How many dives before servicing for the pro's?

I'd be interested in hearing how long pro photograpers like Alex and Mike go before they service their housings?

I only ask as I've just come off 6 weeks of solid diving (97 dives) in Palau with my Aquatica D300 housing.

Now I plan on another 240 to 300 dives before the end of the first year of service for my housing. Now is 300 to 400 dives before servicing too long?

Or if I change the port and housing O ring every 50 or 100 dives would the button o rings be fine as long as the housing gets rinsed correctly?

Just wondering how hard these housings can be worked.

Cheers.

This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many variables. Not least different housings seem to take workloads very differently. Plus one diver's 100 dives can create much more wear than another's.

Perhaps the biggest issue is that unlike a photographic technique were there clear rights and wrongs, it is hard to be definitive here. Some will rack up 100s of dives with a problem or need for a service. Others will dive much less and have problems. I would hate to tell someone that they didn't need to worry about a service and then they had a flood.

I wrote quite a lot about my service schedule/or lack of it in an article on my D2X in UWP 43. The text of the article is also on my website. That will tell you what I have done, although its up to you whether you follow it!

Alex

I suppose it depends on your housing. ive done hundreds and hundreds of dives with my ND2 subal housing and never had it serviced. I take care of it, and it's happy. YMMV with other brands.

Talking with Kevin at Aquaphot (Ikelite service centre) he feels that a 100 dives is enough before a service.

I'm sure its not workload that is the yardstick but more the degree of care. If all my dives were from a liveaboard with a convenient fresh water rinse tank then I expect the service interval may be significantly extended. But the majority of my dives are from RIB's and shore where the housing will be lucky to receive a quick splash of mineral water...

Thanks for the responses guys.

I'm afraid sending the camera in for a service after only 100 dives is completely out of the question.

Being an engineer and using o rings for lots of things at work I appreciate how tough they are as long as you avoid pinching them or exposing them to high temperatures and salt crystals. We use identical o rings that are exposed to much higher pressures for years on end and still function as long as nothing abrasive gets near them.

I'll just keep an eye on it and if some of the buttons begin to get sticky it may be time for a service although I will definately send it in after a year no matter what.

I have just recalled another snippet from Kevin (Aquaphot). Servicing is not just about o-rings. Chrome can flake on the button stems which will quickly damage an o-ring. A clear Ike housing allows for fairly close inspection but may be worth periodically checking stems.

This is true but I would be very disappointed in Aquatica if that was an issue especially if I dry the housing every evening.

Then again I think all the Aquatica buttons are stainless steel......I'll check.

100 dives? I probably did 1,000 on my Seacam before I sent it in.

You should be able to *feel* your housing requiring service. Decide from the gut.

By the way, I know Mikey's answer (assuming you're talking about Veitch). When the housing breaks, send it in.

Thanks Eric that was the kind of answer I was looking for.

Yes as for Mike I was wondering how many dives he'd been doing in YAP between services, not like he could pop down the road and get it done.

I think 1 year with approx 350 to 400 dives will be my target.

Be careful about sending it in for service. I sent my D200 housing in for a full service, got it back and it flooded the first dive. totaled the camera and lens. I can't help thinking that an o ring on one of the control buttons was bad. I was told they couldn't clearly identify the leak, it leaked 2 out of 3 times tested in their tank. They replaced/serviced the o rings before each test. I now have a D300 housing

Its probably the same type of things that happens with regulators............they always work great until they get serviced.

*coughs*

Mikes housing is sat in a box at our house in bali due to pitting making it unusable.

I send my reg in for service every year. Thats live saving equipment, I dont take any risk with that. Ive had 2 SLR housings, one for the D100 and one for the D2x. Both Subal, and ive never ever sent one in for service. Ive had one replaced due to a factory defect, but otherwise nothing. Ive got a spares kit that in theory I could use to replace everything, but ive never needed it.

How many dives do you have on the housings then cor?

My D2x housing probably has about 500 dives.

Well I have never sent a housing in to be serviced and I have never had a flood.

My Subal FS2 was serviced 3,5 years after I bought it. But I dive one or two times in a month. Now I am planing for a D700 and a Aquatica housing. I would like to have the point of view of an Aquatica owner. Thank's

Like Eric says, I started to notice sticky buttons specially at depth so I self-serviced the housing in one afternoon and It feels like new again. That housing was a Hugy D200 with more than two years and 500+ dives (never a leak).

I dismounted all buttons and put them in vinegar for a an hour or so to clean the calcium carbonate on the metal shafts.

Cleant all housing holes and o-rings, greased them and, after a thorough rinse of the vinegar in freshwater, remounted all back.

One empty-housing dive pressing all buttons and wheels and I had the feeling of having a new housing...

I've had my D200 housing for two years and never sent it in for service and never had any "sticky" buttons. I had a D100 housing for 3 years before that with one servicing mid-way.

I faithfully soak in fresh water after every trip and make sure I push all the buttons numerous times while it's soaking for at LEAST 24 hours.

I then grease the main o-ring and port o-rings before every trip and don't remove them during the trip unless I'm sitting in some sand somewhere...my D200 housing probably has 350-400 dives on it.

I've just sent the D200 housing off for a conversion to the D300 model and asked them to service the buttons/o-rings completely.

This will be my third Aquatica housing and I love them!