O-ring lube?

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tamas970

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Messages
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Location
Switzerland - way too far from warm seas:(
# of dives
100 - 199
The Gopro housing is my fist with teflon o-ring. Can I use the inon Silicon grease to lube it? I have plenty of that, I got a tube for each inon products I have...
 
Think about it. Silicone and other lubes are lubricants, not sealants. The o-ring forms the seal. If the o-ring won't form a good seal, no amount of lube will help. Dynamic o-rings where things are rotating around need lubricant so the o-ring doesn't deform and tear. Static o-rings just sit there with nothing moving. They therefore do not need lube. Any kind of greasy substance on them will attract dust or hair or lint or any stray matter to stick to it. That will of course ruin the seal.

Lube dynamic; do not lube static.
 
Think about it. Silicone and other lubes are lubricants, not sealants. The o-ring forms the seal. If the o-ring won't form a good seal, no amount of lube will help. Dynamic o-rings where things are rotating around need lubricant so the o-ring doesn't deform and tear. Static o-rings just sit there with nothing moving. They therefore do not need lube. Any kind of greasy substance on them will attract dust or hair or lint or any stray matter to stick to it. That will of course ruin the seal.

Lube dynamic; do not lube static.
Agreed, except if you have a stupid design. Then a very little lube (or spit) will help to make sure you do not screw up the oring upon assembly. If you have this design problem, then consider tossing your gear for something proper.

Old Pelican dive lights, some old S&S strobes and some Inon strobes feature a "screw on" cap. No lube means the oring can be cut, twisted or mangled as the cap is screwed on. A bone dry oring in this case can be bad. The oring needs to slip against the cap as the cap is screwed on through several rotations. the lube is only needed for a short but important period.

this does not mean that all screw on's are bad design.

My hog edge morph dive light has a screw on system but it features 2 orings at different diameters that bottom against a flat sealing surface. This is a very different design from my old pelican dive lights (or my current tank marker lights) that simply rely upon squishing the oring further into the housing without providing a final hard sealing surface. My morph screw on stops when it physically bottoms out metal to metal. The metal to metal "stop" places the oring's under a known and controlled compression. Good design.

My tank markers just get hard to twist when the oring gets squeezed too much. You can continue to turn them until either the oring extrudes or the plastic head breaks off. there is no physical "stop" that places the oring is a known seal configuration. Bad design.
 
compressed o-rings should not be lubricated. Only o-rings where there is a friction ( in most lamps for example , where you need to screw in the lamp ) should be lubricated in order not to squeeze the o-ring through friction :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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