Olympus grease versus generic grease

[Gilligan]

I spoke with Jason Bradley, a professional photographer at Backscatter.com on June 19, 2004 regarding Olympus PT-010 main O-ring grease.

He stated the main O-ring is made of silicone rubber and therefore pure silicone grease cannot be used on it. The O-ring will absorb the grease and it will break it down resulting in the O-ring stretching.

Jason went on to explain the Olympus grease is not pure silicone grease. The Olympus tube states "SILICONE GREASE, ONLY FOR SILICONE RUBBER O RINGS". This does not mean the grease is silicone grease but instead means it is grease for silicone O-rings. He said the O-ring grease for the blue Sea & Sea O-rings is okay to use on Olympus O-rings because the Sea & Sea O-ring is also silicone rubber and their grease is compatible.

As of this post I have 64 dives on my current PT-010 with the original O-ring. It shows no signs of stretching. I use only the Olympus grease on the main O-ring.

I got about 50 dives on my older PT-010 before the O-ring stretched out to the point it would not stay in the groove and had to be changed. I used generic pure silicone grease on those O-rings.

It would seem that Jason is correct.

 

[Jason B]

Good info Gilligan. I wonder if the same holds true for my canon wp-dc700. It has a yellow O-ring and a tube of "silicon grease TSK5542". Time to start investigating...

 

[Jason B]

Well I just got through emailing canon so we'll see what they say. I'll post their reply in case any other canon owners need to know. I also requested info on where to obtain canon O-rings.

 

[Jason B]

I was just surfing over to www.uwdigitalcamera.com and noticed that they sell the Olympus and Canon O-rings as well as lube.

 

[aussie_shark_bait]

A good thing to know if it is a coloured o-ring, like the canons, sea and sea, or the olympus you do need to use the "special" silicon grease rather than a generic that we tend to use on our dive torchs etc... generally the coloured o-rings are made of silicon rubber.

ASB

 

[Shader]

I've been wondering about this issue with Ikelite housings since they give you a wimpy little tube when you buy the housing or strobe. I had read in the Underwater forum on Helixphoto that a guy uses regular Trident Silicone grease on his Ikelite O-rings and it works fine. Still looking for more info though. I think Olympus is misleading when they tell you that on the grease tube."SILICONE GREASE, ONLY FOR SILICONE RUBBER O RINGS"

Well it's off to Mexico, Belize, and Honduras for a month. I can't wait to get my new rig wet! Will post some cool photos(God willing)from my C-5060 upon my return.