Ikelite Silicone question

[nwscubamom]

With my new Ikelite housing, I got a teensy little single-use type tube of lube. Ikelite brand. The directions clearly state that you need to use Ikelite brand silicone grease to prevent the O-ring from swelling. I had been using Sea&Sea silicone grease with my old (Sea&Sea) camera.

top: Sea&Sea silicone-easily spread, middle: Canon silicone for their housings-about the same consistency, bottom: Ikelite silicone-very,very thick and hard to spread.

The tear-off Ikelite grease is a pain. There's no way to reseal it once you use it, and although it would look like it's single-use, it's not. There's quite a bit of lube in there. So once it's open, it can now squoosh out and all over everything. Give me a tube with a lid please!

Well, doing an internet search today it would appear that Ikelite ONLY makes the 'single-use' type tubes. Four for about $2.

Anyone know if there's something else that works well, or do you stick to these pain-in-the-toosh little containers?

- Janna

 

[weeksd]

Only Use ikelite grease with ikelite orings. Any other grease the oring swells up in size. Put the grease in a zip lock bag so it does not make a mess.

 

[bvanant]

There are many compatible greases for many kinds of o-rings. If you use the tribolube/christolube/molykote greases which are perfluoro ether based, they will not swell any kind of o-rings. In general (maybe universally true) the housing guys don't make grease they buy it depending on what the o-rings are made of. In any case it certainly isn't true that any other grease will swell ike o-rings, there are many that don't. What we do is buy some contact lens cases and fill them with the various greases that we might need on a trip. Label carefully and make sure you label the bottoms and not just the lids which can get split up.


Bill

 

[wildoceanphoto-dotcom]

I second weeksd's suggestion to just stick with what Ikelite recommends and use their grease. Little "Ziplock" baggies work well to hold the little clear tubes.

FYI, I use a Plano Stowaway ProLatch box to keep all my u/w photo stuff in - there's a little compartment just for Ikelite grease (in the baggies), and it works great - keeps my stuff organized and clean.

 

[AussieByron]

I have been using Sea & Sea grease on my Ikelite port o-rings for a few years and never had a problem.

Regards Mark