I recently bought and tried out the seafrogs a7 iv housing in a pool before my upcoming trip. After sealing it using the vacuum pump and waiting for the green light to stay green for 15 mins, as reccomended, I entered the water (max depth 2m). After about 5-10 minutes it turned red. After getting out drying off and heading home the light then turned green again. Is there a possible reason for this and if so what is it. Am I possibly not sucking enough air out of the housing and the water pressure changes that in water and after it turns green should i keep going for a while to create a better vacuum? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
Question Seafrogs A7IV VPS-100 Vacum pump
- Thread starter Opaul20
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The housing compresses slightly under water pressure, and if the vacuum you've pulled is just at the edge of the sensor's preset pressure, then the slight increase in internal pressure caused by the reduction in volume will trigger this response. Cooling the air inside the housing may also be a contributor. An extra half dozen pumps generally prevents that.
Note, however, that the VPS-100 is not meant to be used underwater. It's stupid, I know, but that's how it is. You can take it under, but in my experience, after about 70-80 dives, its seals degrade and it starts slowly leaking water. I went through three VPS-100s that way before getting a Leak Sentinel, which does not suffer from this limitation. The Leak Sentinel (at least the V5XB version that I have; I believe that the newer V6 is improved in that regard) is more prone to flashing red at depth, then going back to green after surfacing, but unlike the VPS-100, it can be turned off without releasing vacuum. I do my pre-dive setup, ideally a few hours before the dive, pull vacuum, turn the Leak Sentinel off, then as I'm gearing up for the dive, I turn it on again, make sure it's still green, then turn it off again. This has the additional advantage of minimal battery use
With the newer V6 it might not be necessary.
Note that the version of Leak Sentinel for SeaFrogs housings is not advertised anywhere that I've seen, but if you write directly to info@vividhousings.com, you can buy one.
Note, however, that the VPS-100 is not meant to be used underwater. It's stupid, I know, but that's how it is. You can take it under, but in my experience, after about 70-80 dives, its seals degrade and it starts slowly leaking water. I went through three VPS-100s that way before getting a Leak Sentinel, which does not suffer from this limitation. The Leak Sentinel (at least the V5XB version that I have; I believe that the newer V6 is improved in that regard) is more prone to flashing red at depth, then going back to green after surfacing, but unlike the VPS-100, it can be turned off without releasing vacuum. I do my pre-dive setup, ideally a few hours before the dive, pull vacuum, turn the Leak Sentinel off, then as I'm gearing up for the dive, I turn it on again, make sure it's still green, then turn it off again. This has the additional advantage of minimal battery use
With the newer V6 it might not be necessary.Note that the version of Leak Sentinel for SeaFrogs housings is not advertised anywhere that I've seen, but if you write directly to info@vividhousings.com, you can buy one.
Ah I thought that might have been the case, thank you! Ill definitely look at getting that leak sentinel then once i have the money. Yeah, after doing some research and carefully reading all the instructions i did notice they mention not to take it under. You mentioned you took yours underwater, how does that work. Does it just turn red after a specific depth, as i assume there’s only so much air you can take out of it and therefore are you just using to create a vacuum at that point ? Thank you so much for your help, its greatly appreciated!
While the little plastic pump will fail to reduce the internal pressure of the housing any more at some point, that point is quite far away from the threshold at which the vacuum sensor will turn green. As I mentioned, give it half a dozen, maybe a dozen extra pumps after it turns green and you're good to go - just remember that if you keep diving with the VPS-100, it will eventually start leaking. The salt water immediately kills the VPS-100 electronics and then starts slowly seeping into the housing. The leak is quite slow, and my camera has outlived all three VPS-100s that died protecting it, but still - it's not something you want to happen if you can avoid it.
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