Flying with UW Camera for first time

[gracefulc]

Hello all,

I will be traveling to Kona on Wednesday with my UW Camera as carry-on and I have a question for those of you who know something about UW cameras:

I have been told not to fly with the housing sealed. Now to have it open (since my case is a bit small for it) will take up a LOT of room and leave it vulnerable to being damaged as it won't fit in my hard case. Can I just take the O-ring off and close it up w/o the O-ring? or will it stil cause problems?

Thanks!

 

[donnyb]

Hello all,

I will be traveling to Kona on Wednesday with my UW Camera as carry-on and I have a question for those of you who know something about UW cameras:

I have been told not to fly with the housing sealed. Now to have it open (since my case is a bit small for it) will take up a LOT of room and leave it vulnerable to being damaged as it won't fit in my hard case. Can I just take the O-ring off and close it up w/o the O-ring? or will it stil cause problems?

Thanks!

yes just remove the o-ring

 

[Warren_L]

It's never really a good idea to have the housing open with the o-ring in it. This actually happened to a dive buddy of mine with a $10,000 Amphibico housing. He left the housing open with the o-ring in it. Sometime during the flight at altitude, the housing closed shut. At altitude, the ambient pressure was probably about 0.7 ATA. So with the housing closed the plane landed and we were back to 1.0 ATA. The housing was vacuum sealed with a pressure differential of 0.3 ATA. He could not get the housing opened and it took two of us using full force to pry the thing open. It wasn't fun as one wrong move and the housing could have been damaged....

Just take the o-ring out.

 

[gracefulc]

so I am right in assuming that no o-ring = no pressure seal so plane won't make a difference?

 

[Warren_L]

Without the o-ring in the housing, there will be no pressure differential at any time between the inside and outside of the housing. If you seal the housing, there may be positive pressure inside the housing, which may not necessarily be a good thing either.

 

[steeliejim]

Hmmm, wouldn't it be better just to not latch the housing latches down with the o-ring in place? I'd be worried about hard surface on hard surface, or some minute particles getting into the o-ring groove.

 

[rhlee]

I think the problem may be that the housing is designed to seal against a pressure differential where the outside pressure is higher and the inside pressure is lower (the normal use-case of sealing it at sea-level and going underwater). In this case, the compression pushes the o-ring against the groove to make the seal; in theory the more compression, the better the seal.

However, with the opposite pressure differential, the only thing "sealing" the case is the latch, which is not good at all. So in the previous example, you might close the thing before gettin gon the plane at 1ATM, but on the plane, it is 0.7ATM ambient, and the thing "leaks" so it is 0.7ATM inside teh housing as well. But when the plane lands, you are back to 1ATM and it never "leaks" to equalize because you are working in compression now (not expansion).

Anyway, this is how I understand the problem.

 

[aedavidson]

My housing came with a block that contours to the housing that keeps it from closing, for traveling and storage. I am a novice but it seems to make sense to not have the o-ring compressed all of the time, only when in use.

 

[Kim]

Just remove the O ring/s and put them in a plastic bag to keep them safe. When you reassemble it just make sure that everything is very clean and nothing gets into the groove/s. Re-grease the ring/s (not too much) and you should be good to go.

 

[Jamdiver]

Personally when I travelled home after purchasing my camera and housing.

I followed some very simple steps to ensure the safety of my housing during travel.
Put my housing in my carryon luggage with the housing latched but not closed....
I only remove the oring from my housing for cleaning or for greasing it..

That it's, no problems or issues with that.

Having read the OP's post, as others have noted the best advice in your situation is removing the oring and storing the housing closed but not latched