o-rings

I have a question I have just got a new ikelite housing, after a day of diving I normally take the housing apart and clean the orings for the next day of diving. Some one told me that I should not open it until I really had too, change the batt, or change my m-card. As always opening the housing could create a leak. I never had a problem before.

Any suggestions

There is no absolute right or wrong answer here.

Do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Yes, each time you open a housing there is a risk but I see many people both strip down and conversely leave alone their housings.

I would suggest that you download your shots once a day at a minimum - myself, I am lazy and generally don't bother to open a housing after each dive unless I have to for a new battery or lens swap.

Paul C

If I'm on a liveaboard, I open the housing, download my shots and change the battery after every dive. I clean the o rings each time and am careful to set the camera up again properly each time. I don't see that a flood is significantly more likely after opening it (if you are careful). I'd rather get the shots off the camera as soon as possible as anything can go wrong at any time and if I was to lose the camera, I'd at least like to have as many of my shots as I could.

In my experience and those of some others, even if you flood your camera, usually your memory card will survive. Now please don't take what I said as gospel. I don't know if this is true in all cases.

I'm of the philosophy that if I don't have to open my housing to change batteries, I don't mess with it. However, when I do open it, I generally leave the o-rings in place and do a visual check with my focus light. I can't tell you how many times I have found hair on the orings after a dive. Where does this hair come from????

I particularly remember an incident in the camera room at Lembeh Resort. I just switched out batteries, closed the housing and said to no one in particular in the room, "I guess I'm getting lazy because I forgot to check the o rings." I was going to forget about checking them and just check the camera out in the rinse tank, but then I thought better of it. I opened up the housing again, checked the o rings with the light, and sure enough, there was a big old hair laying right there, just waiting to mess up my trip. Then someone else in the room started hitting the pile of "clean" towels and all kinds of hair just started flying out. Looked like cat hair to me. So 30 seconds of prevention sure save me from a lot cussing.

I do not open it unless I have to.

It is partly because I usually prefer to do something else than fiddling around with the O-rings.

However, every time you open/close the Camera before the dive there is a certain risk. The level of this risk could be discussed, but ít is for sure not 0. Opening the housing between dives can also create stress and that is the biggest risk. I flooded a Camera, due to stress between dives. However, the Memory card survived the floody hell. ( It was a compact, so I survived )

/Erik

Thanks Guys

I shall stick to what I have been doing, at the end of the day I shall download my pics and clean the o rings.

Ikelites are solid and the O-rings are easily seen, just make sure you don't have any mess under there and it'll be fine, do bubble tests if you're not sure in a bucket! I've had the worst battery ever and had to charge between every dive, so done four dives a day without cleaning or removing O-ring. They are tougher than you think, just treat it like a lady, nice and gentle, and keep it clean!!

Great suggestion

Having suffered a slow but steady housing leak in a clear see thru housing at 30' & noticed bubbles/water in bottom of housing rising, which flooded cam & card/batt etc...have thought about it & wondered if next time/in future a strong empty shopping bag up wetsuit sleeve might have helped. It could be easily & quickly deployed like a 'lift bag', inflated w air, & as housing & diver ascend, expanding air bubble would minimise water ingress. Without this, ascending reduces air pressure in housing & water ingress increases.

Any other opinions?

Btw...Westpac home & contents premium covered it.

Legendpix, this will probably not work. The pressure inside the housing is not ambient pressure, but that off the surface.

Hi all

The pressure in the housing is indeed the same as on sea level - unless there is a leak...?! If the housing is fully flooded, then it should be close to ambient pressure - isn't it so? And if the flooding is partial, then the pressure should allso be somewhere between 1 ATM and the ambient...

As u descend the pressure gradient get's bigger and with flooding it deminishes. So the bigger the difference between ambient pressure and the one inside the housing - the stronger the flooding. So if You are ascending should'nt the flooding stop or atleast diminish thanks to the smaller pressure gradient and expanding air inside the housing? Cause if there was a flooding and some air still remains inside the housing, then at the surface the pressure inside the housing should be bigger than 1 ATM.

Someone strong in fysics could really light up this for me :-D

p.s. With "see through" housing i but a tampon at the bottom of the housing, to take the first waterattack and gimme some time to escape water. Don't belive this would help if u are quite deep

Cheers

Scubamoose

...and here are my thoughts on the topic.

The Air pressure inside the Housing should stay the same if is water/gas tight. I assume that the interesting point is the pressure gradient between the water ( hopefully on the outside) and the air on the inside of the Housing. At the surface the gradient is 1:1 and at 30m 4:1. This gradient is affecting the O-rings. If you reduce this gradient, ie getting up. Then you could be able to stop the flooding, atleast a smaller.

My theoretical assumption is that a lift bag and some tampon could be able to save the situation, if you are lucky. I will however still rather check the O-rings an extra time instead of relying on the Liftbag.

Cheers,

Erik

...and here are my thoughts on the topic.

The Air pressure inside the Housing should stay the same if is water/gas tight. I assume that the interesting point is the pressure gradient between the water ( hopefully on the outside) and the air on the inside of the Housing. At the surface the gradient is 1:1 and at 30m 4:1. This gradient is affecting the O-rings. If you reduce this gradient, ie getting up. Then you could be able to stop the flooding, atleast a smaller.

My theoretical assumption is that a lift bag and some tampon could be able to save the situation, if you are lucky. I will however still rather check the O-rings an extra time instead of relying on the Liftbag.

 

Cheers,

Erik

Totaly

Seems like my assumptions vere right

But offcourse the priority is to check and the recheck the o-ring before the dive rather than looking for solutions in case for flooding.

I open the housing usually after each dive, download the images and change the battery... quess it's a newbe "thing"

Cheers, Scubamoose

Most DSLR's can survive a day of shooting without opening them. P&S's are a different story usually due to having to change the batteries. I completely disassemble my housing/strobe orings, clean, regrease each day. I had a flood at 20ft (housing issue not dirty oring) and held the housing port down, slowly ascended and saved both the lens and camera. DSLR ports are quite large and hold quite a bit of water. Unless you have a major leak at depth, you should be able to ascend safely and possibly save both camera and lens.

Most DSLR's can survive a day of shooting without opening them. P&S's are a different story usually due to having to change the batteries. I completely disassemble my housing/strobe orings, clean, regrease each day. I had a flood at 20ft (housing issue not dirty oring) and held the housing port down, slowly ascended and saved both the lens and camera. DSLR ports are quite large and hold quite a bit of water. Unless you have a major leak at depth, you should be able to ascend safely and possibly save both camera and lens.

Good to know in case I'm updating to DSLR someday - wich I certainly will. And yes, I'm using P&S at the moment and I had times, when the battery (alltough it's brand new) dies before the end of a second dive, so I better change it rather than miss some great shot opportunityes.

Cheers, Scubamoose