Causes of leaks in UW housings

Being in the process of upgrading from a point and shoot to DSLR I have seen the various UW-housing manufacturers stating what they do to prevent leakage. But does anybody out there have any input about what is the main cause for leaks? Is it hair / sand in the seal, damaged O-ring, cracks in the housing, broken parts, ports falling of, accidental opening of doors, or ?????

Thank you,

Lars_N

My UW photos: www-uwp-lan.dk

I have seen a number of leaks in dslr´s. Only one was due to something actually breaking in the housing. That was a circlips on one of the push buttons that broke. The push button for some reason loosened and a minor leak happened. The other leaks I have seen have all been due to user error. Those leaks are more or less equally divided divided between misplaced o-rings between the housing back and the front of the housing and things getting stuck when closing the housing (once a hair, but otherwise more substantial items such as a computer wrist band and dry bags of silica gel). So a conclusion of my experiences could well be that most leaks are entirely avoidable if users are very careful with checking the integrity of the housing before diving with it.

Regards

Bent

Being in the process of upgrading from a point and shoot to DSLR I have seen the various UW-housing manufacturers stating what they do to prevent leakage. But does anybody out there have any input about what is the main cause for leaks? Is it hair / sand in the seal, damaged O-ring, cracks in the housing, broken parts, ports falling of, accidental opening of doors, or ?????

 

Thank you,

 

Lars_N

 

My UW photos: www-uwp-lan.dk

I have seen a number of leaks in dslr´s. Only one was due to something actually breaking in the housing. That was a circlips on one of the push buttons that broke. The push button for some reason loosened and a minor leak happened. The other leaks I have seen have all been due to user error. Those leaks are more or less equally divided divided between misplaced o-rings between the housing back and the front of the housing and things getting stuck when closing the housing (once a hair, but otherwise more substantial items such as a computer wrist band and dry bags of silica gel). So a conclusion of my experiences could well be that most leaks are entirely avoidable if users are very careful with checking the integrity of the housing before diving with it.

 

Regards

 

Bent

I agree with Bent -- in my 28 years of diving every flood I've seen is user error. The rinse tank is the worst offender, behind that would be o-ring not seated properly or dirty.

John

In my experience, nearly always fine sand. Once, dog hair from my Lab, which was 3,000 miles away. Lab hairs get everywhere.

Ive seen a few non-user error, but they're rare. My vote goes for bad o-ring handling.

I wrote some thoughts on the causes of floods at the start of this review, dividing them into two categories:

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/mini-review-leak-insure/

Alex

The more you play with o-rings the greater the chance for a leak. Keeping the main o-ring clean doesn't necessarily mean it has to be removed. Inspect & remove debris as required. My experience has been that I very seldom have to remove o-ring to accomplish. Silicone (red/orange) o-rings are subject to stretch with too much handling. Only open the housing when necessary. Try to set up your system to last a full dive day without opening housing. Don't leave the housing laying around open for extended periods. Open, do what you need to do & close it. Have multiple batteries & flash cards so you only have to open housing once vs twice. And, if it isn't broke don't fix it.

User Error is BY FAR the most common cause of leaks!

I've see lanyards caught between housing halves and bags of silica gel amongst other things, but in my (personal) experience sand and (cat) hairs cause little problem.

The rinse tank is a source of leaks too especially when a load of gear is dumped in them - I've seen a latch knocked open in a rinse tank.

"O" rings REQUIRE both cleaning and lubrication in order to work efficiently. If this is carried out correctly and the 'O' ring is undamaged then it will seal as intended. In my experience, assuming that a user serviceable 'O' ring is ok can finally lead to problems. If an 'O' ring is disturbed then ideally it should be removed, cleaned, checked and lubricated and the groove cleaned and checked although between dives this may not be desirable depending upon dive situation.

I'd also say that there are two sorts of leak.

1. Weeps - slow ingress of water through a gland indicating a problem with the seal and the need for immediate servicing - these can sometimes self seal at depth as pressure on the seal increases and seats it.

2. Catastrophic fast pouring in of water - where something is very wrong and a major seal isn't working or a control has failed spectacularly.