Minor housing flood

I was diving today with my Nikon D300 in Ikelite Housing. Everything was fine for the first 30 or so minute of the dive. We'd been at around 18 metres (60') for 25 minutes when the UW Leak Detector started to flash. I immediately signaled to my buddy that it was time to surface and we headed back as quickly as possible. I kept the housing as level as I could all the way back.

Once out of the water I was able to inspect it a bit and other than a few drops of water on the side of the housing, it looked pretty good. Back at the car I removed the camera from the housing (after a quick rinse with freshwater) and the camera was dry. There were 1-3 mL of water running along the bottom of the housing (right under the leak detector sensor). I had a sanitary napkin under the camera tray and it appears to have taken up some water but I'm not sure how much.

The rear O ring looks completely intact and I'm 100% positive the water didn't get in there. The port O ring also looks fine and appeared to be sealed correctly. Neither O ring had any hairs or similar in them.

The water droplets that were visible inside the housing were between the shutter release control and the aperture control (sub-command dial) and also below the aperture control. I wonder if this suggests the water came in through either of these. The very last thing I did before the alarm came on was tried to adjust the aperture (and I hadn't touched the dial during the dive up until then).

I've had the housing since February 2008 and done nearly 50 dives with it. This is the first time I've had any issues. The previous dive was to 18 metres, I've done 2 dives to 21 metres with it this year and 7 dives deeper than 20 metres last year, including two to more than 30 metres.

What recommendations can people give? Should I send the the housing back to Ikelite to test and repair? Is there any easy way I can determine where the water got in? I know I could take the housing for a dive (minus the camera) and see if it leaks again, but I'd be wary of using it with the camera. I'm also not sure if I could trust myself to repair it.

Edit: I should add that the UW Leak Detector and sanitary napkin most likely saved my camera.

Personally I would want it sorting without wasting a dive.....which might not tell you definitively where the leak is. A pressure test is the best thing. Get this done if at all possible but it may be difficult finding somewhere without shipping it off and being without it for weeks. I have on occasions traced minor leaks at home - not very scientific but it may save a lot of trouble. Before tightening up any controls or fiddling with anything, I would immerse the housing in a garden pond or even a deep bucket. Because it will not be deep, leave it a good few hours but keep an eye on it as you don't want to ruin any electrics which I would try to protect by taping up somehow. Examine very carefully internally afterwards for the slightest hint of water droplets around any controls or where anything is attached to the housing in manufacture by self-tapping screws (these sometimes start to show hairline cracks).

A pressure test is the best thing.

Just a FYI, I had a leak that was not found even with pressure testing, had to send it back a couple of times so the actual steps to have it leak were followed by having someone take it into a pool (no leak until shutter pressed, bad part internally yet still passed the pressure test. Go figure. Very much a pain in the rear.)

ANdrew,

The fact that after you stopped activating those controls no more water came in would lead me to believe either something was loose or the internal "x-ring" somehow got nicked.

I'd check the set screws on the sub command dial knob and your shutter release outside knob to see if they're tight.

The shutter release has a black plastic over over it and some have a razor blade slit in the end so you can insert an allen wrench and make sure that hasn't come loose.

50 dives isn't a lot on those controls though but I have seen some come loose which is why I check mine from time to time.

A shallow (low pressure) bucket test as others recommend would certainly show if it was one of the controls you moved right before your incident.

I'd turn one at a time and pull the housing out to see if any water is dribbling inside from that location.

Good luck!

dhaas

Thanks for the responses.

OK, I might try the "shallow" bucket idea. I actually have a 200L drum (stands over a metre high) but my arms aren't long enough to reach the bottom. Big problem here is that it is winter so the water (in the drum) is around 10ºC. I might have to put my wetsuit top on the test it.

One thing I do remember doing... I couldn't actually get the aperture changed* and thinking that the sub-command dial control was one of those that slid out, I pulled on it gently to see if that made a difference. It wasn't something the control shouldn't be able to handle but probably something I hadn't done before. Perhaps the seal isn't as good as it should be and that let some water in. I'm positive no water had come in before then - and I'd been at 18m for 25 minutes by then so I doubt it was just the pressure.

I will concentrate on that control in my tests.

* I normally test all my controls once the camera is in the housing. Unfortunately, I was interrupted for dinner after I had carefully assembled the housing but before I completed my testing and forgot to finish testing after dinner.

I would suggest diving an empty housing. 10-15m depth. Work all the controls several times while looking for possible leak path. A bucket test would show something major, but small leak paths may require more pressure to become visible. Better to waste a dive & save a camera.

Thanks for the responses.

 

OK, I might try the "shallow" bucket idea. I actually have a 200L drum (stands over a metre high) but my arms aren't long enough to reach the bottom. Big problem here is that it is winter so the water (in the drum) is around 10ºC. I might have to put my wetsuit top on the test it.

 

One thing I do remember doing... I couldn't actually get the aperture changed* and thinking that the sub-command dial control was one of those that slid out, I pulled on it gently to see if that made a difference. It wasn't something the control shouldn't be able to handle but probably something I hadn't done before. Perhaps the seal isn't as good as it should be and that let some water in. I'm positive no water had come in before then - and I'd been at 18m for 25 minutes by then so I doubt it was just the pressure.

 

I will concentrate on that control in my tests.

 

* I normally test all my controls once the camera is in the housing. Unfortunately, I was interrupted for dinner after I had carefully assembled the housing but before I completed my testing and forgot to finish testing after dinner.

I have had a flood with an Ikelite and it turned out to be the aperture control knob. Check the set screws before you go down as was suggested and make sure they are tight. I had the knob come off at 80 ft and it wasn't pretty.

Tony

I'm just back from a test dive with the housing (empty) and can confirm the sub-command dial (aperture) control is the culprit. It was only a relatively shallow dive (10-12m) and I did not touch any controls for the first 30 minutes or so. The housing was perfectly dry. I then jiggled the sub-command dial control and sure enough, water came in. The knob itself is tight and it appears the water is getting in through the shaft of the knob. I'm not sure how I go about fixing this.

By the way, it wasn't a waste of a dive as the dive itself was great. Great viz (10-15m), 6 weedy sea dragons, 2 giant cuttlefish, lots of tiny nudibranchs, a school of large squid.

I removed the knob from the outside and the gear from the inside and can remove the shaft. The shaft goes through an O ring in the bulkhead. From what I can see of the O ring there are no nicks or anything. The problem appears to be that either the O ring is not tight enough around the shaft or there is too much movement possible in the shaft (or both). Turning the shaft (with the knob) probably does not cause the leak, but applying even the slightest pressure forward or aft on the knob is enough to let water in.

I'm not sure if it is a design flaw or a bad O ring. I have emailed Ikelite (way before start of business on Monday) asking for their advice but have not yet received a reply.

How does the fore/aft pressure become applied to shaft under normal conditions? Maybe a slight camera alignment problem? As long as you have the shaft removed, might as well install a new o-ring. Ike should be able to mail you one.

How does the fore/aft pressure become applied to shaft under normal conditions?

Surge, a bump from a fellow diver, etc. while attempting to adjust the aperture. It doesn't take much to let the water get in - at least it didn't yesterday at 10 metres.

Maybe a slight camera alignment problem?

Nah, there are 2 gears between the camera and the shaft. Camera alignment wouldn't cause leaking - at it still leaked with no camera in it.

As long as you have the shaft removed, might as well install a new o-ring. Ike should be able to mail you one.

I haven't exposed the O ring as yet. That would require removing the nut on the bulkhead. I'll wait for a response from Ikelite.

Andrew,

The little o-ring that seals all Ikelite's control shafts are "x-rings' meaning they have TWO internal surfaces the control slides through. Sometimes if a bit of sand or something gets into that very tight area under the outside knob it will gradually wear down those surfaces in one area, and as you state when you move it a drip can get in each time you move it.

In 35 years of using Ikelite housings I've only seen this occasionally usually with certain controls we tend to change fairly often like aperture, shutter speed, etc.

Since you've removed the knob set screw and pulled the shaft inside, it's literally only a wrench removal of the outside nut to reveal the pocket these x-rings sit down in.

Any Ikelite dealer likely has the x-rings (part # 0100) . Grease it up, drop it in and re-install your control shaft and knob.

Make sure if there were any thin plastic washers under the control knob you re-install them too. These are shims to keep the control from going in so far (from water pressure) and make the inside contact of your control the correct distance. Since your front command knob engages a couple of gears you may have to play with i t make sure it's snug but not too tight or too loose.

Good luck!

dhaas

Thanks very much for the information.

I'm still trying to track some x rings down. The local dealer doesn't have any, the Australian importer won't return my calls and Ikelite won't return my emails. I may have to call Ikelite and get them to send me some.

I was actually hoping I could get one before the weekend but looks like it will be at least the next weekend now.

Update: I managed to get hold of the importer and he's sending me some x and o rings. Hopefully they'll arrive tomorrow and I can test the housing on Saturday.

I have some good news.

X rings (and O rings for the control bulkhead) arrived on Friday afternoon. I removed the old X ring and O ring and put in the new ones. I could not detect anything wrong with the old X ring but that may be a comment about my eyes more than the X ring. A quick test in the bottom of a 200L drum of freshwater showed there were no major leaks.

I then did a dive on Saturday to a depth of just over 13 metres and the housing did not leak at all. I held off playing with the control knob in question until near the end of the dive (so I wouldn't cut the dive short for my buddy) but I could not cause any water to get in. The control certainly felt tighter underwater than it had been previously. Perhaps the X ring had stretched tightly.

I'm back in business thanks very much to Wetpixel and especially dhaas. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Andrew,

Good news and I'm assuming you greased up the little x-ring, especially the INSIDE lobes where the control shaft slides through. This is where your command dial shaft turns on those surfaces.

If so your control should turn smoothly and that pocket being blocked off pretty well from sand intrusion should be good for several hundred dives now

Good shooting!

dhaas

I gave it a pretty good amount of grease. I didn't want to put too much as it might attract sand, etc.

This has turned into a saga and is still not resolved.

After my success of the test after replacing the O and X rings on the problem control I did two more dives: 21 June, 12.5m, 34 minutes; 27 June, 13.8m, 38 minutes. Both dives were uneventful and no water got in the housing. I didn't take many photos on either dive as there wasn't much to photograph.

General diving conditions were pretty poor for most of July and I didn't get in for another dive until 25 July. On a dive that weekend (10m, 45 minutes) the housing seemed to perform very well. I took lots of photos, including adjusting the aperture a few times on the dive. At one point I even jiggled the control as I was confident it was fixed. The leak detector did not alert. The housing went into the back of the car as normal after the dive. When I got home, the leak detector was flashing. Water had got in but it mustn't have made it to the detector until the movement in the car. There was much less water than before (although the pad had soaked up a bit) but there was still some there. I'm pretty sure it was the jiggling of the control that did it.

The next weekend I took the camera and housing for another dive (10m, 51 minutes). This time I was very careful when changing apertures not to jiggle the control. No water got into the housing which assured me it wasn't just a general leak and that the problem was still most likely related to the sub-command dial control.

I emailed Ikelite again explaining the problem in detail and asking for assurance they'd be able to test it properly. They said they can do a vacuum test which allows them to simulate the pressure but still being able to manipulate the controls. They said I needed to include an letter explaining the problem.

On Tuesday 4 August I packaged up the housing with a very detailed letter explaining the problem and that it was the sub-command dial control that was letting in water, and shipped it to them. They got the housing on Friday 7 August.

On the morning of 18 August (so COB 17 August in the US), I get an email from Ikelite saying they have done a pressure test (no mention of a vacuum test) and it did not leak and asking if there was anything else I wanted done before they sent it back. To say I was annoyed at this point is an understatement. I wrote back to them explaining yet again the problem (as already detailed in the letter) and that a vacuum test was required with particular attention to that control.

The next morning I get an email from Ikelite saying they'd get the repair tech to go over it with a vacuum test again (even though the previous email suggested that a vacuum test hadn't been done) and that a copy of the letter had been printed for him - um... it was already printed in the box with the housing. This is now the morning of the 19th for me and the afternoon of the 18th for them.

I didn't hear back from them so I assumed they were continuing with the testing. On the evening of Tuesday 25 August, there's a knock at the door and there's a courier with the housing. I check the documentation and it was sent on the 19th but nothing stating what they had done. There was no charge for the investigation or shipping back to me.

I emailed them to find out what was done an was told they vacuum tested it and could not get it to leak. They also said they pulled all the controls apart and claimed they could see evidence of water getting past one of the controls on the back and they replaced that control. Now, if water had indeed got past one of the controls on the back of the housing, the camera would have got wet. There's not much clearance between the back and the camera. At no point has the camera got wet. They did nothing at all about the sub-command dial control (which I know was letting water in and can do it without wetting the camera).

I was pretty disappointed that they had not done any work on the suspect control, despite me telling them a number of times I had seen water get in. They also didn't even bother to email me before they sent the housing back - because if they had I would have told them to replace the control even if I had to pay for it.

I took the housing for another dive on Friday afternoon (28 August) and I couldn't get it to leak. Even though I wasn't confident it was fixed, I was desperate to take photos so I took the camera on a night dive. I had no problems at all for the whole dive. I didn't need to change the aperture and I wasn't going to push my luck - at least on a night dive. Just as I was standing up at the end of the dive to take my fins off, the detector started flashing. I can't be sure if water got in earlier and standing up caused the water to flow over the detector's sensor or if I might have bumped the control as I was standing up (which is entirely possible as the control is next to the handle). Bottom line was I still had a leaky housing.

Another email to Ikelite and they are now suggesting I don't know how to put the main and port O rings in - despite having more than 100 dives with DSLR housings and even more dives with previous housings and cameras.

Now, I can understand that they weren't able to reproduce the problem (I have no idea how much they jiggled the suspect control), but I can't understand why they wouldn't replace the control that has let water in on at least 3 occasions. I also don't understand why they wouldn't email me before shipping the housing back knowing how long it takes and how much it costs to ship a housing halfway around the world.

I'm at a loss with what to do next. If I didn't have so much invested in Ikelite gear (strobes, ports, D70 housing) I'd cut my losses and go with another manufacturer. I'm sick of diving without a camera but I also don't want a risk the camera in a unreliable housing.

Never had an Ike so going by pics on their web page. Looks like the control shaft passes thru a gland that screws into the housing material with o-ring/x-ring on gland & shaft. If this is correct, has the entire gland/shaft/o-ring assembly been replaced? I'm guessing a scratch or nick in the gland material.

As indicated above, no, it has not been replaced. This was despite me telling Ikelite that the housing leaked in 3 occasions before it was sent to them. Of those 3 times, one most definitely was water getting past the shaft of the sub-command dial control (as I watched it), once was almost certainly the control (as I had jiggled the control immediately prior to the leak) and the last was very likely to be that same control as I had jiggled it on one dive out of 4 and it only leaked on that one dive.

I should state again that the "jiggling" wouldn't be normal operation. The control is not that tight and it can be pushed forward and back around one millimetre. While you wouldn't normally do this, it can easily happen with surge or if you get bumped. I'm sure the leak on Friday night resulted from an accidental bump of the control. Some of the other controls also have the same amount of give but they do not let water in.