Underwater housing service

[mrBubblephoto]

Seems its recommended by Manufacturers to have the Underwater housing serviced every 2 years.

Who really does it? Had you had problems after service?

 

[chris kippax]

What brand of housing do you have?
I just DIY. Its quite simple on some brands.
It also depends on the quality of your post dive maintenance. Removing all the saltwater from around the buttons/controls is critical. Also allowing the housing to dry well is critical.
If you are religious on your post dive maintenance I would say 2 years it too short. My dive buddy has a Nauticam housing that has gone 4 years and around 1200 dives with out a service. The black housing is a black/green patina now. Housing works perfectly. YMMV
When I used ikelite service it was perfect, no issues what so ever.
Do you have a vacuum valve?

 

[mrBubblephoto]

Nauticam with Vacuum valve

 

[chris kippax]

Wash it well and you should have years of trouble free service. There was a recent thread on Wetpixel where a gent was charged several hundred dollars (from memory) for a very vanilla service from Nauticam. I would only send it in if there was an issue.
The vacuum valve make DIY a lot safer as you can easily check your workmanship.

How long have you owned it and how many dives? are the buttons free or stiff?

Dive gear is like cars, least reliable straight after service/repair.

 

[mrBubblephoto]

.....
How long have you owned it and how many dives? are the buttons free or stiff?
......

had it 2 years, no issues, always rinsed after every dive and when home soaked in a warm fresh water operating every button. Taken the main O-Ring out and cleaned and lubricated. O-Ring stored in a zip loc bag and housing closed without o-ring for storage. Until next dive trip

 

[chris kippax]

Dive on then, I say

 

[WS007]

Once a year I put our housings (NAEM1II and NAEM5II), assembled with domeport and vacuum in the dishwasher (no detergent, lowest temperature) and after this I tread every feed through (where O-rings are) with a drop of this fluid:
D&D Top Secret O-Ring Fluid

Wolfgang

P.S.: in case I would see that one of the feed throughs is not completely tight any more, I would replace the O-ring by myself...

 

[Chris Ross]

It's particularly important to give your housing a good long soak and to operate all buttons few times. My observations is that once air in the button opening is displaced by water that water stays where it is unless you move it on. I see this on my INON Z240 strobes even after soaking for 2 hours in warm water, if I leave them to the next day to charge the batteries (home diving) salt crystals have started to form from the water trapped between the o-ring and the opening of the battery compartment cap - indicating the soaking has not displaced the salt.

This to me says there is not much driving force for diffusion through thin little gaps that hold water by capilliary action - which is what you have with all your buttons. My routine when I get home is to throw the housing in the sink to soak while I get the other gear inside then pull it out to operate all the buttons out of the water, dunk it back and operate them again - each when generally lets out a small bubble indicating it has filled with rinse water. It soaks at least an hour with a button cycle done 2-3 times. Probably overkill - but better than having a button o-ring failure.

My Nauticam EM-1 - mkII housing has been in service since 2017 and I have no plans to service it just yet. The o-rings will eventually harden from age - I'm not sure how long that will take, but I'm thinking I might look into a service in a couple of years.