Care and feeding of 'spensive lights

[Jax]

How do you take care of your canister light? Or any other light deemed "expensive"?

I see lights for sale that come with Pelican cases.

I understand the HID bulb is somewhat fragile - what extra care do you give?

Do you do anything different for LED lights?

How do you travel with it -- auto or flight?

Do you leave your can light battery somewhat discharged? Charged? Refrigerate it?

What are the do's and don't's you've learned?

Thanks!

 

[50Fathom]

I don't treat my light with kid gloves, but I don't abuse it. I figure if they're designed to hold up to the rigors of cave/tech diving, ("exploration-grade") then they should be fairly robust.

That said, I do rinse it after each dive, especially in salt water. When I travel in the car, my kit is usually fully assembled, so the light just rides on the belt and the light-head clipped to the harness, resting on top of the rig. If it's not, I just put the light in my dive bag, with the light head on the top and nothing on top of it. I took a trip to Fiji in June and I just had it in my carry-on with the light head wrapped in a couple of t-shirts. Made the trip there and back with no problems.

I do keep hearing about the HID bulb being fragile, and mine has held up to a lot of use. I am in the water with it at least 3-7 times a week and it's still going strong after a year of use, travel and what-have you. I need to get a spare, but I haven't yet.

I do store it with the battery fully charged, since I have let it run down a few times, and apparently NiMH has a problem with self-discharge and polarity reversal after a certain voltage threshhold, and I've screwed it up, destroying my burn time, (I'm getting 2 hours or less now, and it should be 4 hours). My bad. I learned on that one. Likely a damaged cell or two.

I have a Halcyon 9/21w and I just sent it in to them for their "annual service". It's $50, and they replace all the o-rings and seals, inspect the bulb, run a burn test on the light and give you a graphical print out of the voltage over time, and pressure-test it. For another $30, they will replace the light cord. I spoke to their head of tech services and he said that he might be able to bring my battery back, and restore some burn time. Might be a waste of money, but I wanted to send it to them anyway because of the battery, and I figured why not go through it if it's there?

 

[fdog]

It gets tossed in my bin on top of my drysuit. Nothing special. It's a LM 21W.


All the best, James

 

[fisheater]

I rinse my Hollis 16W LED after each dive. I use a neoprene drink caddy to cover my light head when it's clipped to my harness and I'm not diving.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TSandM]

I haven't found the Brightstar bulbs to be fragile. Mine gets thrown in the gear bin after a dive. I do rinse the canister each time, because I have had latches corrode and fail. Batteries go on the charger after the dive (except sometimes when I'm diving the very next day). The one thing I'm really careful with is attaching the Anderson connectors and handling the wires.

 

[Centrals]

1. HID bulb is fragile and expensive to replace(time consuming if the part has to come from aboard).
2. Check the cable after every wreck dive especially after tight passage.
3. Check the voltage of the battery regularly, top it up if require.
4. Rinse the whole unit thoroughly after every dive.
5. Have a spare set of battery and bulb(HID) for travelling especially on liveaboard.

 

[PfcAJ]

18w bulbs are more fragile than 21w. I suggest keeping a spare on hand if you have an 18w light. I wipe down the canister oring before every dive (good insurance for a rather expensive battery). I also try to burn test my light around once per year. Knowing your burntime is important, as overdischarge (esp for 10w lights, which don't have a low voltage cutoff) will ruin your battery. I try not to burn my batteries to burntime (or 10v) except for this yearly test.

Voltage alone on a nimh battery isn't a reliable indicator of charge, so if I'm not diving a particular battery often, I'll burn it down a bit (20mins to a half hour) every month and charge it again. IIRC, the self discharge rate of nihm batteries isn't all that high (1% per day), but that adds up over time.

Some lights have bulb assemblies that are non-locking. In fact, I'm pretty sure the Halcyon 21w is the only locking bulb out there (could be wrong). The bulb can be jarred lose and it will cause your light to fail. A visual check pre-dive will show you if its completely seated.

Be proactive about cord replacements. They're pretty cheap, easy to do (or have done), and will save you dives and headaches in the long run.

 

[rongoodman]

For many of the HID lights, the closed cell foam beer can covers fit snugly over the reflector, providing some shock protection.

 

[Peter_C]

I dip my light for a minute or two and charge the battery. I have a cozy I keep on the light head most of the time when not in use. Mine stays in my dive bin typically between my undergarments, base layers, and a towel, somewhere separated from my regulators. The Pelican case below was recycled for a new lease on life. I needed to shrink and lighten my load.

 

[ajduplessis]

The 2 most important things to look after IMO is the battery life and the o-ring. As mentioned before you need to make sure the voltage does not drop below recommended levels. I keep my battery (Nimh) on a charger during long storage. Halcyon have some nice build-in technology with their batteries and chargers. I also don't have the battery connected during travel, halcyon and other brands have a "cold" connect slots on battery. You also have to check and look after the o- ring.

I own a H 12W LED with a 4.5 amp hour battery. What I like about the halcyon batteries is that they charge within 60min