Why has your sealed equipment (e.g., camera) flooded underwater, how to prevent that?

[scagrotto]

I use a paper towel to wipe of excess silicone. The o-ring should be shiny from the grease, but you shouldn't really be able to see obvious grease. As Akimbo's post noted, the primary reason for the silicone grease is to allow the o-ring to move without excessive deformation.

One thing that hasn't been directly mentioned is salt crystals. Once a clean housing is exposed to salt water it should be kept wet until it has been thoroughly soaked in clean, fresh water. Note that simply rinsing the housing is not the same as soaking. Rinsing can remove loose particles, but soaking is required to *dissolve* any salt that has been deposited.

 

[diversteve]

Thanks. What sort of fabric do you use for cleaning?

I have a small piece of micro-fiber - which inherently may not be the best thing either. But it's worked so far. It's tough enough to wrap once around the o-ring tool to clean the groove and washable in the sink. Came with a good pair of sunglasses IIRC.

One thing that probably helps is to test, although this particular dive was not from a boat, so there wasn't a water bucket to submerge the camera in, and I don't always book a room with a bath tub. Do you think a slow leak can be detectable in a sink or under a running stream of water?

I don't know. I tested a housing once by lowering it in the deep end of a pool empty - it had an intermittent leak around the port. That same housing didn't leak in the same place in the kitchen sink immediately afterward.

How often do you replace the O-ring with a new one?

Not very often - at least once per season I will remove it, re-grease and re-install it. If I know I'm going to be storing it for a longer period of time, I leave the door open slightly. More than a few months and I sometimes remove it and store it in a zip-loc bag. Not usually though. My housing also is aluminum - and has a double o-ring tapered sealing surface. So it's pretty bulletproof.

I don't know if I'm just fooling myself but I almost always run my finger completely around a seated o-ring prior to closing the housing. And I typically grease it once per week at the start of the trip. I may put a little on my finger and run it around mid-week or so. Most of my diving is liveaboards and most times my housing rides outside or in the rinse tank. I leave it in there for long intervals when possible to keep salt crystals from forming.

 

[dfx]

I don't know. I tested a housing once by lowering it in the deep end of a pool empty - it had an intermittent leak around the port. That same housing didn't leak in the same place in the kitchen sink immediately afterward.

Similar experience here. Bought a used housing and leak tested it in a bucket. Came out all nice and dry. Tested again in a ~12 ft deep pool and the leak became quite apparent.

 

[TSandM]

My first flood turned out to be because I had closed the housing on a fruit fly wing. That drowned my beloved D'image camera.

I then had a waterproof Olympus (can't remember the make) that was housed in an acrylic housing. After a couple of years, it began to leak. Turned out it was leaking through the holes for the buttons, and apparently this is a problem with acrylic housings. Over time, they can develop microcracking from repeated cycles of pressurization. There is nothing to be done about it except replace the housing, if it's still available, which this one was not.

 

[kwinter]

Dog hair. It gets on everything in my house.


Please pardon any typos. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[danclem]

I am an underwater photographer and have never had a major flood. My two minor leaks were:

1.) Some idiot TSA employee removed a O ring from an Ikelite stobe on a trip back from Oman, and I did not catch it until after I placed it in a rinse sink at home.

2.) After a dive off the north end of Vancouver Island my leak detector began flashing in the rinse tank on the boat. There was half a teaspoon of water in my Subal housing. Never could find or repeat the problem. Had the housing checked by Backscatter, nothing. I think that a sand particle may have been pushed into one of the O rings for a button, and was forced in when I pushed it three or four times to clean it out.

Grove cleaning: consider using makeup sponge used to apply eye makeup. Works great. I also never grease compression O rings: just ones where a bayonet port is attached. Same rules for Lifeline, GoPro, and iPhone underwater housings.


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[JackConnick]

We have a free handbook covering o-ring and housing maintenance available on our website. It covers most of these issues.

Maintenance

 

[dallaskincaid]

I flooded my GoPro last fall because the string that was attached to the red filter got caught in the seal. I had taken it out to recharge it before I went on the boat and was kind of rushing. The worst part was that I didn't realize I had flooded it until I was 20' under and went to turn the camera on. Needless to say, it totally ruined my dive (I was on the Kitiwake in CI). Totally my fault and you can get bet your bottom dollar I check the enclosure EVERY time before I get into the water.

 

[Rand]

I had a strobe flood because the o-ring wasn't seated fully when I closed it up.

A lot of the failures I've seen buddies have are from rushing to put their camera together before a dive. When you rush, you forget things, or don't pay attention to the small hairs on the o-ring, etc. Also, putting the camera together in good lighting is a good idea. I carry a headlamp for this purpose. It lets me stay up late in the room messing with the camera while the wife sleeps.

 

[highdesert]

Even if your eyesight is wonderful, a cheap pair of drug store reading glasses, much stronger than you would need for reading, are very useful for inspecting O-rings and grooves on your gear.