Housing maintenance

Housing manufacturers recommend sending your housing in for an overhaul service every one to two years. Is this something people typically do? I called up one of the well known underwater photography stores and the guy there said it was pretty much unnecessary, just to worry about the main o-ring and only send it in if you notice something weird. I'm curious what others think of this. How often do you all send in housings for service?

Given the disaster that is shipping anything from Canada to USA and back again, i would be loathe to send a housing every two years for "routine" check-up.

I've had several housings and, must admit, none of them have ever been serviced including one that did well over 500 dives. Never had a problem.

 

 

I've had several housings and, must admit, none of them have ever been serviced including one that did well over 500 dives. Never had a problem.

But all of them were Subal!?

Indeed they were! :-)))

Housing manufacturers recommend sending your housing in for an overhaul service every one to two years. Is this something people typically do? I called up one of the well known underwater photography stores and the guy there said it was pretty much unnecessary, just to worry about the main o-ring and only send it in if you notice something weird. I'm curious what others think of this. How often do you all send in housings for service?

if you take care of your gear and inspect it regularly then you can decide when servicing is required. I have owned amphibico housings, s&s housings, canon housings and now an elcheapo meikon housing. i have never had one serviced and never had any issues.

my gear always goes through an extended soak after every salt water vacation trip. i think the easiest way to screw up a housing is to let salt dry in the push button controls. proper rinse and soak will prevent this.

While I tend to subscribe to the "if it's not broken, don't mess with it" philosophy, I serviced my own by putting the deep springs on my Aquatica housing after about 3 years of ownership. There was some grime on the o-rings behind each button and I felt better for having cleaned and changed them to less-squashed ones. I took the housing for a camera-free dive after the o-ring change to make sure all was well before submerging the camera again.

You'd want to have some spare c-clips on hand too as some of them go "ping" and disappear during removal.

If you have to mail the housing to get it serviced, I'd say the risk of it getting lost or damaged in transit is greater than the benefit of annual servicing.

While I tend to subscribe to the "if it's not broken, don't mess with it" philosophy, I serviced my own by putting the deep springs on my Aquatica housing after about 3 years of ownership. There was some grime on the o-rings behind each button and I felt better for having cleaned and changed them to less-squashed ones. I took the housing for a camera-free dive after the o-ring change to make sure all was well before submerging the camera again.

 

You'd want to have some spare c-clips on hand too as some of them go "ping" and disappear during removal.

 

If you have to mail the housing to get it serviced, I'd say the risk of it getting lost or damaged in transit is greater than the benefit of annual servicing.

I agree totally, especially on your last comment (transit).

Very recently, either Miami airport or Richmond (Canada) airport tore open a package and stole the Nauticam part inside. It was really wedged in the bubble envelope, and the tear was clearly a finger tear, so it was definitely a theft.

I would be very reluctant to send anything of value out these days. You can't trust the post, and the fees from couriers are just a bad joke. Between "brokerage fees" and arbitrary (and wrong) duties on cross-border goods, it's just not worth sending stuff to the USA anymore.

FWIW, Seacam recommend 300 dives as far as I can remember. That said if housings are used heavily in chlorinated water (swimming pools) then they need short service intervals as the chlorine may damage nitrile 'O' rings (I've seen an 'O' ring disintegrated after very, very, very extensive pool use - fortunately the second kept the housing dry and the control itself became progressively stiffer forcing the issue of servicing. And I do know of a friend's housing which I suspect may well have done over 1000 dives before factory servicing!