Ikelite DS-161 Stobes

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philmayer

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I have two Ikelite DS-200 strobes that I'm planning to upgrade. I'm tired of the DS-200s flooding. No matter what I do, they are just too prone to flooding. I've had 9 floods between the two strobes in 200 dives.

My preference is to stick with Ikelite strobes as I also use Ikelite housings and have been very happy with Ikelite service.

Who has had a flood with Ikelite DS-161s? What were the circumstances? What could you have done differently to prevent the flood?
 
I don't have any stories of floods, however my dive buddies have DS125's and DS160's that share the battery design with the 161's, and have never had a flood in hundreds of dives. They do meticulously clean the o-ring contact surfaces and the o-ring at every battery swap.
 
Thirty some dives on my DS 161 and never had a flood. Had a DEU error on the wired connection to the housing but that got cleaned up nicely.


Count this as a vote for 'rock solid'.




m.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.
 
I have had GREAT luck with both DS 125's and DS 160's. I had one defective battery latch break, but Ikelite replaced with no hassle. Luckily, I had a spare battery so didn't lose one dive. Hundreds of dives and only one problem. I have no idea why you are flooding. Maybe operator error? One has to ask.
 
Had a pair of DS125s for 6+ years and swapped 3 batteries between them. Hundreds of dives without so much as a drop of water in the battery area. Recently purchased a pair of DS160s with lithium ion batteries. Had a few drops of water in one of them on the third dive I made with them. While I did not find a specific cause, best I could come up with was that I left some sand in the seal area. Made 40+ dives over the next couple of weeks and did not have any further problem.

Went to Bonaire a month or so after that trip and managed to flood one of the DS160s on the 4th dive. I charged the batteries for both strobes while we were at dinner and reassembled the strobes immediately prior to a night dive. I used the same routine that I followed for 6+ years with the DS125s, but this time I managed to assemble one of the strobes without an o-ring. I found the o-ring on the floor under the table where I assembled the strobes. The o-ring dropped out of the groove after I swept it for debris prior to assembly. As is was somewhat dark in that area, I missed that the o-ring had dropped out. Toasted battery, but strobe is fine.

I compared o-ring retention in my DS125 batteries (I have 3 of them) and all appear to retain the o-ring better than either of the newer Lithium Ion batteries. I will be a lot more attentive to strobe assembly moving forward. As a side note, still do not have replacement for the Li ion battery as Ike is out of stock.
 
I don't have any stories of floods, however my dive buddies have DS125's and DS160's that share the battery design with the 161's, and have never had a flood in hundreds of dives. They do meticulously clean the o-ring contact surfaces and the o-ring at every battery swap.

I guess we aren't dive buddies very often but I flooded a DS125 battery two years ago.

User error-oring was not seated properly, and was pinched. Still worked for several pictures, then strobe fired once on it's own, and I noticed the magic smoke drifting out where the oring was pinched.

It was a NiMH pack, and I upgraded to Lithium. I love them. Absolutely a powerhouse and a workhorse with the lithium packs.

I do remove orings and wipe off when I charge most of the time, but I've also done some trips with 3 or 4 dives in a day and if the oring looked clean, I didn't pull it out. Pulling it out means you have a risk of not re-seating it rightly, but if you just take a second to run your finger around the seal or even just take a look at it, you should notice if you pinched it like I did. I was complacent after hundreds of dives with them without a flood.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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