Watertight cases...

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scubavince

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I'm looking looking for a watertight case that is large enough to hold a cellphone, GPS devise or wallet. The Otterbox appears to limit the depth to 100ft. Does anyone know of a brand of case that is engineered for the full recreation dive depth or more?

Thx, Vince
 
scubavince:
I'm looking looking for a watertight case that is large enough to hold a cellphone, GPS devise or wallet. The Otterbox appears to limit the depth to 100ft. Does anyone know of a brand of case that is engineered for the full recreation dive depth or more?

Thx, Vince

Why would you want to take any of those things underwater?

Or am I missing the point?
 
Lets say you're drift diving and for whatever reason you're separated from the group, a sudden current shift moves you further away. You surface and remove your portable VHF radio, contact your boat or the nearest one for pickup by giving them your position from your GPS device.

Lets say your shore diving in a foreign in country, you park your rental and put on your gear. Knowing that you're in an area that is notorious for break-ins, what to do with your ID/wallet/keys?

Overkill, probably... but if the cost isn't unreasonable, why not. In the end, my life is in my hands and failure on my part to do what's reasonable to protect my life is a great shame. Anything beyond that is cake.

Vince
 
scubavince:
Lets say your shore diving in a foreign in country, you park your rental and put on your gear. Knowing that you're in an area that is notorious for break-ins, what to do with your ID/wallet/keys?

Your DL, your money and your keys are all water-proof items. Your baby pictures, no.

That leaves the GPS or the cell phone reason.

The GPS will tell me where I am lost. If a cell phone gets a signal in the area I am in, I am not really lost.

If you imagine for a moment that you are floating about and are going to fire up that GPS, find your numbers then relay it via cell phone to the Coast Guard or whoever, to that I say, Oh Really?

Better to take Sky Blazers and smoke cannisters.
 
I have a friend who has an ingenious padlock/steel box thing that she attaches to the underside of her car to leave her keys while shore diving. I need to look those things up, because it's a great idea. Sort of like one of the real estate broker key boxes.

When I dive with her, my keys go in her trunk. I have an electronic key with alarm remote I have to keep dry, if it was a regular key I would just keep it in a pocket (well-secured, of course). Ditto if I'm diving with someone else with a regular key... my electronic stuff goes locked in their trunk, and they take their regular key with them, which isn't really affected by water.

When I dive without a better method (for instance, if we both have electronic keys to keep dry), I do have a small dry bag with triple heavy-duty zip-loc seals that has kept my keys dry down to about 90 fsw, but I prefer not to risk it.

Cell phone and any other electronics stay on shore.

The only relatively certain way to keep such things dry would be a waterproof canister of the type used for the battery pack on a can light. I believe there was a thread somewhere on this board a few months ago by someone wanting to bring a VHF radio down with him for similar reasons, you might try a search. Even those can flood, but you might be able to pick up one big enough for a cell phone on eBay for cheap if you purchase one with a known-defective light head. Another thought, frankly, is a largish, older UK 8-D flashlight. The battery compartment on that might be big enough for a cell phone or GPS depending on the model, and those are supposedly rated to 300' or so. Somewhat bulky, however. There are no easy answers to the mix of electronics and water...
 
Even if your car key is a new fangled electronic variety, have a regular key cut at the local hardware store.

It will open the door.

Lock your fancy electronic key inside. Take the plain key diving.

We have similar standard keys silver taped under every vehicle we own. Even used them once or twice after locking the electronic key inside!
 
I think I'm the one compudude is referring to with the vhf radio. My wife and I both carry a vhf radio when we dive. I use a otterbox 8000 and 9000 (cost about $20) to 130' and have never had a leak. Our radios (about $150 but some are $50) are rated for 30 minutes at 5 feet. I haven't tried any other otter boxes but they are all rated to 100' except for possibly the completely clear boxes. Ours have see through tops. My thought is in the case of seperation from the dive boat there should be some boat within a few miles to speak to and coordinate a pick up. Range of the radio is going to depend on conditions ( 5 miles max) but it's certainly a good backup when your out of audio and visual range. I always tell the captain we have the radios and ask what channel do they monitor in case of a problem. If you'd like additional info please let me know.
 
RoatanMan:
Even if your car key is a new fangled electronic variety, have a regular key cut at the local hardware store.

It will open the door.

Not on either of our cars. Even the emergency "wallet" key (which is too thick to fit in any wallet) is electronic. However, it's also plastic and in all likelihood totally waterproof.

It is not possible to get keys cut for many newer cars, especially certain imports. For these, a set of ten or so keys is typically manufactured at the outset and all but two kept at the factory in case duplicates are needed later. Dealers can order these but they cannot actually produce a duplicate themselves.
 
scubavince:
Divekraz, I'm open to any info you may have! :D

Thanks for all the responses.

scubavince
Scubavince

I don't know what info you want specifically so let me know if I missed something. I was looking to keep the cost down on this safety device, Both my radios were around $150 and the big point for me was they could be in the water for 30 minutes. The radios for under $100 are not submersible. The other factor was size and trying to find a radio that would fit in the otter box. I got a Undien Voyager which is probably the smallest radio and the icom m-32 for size and quality reputation. Be very careful of radio dimensions shown as they are not accurate in some cases.

If there's anything else you'd like to know, please ask.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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