Useful life of an acrylic casing?

[huisen]

Hi out there,

I use a Canon G10 with the Canon U/W casing, the DC-28, I believe. This is acrylic isn't it? I've used this for 2 years now and only once have I taken it down to 30m. I'm usually 25m and above. The reason I'm asking is that I hear about casing failures where the casing cracked or broke where a knob or button is. Is there a useful life for these casings? I take good care of my casing, it's always packed well and never dropped or knocked. I've probably taken it for about 50 dives. I'm worried though that one fine day it'll crack and kill my camera without warning. Has anyone had a casing last a good number of years? Thanks in advance for any advice/help given. I would like to retire it as I am looking for an aluminum casing but no success. Obsolete and unavailable I'm told.

 

[knowone]

I'm keeping some of mine for when film comes back in digital rolls.

 

[diver 85]

My A570 Canon case is going on 4 yrs old(this coming April), have almost 300 dives on it......Now saying that, I'm 'upgrading' very soon to a FIX S95.......

 

[MarkH]

My Ikelite housings are from the '70s and '80s and they still work fine. Just store them out of the sun. The UV can damage the polycarbonate/acrylic.

 

[huisen]

Thanks guys, there's some hope I can make this one last a while longer yet.

 

[Warren_L]

The seals will likely go before the housing material goes I suspect, so just make sure you maintain them periodically and you should be fine.

 

[drbill]

I don't use acrylic housings but have acrylic ports on two of mine. They are going on 10 years for one (the other has been replaced due to scratches).

As mentioned, keep them out of the sun and I assume they should last a long time.

Decades ago I had acrylic aquarium tanks made for my biology lab by a defense contractor who specialized in acrylic windshields, ports, etc. for military applications. Unfortunately these often cracked and none of them lasted longer than 10 years. They did receive sunlight through the lab windows.

 

[bvanant]

Hi out there,

I use a Canon G10 with the Canon U/W casing, the DC-28, I believe. This is acrylic isn't it? I've used this for 2 years now and only once have I taken it down to 30m. I'm usually 25m and above. The reason I'm asking is that I hear about casing failures where the casing cracked or broke where a knob or button is. Is there a useful life for these casings? I take good care of my casing, it's always packed well and never dropped or knocked. I've probably taken it for about 50 dives. I'm worried though that one fine day it'll crack and kill my camera without warning. Has anyone had a casing last a good number of years? Thanks in advance for any advice/help given. I would like to retire it as I am looking for an aluminum casing but no success. Obsolete and unavailable I'm told.

Many of the Canon type housings used by instructors have a thousand dives on them or maybe more. The key is to look carefully at your housings every month or so and look for stress cracks near the control knobs. Very tiny cracks are not a problem but larger ones can be trouble. The biggest concern is the o-rings, you should change them out every couple of years (I don't mean the big case ring but the o-rings on the buttons/knobs).
Bill

 

[miketsp]

I've been diving my Sony acrylic case regularly since 2002, many dives below 30m and quite a few in the 40-45m range.
Original o-rings on the buttons. The first main case o-ring lasted 7 years.

 

[mattoau]

I've seen three Ikelite arylic housings fail due to a crack at a button junction in just four months. They were work cameras rather than personal and so probably not as well looked after by the staff as they should have been. However the most likely cause was probably knocking in the camera bucket on the trip to the dive site, it could get pretty rough on some occasions.

On a rough trip I would always recommend holding your camera for short periods, or some extra padding for longer durations if stowing it.