Ikelite Service

[Latitude 59]

Sent 7D housing in for routine service prior to 3 wk. dive trip. Had to call and find out why not returned as getting close to trip. Ooops, service done but they forgot to ship back. Sent LED light for troubles. Passed tub leak check and on trip camera rinse dunk test with macro port on. Dropped to 40 feet and moisture alarm goes off. Aborted dive, bit of surface swim back to boat and elevated housing on inflated SMB just in case. Triple checked everything, water intrusion somewhere caught by padding in bottom of housing so camera dry. Switched to WA and new 0 rings thinking operator error, dunk check ok. Back in water and made it a few dives before fog noted and then when deep a tiny trickle on inside. Ascended slowly which is hard to do when you are waiting for catastrophic flood at any second. Again moisture alarm saved me and padding, camera dry. Kept it out of drink after that.

Sent in for re-examination and sure enough, failed their pressure test so it wasn't operator error in assembly or missed dust bunnies. They supposedly have "fixed" the problem (no charge for second service) but won't know for sure till next dive trip. They sent another LED light for my troubles (which doesn't make up for loss of use on trip but consider myself lucky not to have flooded camera).

Leak detector best investment as caught leak before I could visually see anything. I checked housing with back up light upon submerging and all was well. Padding in bottom of housing kept camera dry. Never hurts to hedge your bets!

 

[highdesert]

Sent in for re-examination and sure enough, failed their pressure test so it wasn't operator error in assembly or missed dust bunnies. They supposedly have "fixed" the problem (no charge for second service) but won't know for sure till next dive trip.

So it appears they pressure tested it upon return, and it failed, but you don't mention the results of a pressure test after they worked on it again. They post that test result right on your copy of the work order. What did it say?

PS - As a general comment, I have nothing but positive things to say about my experiences with the Ikelite service department.