Creative or stupid?

[Diver Dennis]

Mike is a BAD man Chris.

I was there in December. I'm going to the Bali one with him and Tim.

 

[justleesa]

Not a tampon Catherine, a sanitary napkin (or slip). Most housings have little room around the camera. The tampon might expand and cause too much pressure from the inside.

 

[DiverBuoy]

... Most leaks occur when the external (i.e water +atmospheric pressure) exceed that which the oring(most likely improperly sealed) can withstand.

Really? I had read and experienced that most leaks occur because the o-ring(s) is not properly cared for. Such as not lubricating the o-ring(s) before each "dive series", or related, not caring for the o-ring(s) properly like leaving sand on the ring or dust like hair etc - anything which breaks the complete seal. It's also possible that a hairline fracture exists which is not easily spotted. It's actually quite rare that people exceed the rating on their housing ... most photographers are quite familiar with the depth limit and often are far conservative above that limit to ensure.

Back to the original subject of the thread ... most folks that I've known who got a flood, said it happened so quickly there would be nothing they could do - even in 30 feet of water. A "slow" leak is quite rare and frankly just a few millimeters of water in the housing will toast your equipment just the same as complete submersion, one swish around and bye bye.

 

[Cacia]

Oh....darn, back to the drawing board.

 

[Jamdiver]

Really? I had read and experienced that most leaks occur because the o-ring(s) is not properly cared for. Such as not lubricating the o-ring(s) before each "dive series", or related, not caring for the o-ring(s) properly like leaving sand on the ring or dust like hair etc - anything which breaks the complete seal. It's also possible that a hairline fracture exists which is not easily spotted. It's actually quite rare that people exceed the rating on their housing ... most photographers are quite familiar with the depth limit and often are far conservative above that limit to ensure.

Back to the original subject of the thread ... most folks that I've known who got a flood, said it happened so quickly there would be nothing they could do - even in 30 feet of water. A "slow" leak is quite rare and frankly just a few millimeters of water in the housing will toast your equipment just the same as complete submersion, one swish around and bye bye.

You're quite correct diverbuoy, the sand, hair on the oring et cetera are possible reasons why the oring is improperly sealed and floods..
Again the flooding would occur when the external pressure exceeds that which the improperly sealed oring can withstand.

Just making a clarification, I wasn't talking about people taking a 130' rated housing down to 200' or something.

 

[Warren_L]

Really? I had read and experienced that most leaks occur because the o-ring(s) is not properly cared for. Such as not lubricating the o-ring(s) before each "dive series", or related, not caring for the o-ring(s) properly like leaving sand on the ring or dust like hair etc - anything which breaks the complete seal. It's also possible that a hairline fracture exists which is not easily spotted. It's actually quite rare that people exceed the rating on their housing ... most photographers are quite familiar with the depth limit and often are far conservative above that limit to ensure.

Back to the original subject of the thread ... most folks that I've known who got a flood, said it happened so quickly there would be nothing they could do - even in 30 feet of water. A "slow" leak is quite rare and frankly just a few millimeters of water in the housing will toast your equipment just the same as complete submersion, one swish around and bye bye.

I had a housing flood about 2 weeks ago on my trip to Roatan. We arrived on Saturday afternoon, got one dive in, and on Sunday, the third dive, it happened. My rig is a Nikon D70 with full Ike setup. 2 DS125s and the iTTL housing.

The dives on Sunday were all wall dives, no particularly deep. The max depth was reached on the first dive around 90 feet. At the safety stop on the third dive I was just hanging near the anchor line. A Bit bored, I was flipping through some of my shots when I noticed some water droplets inside the camera. They were just a little too big to be condensation, but I though perhaps that what it was. So I tipped the camera housing on one corner, and I saw the dreaded line of water, and it was rising, but ever so slowly. I surfaced and got it back on the boat, orienting the camera and housing so that the water was pooling away from the lens, and the camera. The battey compartment was touching the pool of water.

On the boat, I opened the latches and drained the water. The water had not risen enough to touch any of the electronics and seems I was lucky. The camera and lens were still in working order. There was a little salt water in the battery compartment near the opening, so I dried it off and all seems to be ok.

After getting back to the resort, I check the housing. The culprit was the bulkhead connector to the strobes. The recessed nut on the inside of the housing had loosened and allowed the bulkhead connector to come loose. There's an o-ring on the bulkhead connector that sits tight against the housing to keep water out, but with the loose nut, the seal was compromised. I read the manual for the housing thoroughly and it makes no mention of this as being something to check. I called Ikelite last week and they said that this was something that should not come loose. Seems that it is worthy of checking periodically, it seems.

Anyhow, I was lucky as I caught it, and I caught it at the end of my dive. Had I not caught it and had it happened any time prior to the safety stop on that dive, things may not have been so happy.....

 

[Cacia]

wow, nice story, happy ending. I will check my housing. So, was your safety stop almost up anyway or did you ...opt to save the camera?

 

[Warren_L]

wow, nice story, happy ending. I will check my housing. So, was your safety stop almost up anyway or did you ...opt to save the camera?

Safety stop was almost done, so I ascended to the surface after I detected the problem. I thought for sure the camera was toast, but luck was on my side.

 

[DiverBuoy]

That is a nice ending to what could have been a far worse disaster. I wonder has anyone heard of a problem where too much silicon actually compromised a seal? An old dive buddy swore this happened a few times to him... overzealous lubrication lead to the loss of 3 cameras. I told him he was nuts.

 

[Warren_L]

That is a nice ending to what could have been a far worse disaster. I wonder has anyone heard of a problem where too much silicon actually compromised a seal? An old dive buddy swore this happened a few times to him... overzealous lubrication lead to the loss of 3 cameras. I told him he was nuts.

Though I've not experienced it myself, I've been warned by the manufacturers of the various components I use that are sealed by o-rings that over greasing can cause problems. It is not the silicone that creates the seal - it merely provides some lubrication so the rubber o-ring can slide into it's proper place.

As far as you buddy is concerned, if it were me, I'd probably learn after the first time. 3 cameras (?) can be an expensive lesson.