Sea & Sea YS-250 Pro Strobe leaking

After around two years everything has worked fine with these strobes.

That's good to know David. My problem is that I (unusally for me) actually read the manual this time and know I have always aligned the marks as you suggest. I'm wondering if they may have another issue that is being masked by the known failure mode. Said another way, if S&S believes all the issues are caused by folks not aligning the marks they won't be looking for the real/other problem. It wouldn't be the first time a designers technical arrogance got in the way of solving a problem. Just a thought.

Cheers,

Steve

My problem is that I (unusally for me) actually read the manual this time...

Mine are also of the first ones produced... Maybe they had a batch of caps made with an under standard plastic or specification... as the material IMHO seems very brittle and, therefore, prone to cycles of stress cracks...

Anyway, much more reliable than Subtronics!!!!!

Is there no one from Sea and Sea registered here on Wetpixel that could enlighten us to what they know. I am going to be ordering a pair of these in the next couple of days and would like to know if this is a manufacturing problem that Sea and Sea recognise and publicly admit or whether it is user error and Sea and Sea will not always offer a replacement at a cost to themselves.

Come on Sea and Sea speak up.

Stew

I wouldn't be unduly concerned, Stew.

These are definitely some of the best and most reliable strobes around. There have been a few issues, but if in the whole community we can only turn up these few then there is not a big concern.

Alex

I wouldn't be unduly concerned, Stew.

 

These are definitely some of the best and most reliable strobes around. There have been a few issues, but if in the whole community we can only turn up these few then there is not a big concern.

 

Alex

Cheers for that Alex. I was thinking I had to start researching all over again. I will place my order tomorrow. I am sure by doing so will mean Sea and Sea will launch a new strobe next week and the price of the 250's will drop.

Stew

PS ( I didnt realise wifey had logged in and that the OP was under her name )

Hey Stew,

I have to agree with Alex. After replacing my broken cap, I've made sure not to overtighten the cap and I have never had another problem since. I can't say for sure if I overtightened the cap when my strobe did flood, but they have been very reliable ever since.

Mike

I best be sending Yuzo some funds then

Stew

I understand from sea and sea agent . they are replacing first generation YS 250 Cap..

Please check with your nearest Sea and Sea

I just recently took a new pair of YS250Pros underwater - fortunately checked them both in the pool prior to diving. One of the battery caps had a leak - similar place to others in this thread.

On my battery cap there is this little rotating gizmo inside the cap that has to align with the battery housing in order to thread on the cap - my suspicion is that I misaligned this at some point while playing with the strobes on land after delivery - it looks like it would be fairly easy to crack a cap if you threaded it on with it being misaligned - the back of the cap would receive the full pressure of you tightening the cap with the "gizmo" caught between the housing and the back of the cap.

This "guide" inside the cap rotates freely, so when you are threading the cap its a 3 step process

#1 align the rotating guide so that the mark inside the cap aligns with the cap

#2 align the cap on the housing so that the mark on the cap lines up with that on the housing

#3 try to thread this mess on without anything moving

Any ideas what the function is of the guide mechanism inside the cap is? It appears to have a cutout opposite the guide marks to allow the battery cable to protrude into the cap - but otherwise doesnt seem to have a function - but hey, what do i know

thx

rick

I just recently took a new pair of YS250Pros underwater - fortunately checked them both in the pool prior to diving. One of the battery caps had a leak - similar place to others in this thread.

 

On my battery cap there is this little rotating gizmo inside the cap that has to align with the battery housing in order to thread on the cap - my suspicion is that I misaligned this at some point while playing with the strobes on land after delivery - it looks like it would be fairly easy to crack a cap if you threaded it on with it being misaligned - the back of the cap would receive the full pressure of you tightening the cap with the "gizmo" caught between the housing and the back of the cap.

 

This "guide" inside the cap rotates freely, so when you are threading the cap its a 3 step process

#1 align the rotating guide so that the mark inside the cap aligns with the cap

#2 align the cap on the housing so that the mark on the cap lines up with that on the housing

#3 try to thread this mess on without anything moving

 

Any ideas what the function is of the guide mechanism inside the cap is? It appears to have a cutout opposite the guide marks to allow the battery cable to protrude into the cap - but otherwise doesnt seem to have a function - but hey, what do i know

 

thx

rick

The rotating guide is only used to fix the battery pack, in my opinion.

I think many owners have problems with leaks in the battery compartment in the strobes.

My experience with silicone o-rings in dynamic use is not good. I have also Inon, wich have also silicone o-ring, and i think they to fragile and soft for that kind of use.

When they are not well greased i think it is possible that the sealing thickness is not the same at each place.

So, all my dynamic o-ring seals are replaced by NBR-70° o-rings.

Possible cause: When screwing the cap down, the internal threaded part comes in contact with the inside of the top, thus applying pressure to the top. Tightening down, you effectively cause the top to crack. When you take the cap off to check things out, the crack may actually close!

Check to see upon what surface the top 'bottoms out" on as you carefully screw it on..

I asked those great guys at Backscatter about this cap issue, here is what Backscatter's Mike Tamayo had to say about it

"The YS-250 battery cap is actually a pretty complex item, as far as battery caps go.

The reason for the inner cap is to apply pressure to the YS-250 battery to keep it in place.

If the center of the cap didn’t spin freely, you couldn’t tighten the outer cap.

There is a small silver piece on the rear as well, which allows the vacuum to be released when trying to open the strobe.

The YS-250 strobes are a little more technical than some others that we carry, but they have an amazing light output and cannot be beat."

So I guess the answer is you need to be very careful putting the battery caps on, as it is easy to "pinch" the inner cap between the battery housing and the outer cap - which appears to crack the cap.

(they are great strobes!)

I am on a holidaytrip and .....

have a spoon of water after each dive in the battery compartment

I checked the cap and see no cracks.

Will now try to switch the caps and see what happens.

Can you see a difference between old and new caps?

Strobes are 4 weeks old!

Hi,
to update this thread.......
I have 2 of this strobes, since years and they always did well....
2 weeks ago i had a pool shooting, and there was a little water in both battery compartments.
Thought that i should have cleaned and greased them maybe a little bit....
So i did this and prepared them again.
Today i did a dive in a melting water lake, high altitude and cold.
Both strobes did well, but i could see some bubbles from one of the over pressure valves from one cap.
Worked still fine.
After the dive i opened both strobes and there was some water in both.
Never had this before.
Could it be that this happens while shallow diving?
Is it possible to repair that valve?

Regards,
Wolfgang