Locking the housing so it wouldn't leak...

[Texasguy]

Ordered a Black+, don't have it in my hands yet. Curious on how well it locks in general. I don't remember reading that housings fail and cameras get destroyed, thus, I guess whatever GoPro is doing, it provides a good seal.

Thus, how do you go about closing the housing, do you inspect the seal for sand and hair, how quickly the seal wears out, do you buy a new housing all together or the seal can be replaced?

How nervous are you that the case will leak? Have you heard of cases when leak did occur?

Thank you.

 

[Scubanoobi]

The locking mechanism on the 3 is fairly secure, I usually check for hair and dirt on the rubber seal. I just noticed on my original gopro that there is a fair amount of dirt on the seal and it still works just fine.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Keep the housing clean, drop it in a bucket of freshwater after a dive and dry it off before opening it. You will likely have zero problems, I have had none.

 

[FireStalker]

I have the Hero3 Black and haven't had any leaking problems in the 20 dives I've done with it. Just make sure the seal is clean, and make sure the latch clicks locked. It's a pretty good system.

I did notice that the Black+ is only rated to 131' vs the standard Hero3 Black rating of 197'.

 

[mikeb21072]

My hero3 black failed at 30 feet in seawater. I think it was due to putting three of the desiccant srips in the housing, and I think one was caught in the seal. My new gopro only gets one now, and I carefully inspect the seal. I always chuck it in the camera bucket on the boat prior to getting in the water, if it fails, you have a chance with freshwater to get it going again.

 

[dakotared411]

My hero3 black failed at 30 feet in seawater. I think it was due to putting three of the desiccant srips in the housing, and I think one was caught in the seal. My new gopro only gets one now, and I carefully inspect the seal. I always chuck it in the camera bucket on the boat prior to getting in the water, if it fails, you have a chance with freshwater to get it going again.

Ditto Mikeb, my 3+ failed after I put a couple strips in the hero 3 housing as they don't have a 3+ for the battery bacpac yet. My housing unit flooded, and spent the rest of the trip in a bag of rice. It's only partially back to being alive now, but unresponsive to wifi or switching between displays. GP is working with me now to get a new camera for 40% off. So in the future, I will be triple checking the housing and seal before going down.