Halcyon - rust problem

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docmartin

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Fort Lee, NJ
# of dives
200 - 499
just took my brand new halcyon bp and wing on its first dive trip. dove in saltwater and rinsed with a hose afterwards. the next day there was some rust on the inside of the harness buckle and also some light rust on a couple of the triglides that keep the d-rings in place. i thought this was stainless steel. they certainly charge stainless if not platinum prices. has anyone experienced the same problem? my old bc, an oceanic chute, has never had the faintest trace of rust on any of the hardware in years of diving. neither has the buckle of my weight belt which i often do not even rinse.
 
I just happened to have stripped mine down last night to replace the webbing (which reminds me, I need to deburr the slots before I put it all together again - argh! too late), and I did not notice any rust on the triglides or buckles, and mine has about 50 (maybe more) salt water dives in the last year or so.

Does your buckle have the Scubapro logo on it? Mine did, maybe they switched suppliers. I would take some digital pics and email them off to Halcyon, I've found their after-sales support to be excellent, maybe they're not aware of the issues if they're using new parts.
 
no it does not have a scubapro logo but rather the halcyon "H". by the way, did you buy the replacement webbing from halcyon? seems a bit pricey. on the other hand, if you buy just regular webbing you won't have the hole with the metal ring in the webbing that goes between the shoulder slots of the backplate (ouch, do you know what i mean?). i suppose you could just burn a hole yourself but then it would not be reinforced with the metal ring and might rip quickly.
 
docmartin once bubbled...
no it does not have a scubapro logo but rather the halcyon "H". by the way, did you buy the replacement webbing from halcyon? seems a bit pricey. on the other hand, if you buy just regular webbing you won't have the hole with the metal ring in the webbing that goes between the shoulder slots of the backplate (ouch, do you know what i mean?). i suppose you could just burn a hole yourself but then it would not be reinforced with the metal ring and might rip quickly.
That stuff is super tough... I get mine from www.reefscuba.com, but am not sure if it is cheaper than Halcyon or not since I have never ordered from them.
 
ReefScuba. I might have to redo mine, I thought I cut the new webbing a foot longer, but now it's installed, I seem to have the same short amount around my waist - time to shorten the shoulder straps or something.

The ReefScuba webbing is also a little thinner and more flexible than the original Halcyon stuff.
 
docmartin once bubbled...
just took my brand new halcyon bp and wing on its first dive trip. dove in saltwater and rinsed with a hose afterwards. the next day there was some rust on the inside of the harness buckle and also some light rust on a couple of the triglides that keep the d-rings in place. i thought this was stainless steel. they certainly charge stainless if not platinum prices. has anyone experienced the same problem? my old bc, an oceanic chute, has never had the faintest trace of rust on any of the hardware in years of diving. neither has the buckle of my weight belt which i often do not even rinse.

I believe this problem was mentioned on quest. They got some bad hardware from the supplier, that wasn't stainless. I suggest you simply call halcyon and they'll set it right. If you have any problems, email the higher ups directly and they will come through.
 
You don't need the steel grommet on the webbing, in fact, if you remove it, the tank will sit flatter against the backplate. With the grommet from the webbing, plus the grommet on the Pioneer wing, it creates a high spot under the top bolt that is thicker than the built in STA's, causing the tank to not sit flat against the STA's, but pivot against the top bolt, wanting to go to one side or the other when you tighten the cam bands. Kind of a funky oversight on someones part, but easy enough to fix, just remove the grommet from the webbing, and replace the carriage bolts with stainless flat heads that sit flush inside the wing grommet.
 
I noticed the same thing with my FredT SS plate (inside some of the slots) when I first started diving with it last year. When I asked Fred about it, I received the reply below. I used the Coke Classic solution and it worked like a charm. I think I used about 6 2-liter bottles of Coke to create a "bath" deep enough to submerge the entire plate.

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"......That "rust" is probably due to small particles of steel embedded in the stainless either during rolling at the mill or during the deburring and finishing process. These, and the visible stain, can usually be removed with a mild acid bath. The easiest and cheapest way is to field strip the system by removing the wing. There is no need to remove the webbing, but if you are getting staining next to a particular slot you may want to remove the web from that slot.

Next immerse the plate in Coca-Cola Classic for a day or two. The acids in the coke will generally dissolve anything not stainless. Rinse in fresh water so you don't attract ants and you should be good to go.

Not only is the rust not normal, but a good 316L stainless should not even _need_ a fresh water rinse. Also look for any dissimilar metals contacting the plate at any of the corrosion marks. Steel hardware will corrode rapidly when in contact with stainless, and the rust products from the other item will often "plate out" on the adjacent stainless making it appear the stainless is corroding. Copper in contact with the plate is often a bad thing corrosion wise too. "
 
well, here is my update. a little more than a month later i have finally received my hardware back from halcyon. they took my old hardware and put it through an acid bath. it looks okay. however, who wants to wait a month during peak diving season? that's just too long especially considering the low cost of the items involved. sending out new hardware would have been much quicker and could not cost them much more than going through the trouble of the acid bath.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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