How do I go about drying out and cleaning my WP-DC54

Hi all,

I went out on a dive today and had a minor o-ring leak (forgot to regrease it) on my WP-DC54 with Canon G7x MKII.

Thankfully the camera is held away from all surfaces pretty much so camera is fine but the housing is fogging a little and I can see tiny amounts of water around the rubber lens surround.

What is the best way to dry this out - has anyone tried unscrewing the glass from the front to get in there and really clean it up?

I guess I need to flood the inside with deionised water when I get back from my trip and dry the whole thing out again? How would you suggest I go about getting it really dry?

Thanks in advance!

Adam

You want to get rid of all the salty water so it does not have a change to do damage or dry out and leave a salty residue. First rinse out two or three time with fresh, or better, distilled water.

Then to remove the water, use alcohol, such as denatured 80% alcohol. Pour some in, slosh it around, then allow it to stand for some minutes so it gets into the crevices, then pour all the alcohol out and put the WP-DC54 in a position to self drain. Pump all the involved buttons and levers.

If there is some residual water, repeat the alcohol, but allow it to stand longer, then drain it.  If no residual water is visible, gently blow dry with compressed air to chase out any residual moisture.   Hope this helps.

First of all, greasing your o-rings is not what makes them seal, the grease is there purely to allow the o-ring to slide over the sealing surfaces so that water pressure can push it up against the sealing surfaces and cause it to seal.  I can see what looks like some grit on the o-ring and this is a likely cause of the leak.  You need to pull the o-ring and inspect it carefully for hairs or grit and remove them before lightly greasing the o-ring.

I would suggest you want to dry it out now rather than wait you don't want water evaporating and leaving salt deposits.  Rinse it out with fresh water, clean tap water will be fine, remove the o-ring, shake the housing out and let it drain, then wipe out all the water you can see.  If you have access to a hair dryer - or even a fan use that to direct a stream of air into the housing, if using a hair dryer have it on low and hold it a few feet away from the housing.  Unless the humidity is very high, a moving air stream will evaporate the water.  Salt residues tend to stay damp as the salt attracts moisture.  Do this till it seems dry and leave it open in air conditioning if possible over night. 

If it's not air conditioned, seal a fresh dessicant pack inside overnight. This will be  most effective if the o-ring is installed - the dessicant won't deal with liquid water unless it evaporates.

I wouldn't use alcohol on a plexiglass housing myself, it can cause surface crazing depending on the type of acrylic plastic the housing is made from. 

I wouldn't try any sort of disassembly apart from the main o-ring as the OEM housings from camera companies are not designed with service in mind.  Just use gentle air circulation to dry it out.

I wouldn't dive with it again till you dry, any water in the housing is going to make it susceptible to fogging.

I had good luck on a similar housing (TG-4) that flooded with a good rinse with warm tap water, drying with a microfiber cloth, and letting it sit open in front of a fan in an air-conditioned room for several days. One of the problems was water soaked into the rubber shock mounts; they took a long time to dry. The desiccant packs afterwards, while diving.