flooded" my canon p/s housing. I believe it was my fault as I giant strided into the water. I'll never do that again. The leak was very very slight, coming in through one of the control buttons and only added a few drops of water (enough to destroy camera). Canon, its credit, replaced both the housing and the camera. Much to my surprise. Doubt they'd do that again. But it taught me that when I do get an slr, I want wan that is weather proof, as it only takes a little water to destroy a camera, hopefully a weatherproof one wont be destroyed by a tiny bit of salt water.

I plan to dive without the camera in my housing to test things ..... its a new housing....

flooded through the viewfinder, 1st dive after routine service.