US Divers depth gauge bottom timer battery dead

[Joesjunglegym]

I have a US Divers depth gauge manufactured 12/92. The gauge works fine but the LCD bottom timer is out. My question is if I open the unit up with a strap wrench to replace the battery, how do I properly seal the unit back up? Is there an O-ring, do I use Lock-tite or? Would like to get the timer working but not at the risk of flooding the unit.

 

[divad]

Can you post pictures front and back? There be experts here...(I'm not one of them).

 

[Scared Silly]

Just open it up. There is an o-ring. Toss a new battery in, but a bit of lube on the o-ring and screw everything back together. Biggest issue is the battery could be corroded so you will need to clean up the contacts.

 

[fmerkel]

Concure with @Scared Silly. Done this a number of times successfully. No floods after....so far.

 

[Joesjunglegym]

Great! Sounds like the same procedure for a dive computer. Thanks!

 

[JackD342]

Every time you choose to re-use the o-ring rather than replace it, you increase the possibility it will fail and flood. On my own computer, I might re-use it once in a pinch, but not more often and never for a customer.
Repeatedly skipping the change means that flooding is not a question of "if" but instead a question of "when."
If that is the original o-ring from 1992, well....

 

[GJC]

I think what you have is an Oceanic Datamax II clone with a US Divers label, if it looks like this:

Oceanic Datamax II

Scroll to the bottom to see pics.

If this looks like what you have, there is no o ring. If you are lucky enough to unscrew the case without cracking it, there is a rubber gasket that covers the entire gauge. It seals the case when tight and transfers pressure to the gauge through several holes in the back cover. I have never found a source for replacing that gasket. You're just going to have to re-use it. Make sure it's clean and smooth or you're going to have a leak.

Inside are two No 357 watch style batteries. If the LCD is good and old batteries haven't leaked on the electronics, you can activate the timer (with new batteries) by pressing the lever inside causing electrical contact to be made to start the timer. Releasing the lever causes the LCD to go into surface mode and display dive time and surface time.

Good luck getting it apart and getting it sealed again. I have done 4 of these with success so far (fingers crossed).

 

[Joesjunglegym]

Thanks for the input Scared & GJC. Looks like the Datamax. I haven't opened it yet because I haven't gotten around to getting a strap wrench. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to ruin a depth gauge by opening it just to get bottom/surface times.

 

[DIVEWATCHDOCTOR]

Every time you choose to re-use the o-ring rather than replace it, you increase the possibility it will fail and flood. On my own computer, I might re-use it once in a pinch, but not more often and never for a customer.
Repeatedly skipping the change means that flooding is not a question of "if" but instead a question of "when."
If that is the original o-ring from 1992, well....

We never re-use an Oring in our shop for the same reasons stated by JackD342.

 

[JackD342]

Thanks for the input Scared & GJC. Looks like the Datamax. I haven't opened it yet because I haven't gotten around to getting a strap wrench. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to ruin a depth gauge by opening it just to get bottom/surface times.

I would still like to see a photo of this device that requires a strap wrench to change a battery.