EEEEEKKK!!! Rusty Ikelite hinges

My Ikelite housing is about 2 months old. After yesterday's dives, I noticed rust on the closure hasps. The LDS recommended I regularly use a vegetable oil becaue a petroleum-based oil might attack the seals. Stemming from that experience, I have a few questions.

Is 00 steel wool the best way to remove the rust?
Exactly what would be the best rust preventative (Wesson? EV olive oil? Sesame oil?...)
Should I be miffed that my nearly-new Ikelite housing is showing rust?

It's the corrosive waters of Curacao that are causing the rust.

i actually would be contacting ikelite about this first

hubby has had an ike housing for a few years and no rust

goodluck

I agree with the Almitywife. I would contact Ike. Even my cheap Oly housing never got any rust. My goodness. It's made to go underwater so it seems to me a no-brainer that it should be rust proof.

I just sent my Ike back in for a leak but it too has rust on some of the metal parts (not sure of the clamps) - it is less than a year old. I wonder if there was a bad batch of steel for a while. I'll have to call them while it's still in their hands.

I wrote the vendor. They replied that I would be sent an new housing. So apparently this is a problem that Ikelite is aware of.

Thanks for all your help!

excellent Tennessee

someone once said to me that as Ike is turning over so many housings with all the new models, R&D cant be as thorough as they would like so therefore when these things happen they are more inclined to believe and replace the unit than quesiton it

plus 2months old is a excellent indicator that its not you but the housing

congrats for the good outcome and thanks for letting us know!

I returned my ikelite housing for a missing cir-clip on an operator control, they not only replaced the circlip, but also included back to me 5 spare circlips AND replaced a very slightly rusting side clip FREE OF CHARGE, including return shipping back to me.............top notch customer service. Send it in and I'm sure they're make it good for free.........they did for me.

I called Ike service and they said they would look at the rust on my housing. The housing came back yesterday with shiny new metal parts! Everything I've heard about Ikelite service being great is true.

Okay, I lied. It wasn’t a deliberate lie; I simply misinterpreted Reef Photo’s (ambiguous) response.

So I E-mailed and told them the hasps on my housing were rusty. They wrote back saying, and I quote, “Ikelite is sending us replacements, which we'll forward at no charge.” End quote.

I took this to mean I was being sent a replacement housing. What I received were replacement hasps ...with no accompanying installation instructions.

I’ll admit I’m a pretty incorrigible shade tree mechanic but the prospect of swapping those hasps without so much as torque specs for the nuts gives me the heebie-jeebies. So I E-mailed back to Reef Photo asking what I was to do with the spare parts. The response was basically, “Dunno. I’ll ask Ikelite.”

Which put me to wondering, “Okay, you sent me replacement parts even you don’t know how to install but you sent them with no instructions? This is customer service …how???”

A month and a half came and went and I had no answer from RP so Monday I E-mailed Ikelite directly (as usual, almitywife, the woman was right) . They replied yesterday, saying I had no business replacing the hasps myself and I should send it to them.

Great. Reef Photo just got moved to my DO NOT BUY FROM list.

I’m (still) happy with the pieces parts of my original purchase, which was based almost entirely on guidance from them. I’ll give ‘em that. But I ordered the UW camera kit in advance of my first trip to Bonaire, a significant enough event that I thought it worthy of the expense of an UW digital photo kit.

I struck the blow two weeks ahead of my departure, which I’d have allowed was enough time for the camera to reach me here in Curacao (USPS from the states usually takes 7 calendar days at the outside). When it hadn’t arrived on the day of my departure, I E-mailed RP to check on it’s status. And I got an, “Oops! It’ll go out today.”

So a week after my trip to Bonaire, the package finally arrived. Understand that this is my first UW rig so I don’t know a lot about housings and ports and such. But I couldn’t find anything in that box that would allow me to attach the strobe arm to the housing.

So once again I E-mailed RP to ask what I was overlooking. His reply was, “My mistake. I was thinking that housing had a built-in tray. I guess not, huh? You want I should send you one?” Tray, eh? What’s a tray?

So it was another two weeks before I had the entire kit together. In all, the initial transaction took a month too long and involved way more drama than was necessary.

But now I’m snakebit; I’m convinced something will go awry every time I deal with Reef Photo. And the simple solution is just to stop dealing with them.