Minor housing flood

So the camera mounts on the back plate? Sorry, I don't keep current on Ike.

So the camera mounts on the back plate?

Yes. I believe they always have.

I thought a lot about this last night while I couldn't sleep - yes, I'm now losing sleep over it.

The housing was fine for the first 46 dives I did with it. I had no leaks and never had any water in the housing at all. Then, on the 47th dive it lets water in through the sub-command dial control. It makes sense to me that the other leaks I have seen since I replaced the rings on the sub-command dial control are similar but just coming in other controls.

I wonder if some (or even all) of the O rings and/or X rings are on the way out. They still have enough elasticity to stop water getting in under static pressure, but can no longer cope with a bit of manipulation of the controls as this stretches them more. I believe this is almost certainly the case with the sub-command dial control as it was definitely letting water in before I replaced the O and X rings and now I can't make it let water in.

What I don't understand is why they are on the way out. I believe my maintenance regime is the same as for my D70 housing which did over 60 dives and still seems to be fine after no use for 18 months.

If my thinking is right, every single O and X ring needs to be replaced and if this fixes things, how often would I need to replace them?

O-rings should last at least a year with lots of dives. If you do much muck diving then the fine sediment will work its way into the gland, making the control gradually harder to rotate or push. My Nexus has made over 200 dives each of the past 2 years (over 140 on one trip alone) with only a couple of o-rings requiring change out (lots of muck dives). If I wasn't diving so much or not in the mucky stuff, I'd probably go 2 years between major service (assuming no problems). Total change out of o-rings may very well solve your on-going leakage problem, but it just doesn't sound like you have that many dives or have abused the housing in any way to warrant having to do this so soon. If you can order a complete factory rebuild kit you can change everything yourself. Then again Ike may provide an extended warranty if they do it.

If its only happening on one housing, dud batch of seals seems the most obvious answer (softer than spec or chemical mix or whatever). Replace them all and check at 30 dives maybe? Either that or something went wrong with cleaning routine at some point but Id assume you'd have considered that by now - I only mention it because 60 dives isnt too different as a comparison point, might be in another 10-20 dives similar was going to happen.

You said it felt tighter when replaced, so Im betting seal quality, particularly given so many have apparently gone at the same time.

If it does happen again at 30 dives, I guess it must be some kind of tolerance problem with your individual housing, or you'd think you'd be seeing this come up as an issue more generally. Maybe push for a replacement?

Otara

I bought the housing in February 2008 so it is 18 months old. I haven't done anything I would consider muck diving (although the night dive last Friday came close). Viz in Sydney is not always great so perhaps a bit of sediment, etc. gets in on the dives with poorer viz. I really can't explain why the D300 housing has problems when the D70 housing (bought May 2006 and over 60 dives) is still going strong.

I guess it could have been a bad batch of rings.

Hmm... reading over the (very scant) information provided by the Ikelite repair department, it is possible they replaced the O rings.

Here's what I got:

The repair tech had done the vacuum test on the housing and moving all controls wasn’t able to get it to leak as you had found. When he tore the controls apart, one control on the back had an oring that he could see where water had passed. It was driving him nuts as he water tested it a couple times and no leaks. When he did the vacuum test, it was not leaking. Very aggravating.

He rebuilt the complete housing, replacing the orings and that control. If you have a problem like this with it on your next dive, please let me know.

id wonder if they may have screwed up rebuilding it since those controls didnt seem to be leaking when you tested it out the first time.

something doesnt sound right, those rings shouldnt be that bad that fast, even if you do muck dive a lot. id agree with the bad batch of rings theory, perhaps do a search and see if you can find reports of any other housing from that time frame with similar problems.

Mike

perhaps do a search and see if you can find reports of any other housing from that time frame with similar problems.

I'm having trouble finding any reports of similar leaks with Ikelite housings from any timeframe.

Andrew

Not wanting to sound like I am plugging the shop that I work for, but it would be well worth you having a chat with Kevin Deacon at Dive 2000. They are agents for Ikelite, and Kevin is one of the most experienced underwater photographers in Australia, and is always willing to have a chat to help someone out.

He may know of batch or other such issues with Ikelite housings, I know that we do stock them. Phone number is 02 9953 7783.

Hope this helps.

Dave Bluck

Sydney, Australia.

Thanks, Dave.

I know Kevin and used to go to Dive 2000 quite frequently when they were open (are they still closed on Sundays?) when I dived more on the north side. I now mostly dive on the south side so don't get by Neutral Bay all that much.

Incidentally, I bumped into the guy that does Kevin's housing repairs the other day while diving at the Steps at Kurnell. He was pottering along the shore shooting insects and we got to chatting. I have definitely considered taking the housing along to Dive 2000.

The main reason I haven't taken it there or any other local places is I figure if it has to go back to Ikelite, that's just extra handling that will increase the time and the cost. I can ship the housing to Indianapolis in under a week just by taking it to the local post office. It would probably take me longer just to take it to Neutral Bay.

Anyway, Ikelite should be back from Memorial Day tonight so hopefully I'll have a better idea of next steps tomorrow.

Good news! Ikelite have offered to replace the entire housing rather than try to replacing all glands and pushbutton O rings. I very much appreciate this course of action and am confident this will resolve the issues I'm experiencing.

I do hope that I get some understanding of what was going wrong in case it was caused by my maintenance procedures - although I can't think why.

Good news indeed. I trust you will post a full report right here when you find out what the cause was, I'm keen to know, and I guess anyone else involved in this thread feels the same.

W.r.t. D2000, no not open on Sunday, apart from when courses are running, and then that's not open for general business. Late night on Thursdays though.

Blucky

An update and a conclusion on my troubles.

My replacement housing arrived 30 September. I was so confident I took it (with camera) for a night dive on 2 October (I did test it in a 200 litre drum beforehand). I had no problems at all. I have since done 3 other dives with it (4 in total) and had no issues at all.

Ikelite are still trying to determine what went wrong with the old housing and have confirmed some leaks (although not as bad as I was getting) in a few controls. I hope to get an update from them after it comes back from a dive trip where it was to be tested in the real world.

While I think the initial problems should have been handled better by the repair department and it did drag on for some time, I'm very happy with the final outcome and I thank the Brigham's for being so helpful.

An update and a conclusion on my troubles.

 

My replacement housing arrived 30 September. I was so confident I took it (with camera) for a night dive on 2 October (I did test it in a 200 litre drum beforehand). I had no problems at all. I have since done 3 other dives with it (4 in total) and had no issues at all.

 

Ikelite are still trying to determine what went wrong with the old housing and have confirmed some leaks (although not as bad as I was getting) in a few controls. I hope to get an update from them after it comes back from a dive trip where it was to be tested in the real world.

 

While I think the initial problems should have been handled better by the repair department and it did drag on for some time, I'm very happy with the final outcome and I thank the Brigham's for being so helpful.

Good to hear the new rig is working out, so where are the photos ?

Good to hear the new rig is working out, so where are the photos ?

In my dive log, as usual. Nothing special, though.