Sea and Sea YS-01 Flooded

[Chris Ross]

I have flooded SnS an SnS and a Inon Z strobe. SnS due to me not realising the cap closed further, there is a 'click' to prove closed. The Inon I pinched the o'ring after battery replacement that I could have picked up had I been more aware = Inon totally stuffed and $700 down the drain. Went back to SnS and will stick with them for this issue alone.
The great thing about SnS v Inon is that SnS battery compartment is separate from the internals.

Both in theory have an isolated battery compartment so only that should flood. In practice it seems to work some of the time. It depends on o-ring seals where the wires go through into the main compartment and like any other seal they are subject to failure.

 

[stepfen]

I really wonder how you people manage to use these strobes with the original (blue) o-rings. They are such a PITA.

I have had a second hand YS-02 (same case/cap geometry with YS-01) for about 2 years/200 dives now (only God knows how many dives it had before that). It had the original o-ring which is very soft, attracts dirt/grit/sand/hair/whatever like a MAGNET and if greased it becomes even stickier and hence very difficult to clean.

Once something sticks on it(say some sand or hair), how do you clean it??? I really wonder. The only somewhat effective way I fount was to lick them. Yes lick them with my tongue - but Yikes! Whatever else was touching it was actually making it dirtier than cleaner.

Anyway after few dives with them I decided (I could risk because I bought them very cheap) and changed the cap o-ring to the usual medium or maybe hard EPDM one. I also risked and choose not to grease it.

What a difference it makes! Now things are MUCH better and easier. EPDM is not sticky hence much easier to clean it. The only difference is that the cap is slightly more difficult to be placed(it needs some force to push it in the case) but the locking mechanism works fine. I haven't got the slightest problem with it for 200 dives. Before closing the cap I clean the case and the o-ring with a clean ear pad (o-ring is not sticky at all hence this removes practically all the dirt) then I inspect the o-ring and the case with strong light for any leftovers and I am good to go.

Can you guess what was the very first thing I did with a new YS-01 I bought few months ago?? Yes, replaced the original o-ring with EPDM one. I didn't hesitate even for a second. This too has about 40 dives so far with no issues. So much easier to use.

Just my 2c... As always try it by your own risk

 

[Guitarcrazy]

Mozaik has been great and they sent me a new battery cap free of charge. I installed it and the strobe works fine. At least it works on land.

 

[Michael Potthoff]

Hi Stephen, can you share the specs of the o-ring?

 

[Searcaigh]

Never had an issue with the blue O-rings.

I've had a YS110a flood, had it repaired by Andrew Yeoh at the Sea&Sea shop in Singapore.

One of my Chinese made YS-D2s flooded beyond repair though.

 

[stepfen]

Hi Stephen, can you share the specs of the o-ring?

In metric world it is 3*35mm (3mm cross section, 35mm inner diameter, 41mm outer diameter).
If you are west of the the pond, the nearest I can see is 220 (34.52+/-0.30 inner diam., 3.53+/-0.10 cross section).
Standard hardness (70 duro) would do.

Never had an issue with the blue O-rings.

When you see anything stuck on them (like a small piece of hair, sand, some dirt etc), how do you remove it from the o-ring? The best is to use clean compressed air, but if you don't have ??? Whatever else touches the o-ring makes it worsts as it attracts dirt like magnet....

 

[Searcaigh]

how do you remove it from the o-ring?

Same way as Covid-19, soapy water to clean the O-ring.

Pat dry with paper towel and re-grease sparingly

 

[Aqua-Andy]

In metric world it is 3*35mm (3mm cross section, 35mm inner diameter, 41mm outer diameter).
If you are west of the the pond, the nearest I can see is 220 (34.52+/-0.30 inner diam., 3.53+/-0.10 cross section).
Standard hardness (70 duro) would do.

McMaster has metric o-rings of all sizes and materials. McMaster-Carr