Caring for my Aquatica Surveyor Vacuum System

Hi

I'd appreciate your advice.

I have an AD500 housing with Aquatica fitted Surveyor system.  The housing is a little over a year old.  I dive once or twice most weeks.

It recently developed a problem.  Once I create enough of a vacuum and the light has gone solid green I remove the pump.  Just as I start to disengage the pump from the camera vacuum valve the red light starts flashing red and the alarm sounds!

It eventually stops flashing and I am left with a camera that is vacuum sealed (cannot remove the rear cover without releasing the vacuum pressure) but no slow flashing green to reassure me all is good.

I have worked a little silicone grease into the housing attached surveyor valve (picture attached) and it has started to work as expected - one time out of three.

This makes me think I may have not taken sufficient care of the vacuum valve.  I always leave the valve cap in place while diving and washing off after, only removing it to gain access for the pump.

First of all, have I diagnosed the problem correctly and secondly what advice do you have to better care for my surveyor.

I like my blinking green light it makes me happy. 

Many thanks

Have you tried a new battery?

The valve is simply a one way valve and your description indicates that you get a slight leakage before it then holds again.  Looking at the manual it indicates it should flash orange first then go to flashing red.  It sounds like it it is very rapidly losing pressure - I don't know what the Aquatica valve is like but I know my Nauticam valve takes a few seconds to fully release the vacuum and goes through the yellow flashing stage first, even if I open the valve very quickly.

It's a small hole and it takes time for the air to flow in so to go instantly from green to red seems like it should be difficult - so it could also be an issue with the vacuum monitoring - possibly low battery?

I would try a new battery first to see if that changes anything.  Then I would double check the vacuum release valve on the pump to make sure it is not passing - leave it on for 30 seconds or so to make sure it holds while the pump is attached - it could be leaking and getting you close to the alarm point.  You could also try taking an extra couple of pumps beyond when you get the green light to see if that gives you enough buffer for the valve to seal off before it alarms.

To me it seems like a sticky non-return valve that is slow to close - I don't know if that mechanism is servicable so may need to be replaced.  Have you contacted Aquatica for advice?

Thanks Guys

I have a replaced battery and that did not help.

I'm going with a sticky non-return valve.  Will contact Aquatica support now.

Simon

What pressure are you vaccing down to?

Sorry I have no way of measuring that... I just pump until the light goes solid green and then give it around 5 more pumps.

Try 15 more pumps once the light goes blinking green and let us know what happens.

My surveyor is a sort of hybrid, I use the surveyor electronics with an ikelite valve & pump. It is somewhat unreliable at around -5 in/hg but much more reliable at -10 in/hg