Follow-up on Flooded Sunpak G-Flash

[Larry C]

Mine didn't flood. It just stopped working after the first weekend of diving. I'm currently awaiting word from Tocad after returning it. It's a shame, because it did a dynamite job of lighting, for a very reasonable price. Hopefully, it will come back working and stay that way for quite a while.

 

[DiverRick69]

I guess that's what I meant, has anyone had one of these that hasn't had any problems?
It seems that the only people who have spoken up are the ones that are disappointed with this strobe. No one is saying that this is a great strobe, no problems.
Also, I'm wondering how deep were the dives when these flooded? Were they pushing the llimits for the strobe, or relatively shallow? (Obviously they exceeded the limit for the particular strobe if it flooded, but were they near the limit stated by the manufacturer?)

 

[SeaYoda]

Mine flooded on a less than 60' dive. The door design is the problem - the springs that hold it in place wear out and the "lock" no longer functions. The only thing between you and a flood are water pressure pushing in and the O-ring creating a good seal.

I also had a bad power knob on my first strobe, had to send it back right away. I'm currently on strobe number three in less than a year. I hope that this thing will fail before October if it is going to - my warranty ends then.

 

[midwestdvr]

Mine flooded on a less than 60' dive. The door design is the problem - the springs that hold it in place wear out and the "lock" no longer functions. The only thing between you and a flood are water pressure pushing in and the O-ring creating a good seal.

I also had a bad power knob on my first strobe, had to send it back right away. I'm currently on strobe number three in less than a year. I hope that this thing will fail before October if it is going to - my warranty ends then.

Strobe #3? Holy cow. I'm glad you've been covered by the warranty (I assume) or you'd be out a lot of money.

 

[SeaYoda]

I still have to pay shipping to send it back each time - It's a good, cheap strobe but cost mounts up when sending it back and forth.

 

[DiverRick69]

Less than 60' -YIKES.:11: It looks like I'm definitely going to try to return the one I just got. It's unused, so hopefully I can get them to take it back on the grounds that it has a design flaw.

 

[Larry C]

Good news today. I just got off the phone with ToCAD in NJ. They're repairing my G-flash under warranty, and pending a possible back-ordered part, I should have it back in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, it will be more reliable. I was really happy with the performance.

 

[Larry C]

Got my G-flash back today. They replaced it on warranty. They even sent me the whole kit (I only returned the strobe unit). I'm diving tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

 

[Larry C]

It survived the first weekend, but I did have some trouble with intermittent failure to slave. Anybody experience this? The first one worked like a champ while it worked. This one failed to fire on about half my shots, and when I tried it in the boat, it would test fire but not slave. (That might be because of too much ambient light).

 

[SeaYoda]

What is it firing off of, an open sensor or an optic cable?