Question Ikelite vs. Sea & Sea strobes

[Wobbegong_th]

That's great. I'm glad to see Ikelite responding to user preferences in this way. I feel like they really tied themselves to their proprietary TTL solutions with electrical sync when lots of power users don't want or need TTL anymore.

My one gripe about the Ikelite strobes is that the Battery Lever mechanism would constantly get jammed with silt and sand. You can flush it out fairly easily, but you need to do it all the time and it risks getting the battery internals wet. You basically have to remove the battery, put it lever up under a running faucet and hope you don't flood it as you manipulate the lever and spring. If you shore dive with any frequency this is a real pain in the b#tt!

Ikelite released a video about 6 yrs ago on Youtube on how to clean their battery toggle part. I can't access Youtube on my work network so I cannot get the link.
The name of the video is 'Cleaning a DS160 DS161 Battery Pack Toggle Lock". Search for this on youtube.
And another video called "Cleaning a Strobe battery Toggle Lock", released on youtube about a month ago.
I'd followed the old video after my trip from Tulamben, where a lot of sand got trapped under the toggle.

These cleaning method is 'dry cleaning' - so it is safe from flooding.

 

[Wobbegong_th]

One thing we have observed with Ikelite strobes is that the chargers are also a concern. On an Indo live aboard trip 2 chargers failed and the third one was charging everyone's batteries. To me at least electrical sync connection is so 1960's. FO has so many advantages.
Bill

I'd also had a problem with Ikelite old charger for DS-125. It was Hugh, Chunky, and Take up 2 outlet when plug it in (the body was so big that it block the socket next to it.) I'd also had that old charger cable broken at the connection to the tip that goes into the battery.
I'd found out the broken wire just a few days before I went on a trip about 7-8 years ago. Living in Thailand, the Ikelite distributor here did not stock the parts/charger. Order a new one would take at least half a month, which would not fit my schedule at that time. So I resorted to my high-school electrical workshop days and found a compatible tip from local electrical parts store, cut the original wire and soldered new tip on. It got me through that trip so I can later order the new charger, which come with a much more compact size.

I just wish that Ikelite would study the new USB-C PD model and come up with something to charge their battery with USB-C PD with high wattage. That would make traveling much easier.

 

[davehicks]

Ikelite released a video about 6 yrs ago on Youtube on how to clean their battery toggle part. I can't access Youtube on my work network so I cannot get the link.
The name of the video is 'Cleaning a DS160 DS161 Battery Pack Toggle Lock". Search for this on youtube.
And another video called "Cleaning a Strobe battery Toggle Lock", released on youtube about a month ago.
I'd followed the old video after my trip from Tulamben, where a lot of sand got trapped under the toggle.

These cleaning method is 'dry cleaning' - so it is safe from flooding.

Wet or dry you still have to deal with the grit. For my type of diving it was a frequent and annoying design defect