I have had a PTE05 /520 set up with an Athena port for the 50mm Oly macro lens for a few months now. I have done a few dives and often have ended up with some drops of water inside. Just a few drops, not disastrous, but not normal either, and not condensation. After exhaustive testing in my garbage can at home, it seems to come from around the Athena port threads as far as i can tell. The Olympus seals seem to be OK. So I re cleaned and this time added more O ring grease. A night in the garbage can produced no drops. All OK. So my question is whether insufficient O ring grease might have led to some distortion of the O ring as I screwed it into the housing (it goes quite a way), or it simply needs sufficient grease to make a good seal. Any thoughts on this would be welcome.
Small leak from Athena port
- Thread starter IanK
- Start date
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Yes, use lots of grease, that is the way it was designed. I got this from the Olympus housing designer himself.
Jack
Jack
AndyT
Contributor
Ditto Jack's advice. I also use the Athena port together with the Oly 1.4 extension and had the same problem. Solved it by applying more grease. Plus I wipe any residue grease on my fingers into the threads or surface where the two parts meet.
Thanks for the confirmation of the grease thing. Do you think it is OK to leave the port attached once it is not leaking? I saw a post from Phil Rudin on another board where he recommended leaving O rings in place and cleaning and greasing them in situ.
I have done my first two dives with my new setup today, and after wiping the camera of, once it was out of the rinse tank, I noticed quite a few drops of water inside the port and housing.
The port that was used was an Athena 9-18 port.
I was generous with grease both on the O-ring and on the threads when seting up and testing the the stuff prior to the dive.
What I couldn't make out of the manual for the housing was how far the port should be screwed into the housing. The manual said look into the manual for the port, and the port-manual was pretty much only written in Japanese. So I screwd it the port as far as it would go. Not doing this made the port feel some what loose.... Only problem was that the port protecting "metal flaps" at the fromt of the port didn't align properly when fully screwed into the housing. It was however possible to turn the front ring of the port to get the "flaps" to align. Didn't turn it much thoo.
Any ideas?
I'm very happy the way the housing handels under water, very easy to use.
Only wish that the diving conditions here in the Canaries was better. Fullmoon increases the tide producing a lot of silt.
Cheers
/Mr_Pyro
The port that was used was an Athena 9-18 port.
I was generous with grease both on the O-ring and on the threads when seting up and testing the the stuff prior to the dive.
What I couldn't make out of the manual for the housing was how far the port should be screwed into the housing. The manual said look into the manual for the port, and the port-manual was pretty much only written in Japanese. So I screwd it the port as far as it would go. Not doing this made the port feel some what loose.... Only problem was that the port protecting "metal flaps" at the fromt of the port didn't align properly when fully screwed into the housing. It was however possible to turn the front ring of the port to get the "flaps" to align. Didn't turn it much thoo.
Any ideas?
I'm very happy the way the housing handels under water, very easy to use.
Only wish that the diving conditions here in the Canaries was better. Fullmoon increases the tide producing a lot of silt.
Cheers
/Mr_Pyro
Do not know about your particular port. I have retested my set up in 1 meter of water (my back yard) and the extra grease did seem to help. I hope that is true at 30 m.- not tried yet.
I would guess that you should screw it in all the way. My port is also a little loose if I do not srew it in all the way. It should go up the shoulder on the housing.
I would guess that you should screw it in all the way. My port is also a little loose if I do not srew it in all the way. It should go up the shoulder on the housing.
ConchyJoe
Contributor
Yes the port should be screwed all the way in. I made sure that the inside of the oly housing the 0-ring makes contact with had a very thin layer of grease as well. The o-ring did not feel like it was binding when I screwed the port on, and I had no leaks.
Peter McGuinness
Contributor
This is the correct approach. Remember that it is the o-ring which forms the seal, not the grease. Smearing grease on the threads is a waste of time, since they play no part in making a seal. It's possible that it might make dismantling the port a little easier, but it won't affect the watertightness.
For comparison, I have an Ikelite housing where the back is pulled directly onto the o-ring when it is closed. There is no chance that the o-ring will move against the mating surface so I never use grease on it. Just keep it clean and there will be no problems. I have never had a leak, ever.
On the other hand, with a screw-in port, the o-ring must slide against the mating surface until the seal is complete. Because of the chance that the o-ring will bunch and distort if it sticks on the surface, it is necessary to grease one or both surfaces so it will slide easily until it has compressed enough to make the seal.
It usually is not necessary to grease the o-ring and both surfaces and it is a good idea to use the absolute minimum amount of grease since it can trap dust and hairs which can cause leaks. I just put a very small amount of grease on the o-ring, making sure all of it has some grease, since just one dry spot can cause the problem.
A good technique is to put a good smearing of grease on the o-ring, then wipe it of with your fingers several times, cleaning your fingers with a lint free cloth between each wiping. The result should be a very thin, even coat of grease, which is perfect.
Peter
What do you think about leaving the port attached to the housing, once it has been checked to be leak proof? Will the O-ring dry out or distort over a month or two? It seems that taking it on and off each time it is used raises the chances for a leak.
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