FLOODED Inon.... URGENT!

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InDaWata

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HELP!

I JUST flooded my Inon z240. The battery cap was left off.... boat guy put the stobe in the dunk tank.

Im sure there was fresh water in the battery box. What can I do?
 
get water out best as you can

get batteries out

get 99% alcohol and dunk it in

let it dry
 
I'll share my past experiences with you when I flooded my D180 several years ago. I flooded it at depth in sea water so a little dif than your scenario.

1. Rinse out the bat compartment with purified water.
2. After its dry put some WD40 in it and let it sit for awhile to prevent or get rid of any corrosion that may have occurred as a result of the bat electrical contact. If your strobe was off maybe there won't be any corrosion, especially with fresh water in the boat rinse tank.
3.Wipe out all the WD40 and dry the bat compartment wit a hair dryer but not too hot.

Strobe should continue to work. Mine did for some time. Now for the BAD NEWS which may or may not not have happened to your strobe.

About six months or so after I flooded mine I noticed what I thought was condensation behind the strobe face glass. I removed the front glass and dried it out. It came back so not condensation. The strobe then quit. I called Inon America, which is no more. The first thing the tech asked me was did I ever flood the bat compartment. After admitting that I did he explained to me that there is some type of expansion caused by the bats getting wet and that resulting expansion causes the bat compartment to crack. Maybe a small amount of water got into the strobe at that time?
That crack apparently expanded over time to the point where I could see it if I looked with a light.
I have no idea why it took several months for water to show up on the front glass as I never flooded it other than that one time.

Hopefully yours will continue to work. Periodically check for any cracks in the bat compartment, especially at the base of it.

My strobe was not repairable :depressed:
 
The battery compartment on the Inon strobes are watertight. As long as the batteries did not mix with saltwater, and produce that alkali 'soup' you should be ok.

Rinse the compartment with freshwater and let it air dry. DO NOT put anything in the battery compartment other than fresh water. The compound the case is made from is very pressure resistant, but has very poor chemical resistance.

We are an Inon service center. Send it to us, and we'll be happy to evaluate it. If it's broken, we can repair it in house. If we can't repair it, it can't be repaired. Completely flooded strobes are not economically repairable, however they often qualify for Inon's damage replacement program - Inon Japan offers a discount on a replacement strobe of the same type if we send the damaged one back to them.

Email us if you have any questions.
 
Hey everyone... Thanks for the feedback and help in these trying times.

...I had JUST gotten to Lembeh and hadnt even begun diving for the day when The Incident occurred. After talking with a few people (all with differing opinions- as it is with the world in general, it appears) I think the general opinion is that the battery compartment IS watertight.

Im going to try to follow the ReefNet advice (theyve always been good to me before! Thanks!).
dry it out, and test it tomorrow!

(Pray for me!)

:D
 
(Pray for me!)

Ok, if you insist, but I think you've had enough bad luck. :D





Seriously though, good luck. Flooded equipment sucks, hope it works out for you.
 
Do not spray WD40 or any similar petroleum distillate into a resin plastic strobe case (or camera housing) as it will ruin it. The plastic will develop micro cracks and it will be non-un-repairable.

Reef is as stated, your service center.

The battery compartment is supposed to be water tight from the rest of the strobe internals.

BTW, this goes for the external body of the strobe, gasoline, diesel, bug spray, insect repellent, WD40, any other odd chemicals, do not get them on the strobe and if you do---rinse it in clean water asap. This is in the manual.

N
 
Updates....

I had the strobe "up on blocks" for the day- packed with rice to soak up the moisture.

Last night I cleaned out the bat compartment as RXed and gave it a few blasts with compressed air to dry it out....

The next day (today) it worked! Woo hoo! ....then after the 5th dive of the day I noticed something odd.

I had the strobe turned off and still under the surface - but I could see a faint orange glow coming from inside the strobe through the status light window. I thought it was funny, and I couldnt remember ever seeing this before. I had to change the batteries anyway, so I took them out and the glow was still there! Def. coming from inside the strobe. I couldnt feel any heat coming from the body, so I took it on a night dive and it continued to work fine. (Yes, I did 6 dives today... :D )

Im stumped. Has anyone ever seen this before with an Inon z240? Is my strobe a time bomb???

...stay tuned!
 
Hey everyone... Thanks for the feedback and help in these trying times.

...I had JUST gotten to Lembeh and hadnt even begun diving for the day when The Incident occurred. After talking with a few people (all with differing opinions- as it is with the world in general, it appears) I think the general opinion is that the battery compartment IS watertight.

Im going to try to follow the ReefNet advice (theyve always been good to me before! Thanks!).
dry it out, and test it tomorrow!

(Pray for me!)

:D
Not to be picky or anything but Ryan who gave the advice is from Reef Photo, while Reefnet is Keri Wilk and crew. Both are good guys.
Bill
 
I had the strobe turned off and still under the surface - but I could see a faint orange glow coming from inside the strobe through the status light window. I thought it was funny, and I couldnt remember ever seeing this before. I had to change the batteries anyway, so I took them out and the glow was still there! Def. coming from inside the strobe. I couldnt feel any heat coming from the body, so I took it on a night dive and it continued to work fine. (Yes, I did 6 dives today... :D )

Glad you got it working. The light you see is normal. It's a light which sits on the main PCB assembly of the strobe, and is illuminated if the capacitors have energy stored in them.

It's not designed to be viewed by the user, rather it's to indicate to a repair technician that the capacitors have a charge in them. Charged capacitors, especially the size of the ones in the Z-240 can produce quite a shock!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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