Nauticam Vacuum Check Weirdness

[Nemrod]

I had a bit of a leak with my Nauticam Z8 today in the Philippines. A little bit of water entering probably via the 45deg viewfinder orings. (Manhandled by dive staff) The moisture alarm triggered but the housing didn't flood or loose pressure. Just a few ml's of water.

I replaced every primary oring including the viewfinder. Now my moisture alarm keeps triggering, even after 5-10 minutes under a hair dryer. I'll dive it with circuit off and work on it more tonight.

Does the moisture circuit trigger under vacuum sitting dry on a table? if so the circuit is now faulty. I would do an overnight vacuum test. If the housing holds vacuum overnight as indicated by air going into the release valve then I would go ahead and dive the camera. You might do a test dive empty with tissue paper after the overnight vacuum check. You are far away and went there for this purpose, it is do or die IMO.

 

[davehicks]

Does the moisture circuit trigger under vacuum sitting dry on a table? if so the circuit is now faulty. I would do an overnight vacuum test. If the housing holds vacuum overnight as indicated by air going into the release valve then I would go ahead and dive the camera. You might do a test dive empty with tissue paper after the overnight vacuum check. You are far away and went there for this purpose, it is do or die IMO.

I did a dive after cleanup and hair dryer time. Circuit off. No obvious leak but there was still some moisture after the dive to set off the circuit. It will get an overnight open to A/C and we will see what tomorrow brings. I'm not sure if the circuit will remain usable at this point.

It is interesting that pulling a vacuum in preparation resulted in the moisture alarm triggering after about 10-20 minutes. I wonder if the vacuum is pulling residual water from the sensor wire?

 

[rmorgan]

I had a bit of a leak with my Nauticam Z8 today in the Philippines. A little bit of water entering probably via the 45deg viewfinder orings. (Manhandled by dive staff) The moisture alarm triggered but the housing didn't flood or loose pressure. Just a few ml's of water.

I replaced every primary oring including the viewfinder. Now my moisture alarm keeps triggering, even after 5-10 minutes under a hair dryer. I'll dive it with circuit off and work on it more tonight.

If you can find a regular fan, a few hours with that might be better than a few minutes with a hair dryer. When this happened to me, it took a few days for it to resolve. Somebody picked up your housing by the viewfinder?

 

[davehicks]

After drying overnight all is back to working normally.

 

[PatW]

I have had a Nauticam housing that went through about 600 dives (maybe more) and I never, ever had a problem. But I always kept the inside dry and I never opened it outside of an air conditioned room. The AC might be the crucial element.