Failed ACR ResQLink. Looking for forensics

[rlh739]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is in the right forum area, but...

I recently returned from a trip to Indonesia. On that trip, I opened up my Wicked can that holds my ACR ResQLink PLB which was encased in double ZipLoc plastic bags. There was water in the can, and water in the plastic bags. Hmmm... I thought the Wicked can was supposed to be waterproof. (I have test-dived it before.)

I dried everything and re-packed the can. This time I used a bit of o-ring grease and screwed it down fully, not leaving a thumbnail width gap as recommended. Once again, water infiltrated.

Now that I'm home, I took out the ResQLink for testing, and it is completely dead. No display, no lights, no strobe.

Is it expected that water would kill the unit? Does it not work well under pressure (max 90 feet)? Could it be that water immersion drained the battery? (I'm delighted that it didn't seem to activate the beacon.)

I have a mail in to ACR tech support, and I will be contacting Wicked to bug them about a leaking canister. I've also found a fairly local service center. But in the meantime, can anyone shed some light on what might have happened here?

Thanks!

 

[runsongas]

no plb is rated for a dive, so if you got water in the canister during a dive, its definitely possible some of it intruded into the casing. if it was salt water, then yea its pretty much done.

you can try to see if wicked will take the canister back and test if it is defective, but if it turns out to be user error, you will be SOL

i think the newer ones now have a bulkhead so you can use a vacuum pump to check them like camera housings

 

[chaad]

Water by itself should not kill the unit. They're rated for immersion to 5 meters for 1 hour. But water at pressure (90 feet) will absolutely kill the unit. I'm very happy with my Light Monkey custom PLB canister. They're spendy but absolutely worth it imo.

 

[chaad]

Also the Amazon reviews for the Wicked canister show a bunch of people had the same problem with leaky canisters and no response from Wicked customer service. Yikes. If you opt to replace the canister with something else, the maker of the DryFob is active on scubaboard (hi @Jaan!). Their DryFob XL will fit an ACR PLB and they're super responsive if you need anything.

 

[rlh739]

Well, an update:

I contacted ACR to get their opinion. Short answer: The PLB is toast. This morning I extracted the batteries with a BFH. It took everything I had to get into the case, and yet water getting in there was trivial.

Here are the responses from ACR:

"The ACR Resqlink PLBs are not designed to be used in diving as they are only water proof to 5m at one hour ResQLink™ 400 - ACR Electronics, Inc or ResQLink AIS Personal Locator Beacon - ACR Electronics, Inc or 10m at one hour depending on which model you have. There are some diving canisters available that can be used to store the PLBs when diving."
And,

"Yes once water enters the PLB and makes contact with the circuit board and batteries it will short the battery out and damage the components in the circuit board. Also the circuit board is now corrupt and has been compromised so if you were to replace the battery it would still not work properly."

So, I'm out the cost of the PLB. At least I didn't find out it was non-functional while in an emergency situation. My next step is to contact Wicked, but I don't think they'll do much for me... just my hunch.

 

[Jaan]

Sorry to hear about the ACR @rlh739. As you said, at least you didn’t find out in an emergency situation. Feel free to DM me if you ever want to check out our DRYFOB. I’m in the Miami area and everything ships out from here. Thanks for the shout out @chaad

Others have also mentioned light monkey and I have heard they can make custom sizes and that they have a great reputation too.

As for the wicked it sounds like you did everything right. Maybe something like a grain of sand got lodged under the o-rings. Maybe some kind of micro crack, deformity, or a damaged thread or o-ring.

 

[runsongas]

@rlh739 iirc the ACR uses security screws? it should be trivial to open them if you get a set of the security bits from like harbor freight. not sure why a BFH was involved

 

[rlh739]

Sorry to hear about the ACR @rlh739. As you said, at least you didn’t find out in an emergency situation. Feel free to DM me if you ever want to check out our DRYFOB. I’m in the Miami area and everything ships out from here. Thanks for the shout out @chaad

Thanks @Jaan

I've already checked out the DRYFOB site, and they look good.

 

[rlh739]

@rlh739 iirc the ACR uses security screws? it should be trivial to open them if you get a set of the security bits from like harbor freight. not sure why a BFH was involved

Not a screw in sight.