Sea&Sea D1 issue

Hi all, I know it's a long shot, but, does anybody know any service point or a person who knows how or a tutorial of how to repair a Sea&Sea D1 ? My strobe was repaired once because of the known fail of the lamp, but the person who repaired it doesn't do it anymore. It's not the same fail, because I opened the strobe  and after a month I put batteries on it and it fired, when I closed it again, it didn't wrok anymore, I opened again but it doesn't work, even with the red light. Send it to Japan it's not an option, to expensive and too much time, to find someone in Spain would be great.

I don't want to spend too much money on it, because I'm firing Subtronic and the Sea&Sea is the spare one.

Thank you very much

My dealer in Vienna (www.unterwasserkamera.at) claimed a defective D2 strobe to be irreparable, because of water intrusion (despite there was not a single droplet of water intruded). Hence I contacted Sea&Sea Europe, but they did not respond to my requests by EMail, they seem to be non-existent (I guess my dealer had the same problem and therefore was not able to send it in for repair). Then I sent the defective D2 strobe to Alex Tattersal in UK (https://www.uwvisions.com/about-us/) for repair. The repair was done carefully and I cannot complain...

=> The amount of money (sending to UK and back plus the repair costs) was, however, about 66% of a new strobe. Given the unreliability of Sea&Sea strobes, I will not let one of them be repaired in the future, but go for a fourth Z330 and dump the Sea&Sea. My wife and me have together now three Z330 and never had an issue with them. From, initially, four D2 in 2017, only two are left (the remaining two are in the hands of my wife now and work without issues since the last years)...

Wolfgang

P.S.: Maybe you contact Alex Tattersal in advance about the costs and decide then, whether to send the strobe in...

I have had SS strobes in the past
They didn’t break however during a trip to raia ampat my wife banged the strobe on the camera room door that resulted in a crack of the retainer ring that holds the battery cap
I repaired it with loctite and did other 100+ dives but when I contacted sea and sea to get a spare part they told me they needed to replace the entire back of the strobe cost 80% of a new unit
I sold the strobe on ebay (it continued to work with super glue) and switched to Inon
One of my new z240 was defective and was replaced in warranty
Few years later i replaced two z240 with two ys-d2 i have had them for 3 years though due to covid they have done perhaps less than normal use but I have not had a single issue
I know that it I had a problem they are likely to be unreliable unless they have locked in self protection mode and I accept this risk because I have other reasons no to buy other products right now
The short version is that although sea and sea has made many great products the after sale service is disappointing to non existent


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you both, I don't want to spend a lot of euros on it because this strobe is one of my spares. I switched to Subtronic pro 160 Fusion a year ago which are my prefered ones, I have found that the quality of the light of the Subtronics is only surpased by the retra pro that a friend has. Now I have had some issues with the Subtros which  I bought second hand and where working smootthly till a couple of months ago when I noticed one of them doesn't fire and the other one ddoesn't fire form below 25 meters depth, but this is another history of 400 more euros...

After send my subtros to the service I started to use my spares Sea&Sea. I own two D2 and one D1. One of the D2 is in the service (a man who knows how) since one year ago, I sent it to him because he repaired the same strobe quick and cheap two years ago, and now he says he is waiting for a piece because it's a different fail. So now I have for diving a D2 and a D1, the other D2 is working fine, but the D1 failed as soon as I connected to the housing, even it was working perfectly the last time I used it, after rinse it and keep it in my photo room never worked again. So now despite having 5 strobes I can only use one.

I am going on a trip to Bali in 40 days and the good new is that I will have my Subtros with me. But take pictures this summer at home, Ibiza, has been a hell with only one flash, despite I have learn a lot about how to lit with only one strobe in wide angle.

Unless it is something very simple, the likelihood of being able to do a DIY repair is probably quite low unless you are very knowledgeable in electronics.  There is also the risk from the charge held in the capacitors, which can deliver a sizable shock, they store a significant amount of energy and could be life threatening if they discharge through you to earth.  Might be simpler and cheaper to look out for a second hand INON to buy and use as a spare?

18 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

Unless it is something very simple, the likelihood of being able to do a DIY repair is probably quite low unless you are very knowledgeable in electronics.  There is also the risk from the charge held in the capacitors, which can deliver a sizable shock, they store a significant amount of energy and could be life threatening if they discharge through you to earth.  Might be simpler and cheaper to look out for a second hand INON to buy and use as a spare?

Well, I am not an expert, but I know a bit of electronics and I feel confident with it, no problem with the capacitors. But your are right, it will be easier and cheaper to find an Inon as spare. Sea&Sea never ever