Latch popped open during dive.

[renalea]

3rd dive of vacation and 3rd dive with my new Sealife DC1400 pro. Latch popped open. Safety latch was still closed. NOT GOOD and I'm NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS. Hoping SeaLife makes this right.

 

[fdog]

It didn't flood I'll wager.

That's because the latches become superflous below about 20' as the water pressure holds the case closed. You could undo every latch below that depth and wouldn't have the strength to force it open if you tried.

Where the latches become important is at shallow depths. ...Like the rinse bucket. If a camera is going to flood, it's going to happen in the bucket, where there is relatively no water pressure to hold the housing sealed, and any little bump can disturb the housing o-ring enough to let water in. Every time I see someone just plop their housing in a bucket and walk away I mentally wince. It's just asking for a flood.

It sounds like the latch drifted open after water pressure compressed the housing o-ring seal, which is common enough. My GoPro housing latch opens like clockwork at 60' or so.

It's probabally just a minor adjustment; Sealife is uaually pretty good about this stuff.


All the best, James

 

[renalea]

It didn't flood I'll wager.

That's because the latches become superflous below about 20' as the water pressure holds the case closed. You could undo every latch below that depth and wouldn't have the strength to force it open if you tried.

Where the latches become important is at shallow depths. ...Like the rinse bucket. If a camera is going to flood, it's going to happen in the bucket, where there is relatively no water pressure to hold the housing sealed, and any little bump can disturb the housing o-ring enough to let water in. Every time I see someone just plop their housing in a bucket and walk away I mentally wince. It's just asking for a flood.

It sounds like the latch drifted open after water pressure compressed the housing o-ring seal, which is common enough. My GoPro housing latch opens like clockwork at 60' or so.

It's probabally just a minor adjustment; Sealife is uaually pretty good about this stuff.


All the best, James

Yes, the back door opened when coming up from the dive. The dive was to 90'. The o-ring had been compressed and it opened when I was nearly back at the surface. It opened all the way. The camera fell out. My husband caught it at about 20'. Hoping to get a response from SeaLife. Have contacted them via their website. Thanks for your input. That's pretty much exactly what we were thinking.

 

[renalea]

UPDATE: When I got home from my trip, I sent the camera and housing in to SeaLife. Just got an email back from them - Even though they could find nothing wrong with the latch on the housing, they're replacing the camera FREE OF CHARGE! That's good customer service.

I'm very satisfied with that and from now on I'll put some sort of "safety strap" around the housing just in case.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

I've heard only excellent things about SeaLife customer service.

From what I hear about latches, you just have to thoroughly check them (e.g., hear the closing 'click' and look closely) before each dive. Sometimes it's easy to get complacent if there have never been problems.

Glad that everything was sorted out, and you'll have a new camera soon!

 

[grantwiscour]

Thanks for the posts. I'm glad to hear that SeaLife Customer Service took good care of you. I have a few of their products myself.

 

[DandyDon]

Sealife is great. I really suspect the latch was not secured well, but I wasn't there. Great for them to be so nice.

 

[renalea]

Sealife is great. I really suspect the latch was not secured well, but I wasn't there. Great for them to be so nice.

DD - I wish that were true. Then I would know why it opened and WOULD NOT worry about it happening again. But, since I am new to underwater photography and my husband has been using cameras and housings for 27 years, I had him double check my efforts and he said it was closed correctly with the latch being flush with the side of the housing, as it should be. Maybe I didn't do something right with the camera inside - we'll never know since it fell out when the door popped open. But the latch was definitely secured correctly. Thanks for your simple assessment of the issue, anyway.

 

[DandyDon]

As I said, I wasn't there. Glad they were nice to you and hope you have no more problems.