PT-015 & condensation
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jlyle
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fins:
Religiously. If you assemble the housing in a high humidity environment and then go diving in water that is cooler than the air temp, you will probably get fogging on the inside of your housing. Sealing the housing in an air conditioned room can prevent this problem as the relative humidity is low. Of course this isn't always possible. With the desiccant packs you don't have to worry about fogging.
In addition, if you do, God forbid, get a small leak, the desiccant packs may soak up the water and save your camera! Not a bad thing.
Absolutely! I use 2-3 of them just in case. 
One correction, though....
One correction, though....
The dissicant won't absorb the amount of moisture you'll get with even a small leak. But what will do that is a piece of a mini-pad. Some of the pads with shed fibers when cut so just tape the cut edges to prevent it.
Scubamedicjoe
Contributor
The dissicant won't absorb the amount of moisture you'll get with even a small leak. But what will do that is a piece of a mini-pad. Some of the pads with shed fibers when cut so just tape the cut edges to prevent it.
DEE what mini pad you talking about please thanks
DEE what mini pad you talking about please thanks
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Just in case Dee is busy getting ready for her trip......she meant cut pieces of sanitary napkins.
And by all means use the dissicant. Imagine what any kind of moisture, no matter how small, will do to your camera!
And by all means use the dissicant. Imagine what any kind of moisture, no matter how small, will do to your camera!
Thanks, Leesa...
Medic, I keep a couple of Always Mini Pads sanitary napkins in my care kit. I cut them into strips and pieces that will fit inside my housing. Be sure to tape the edges so the cotton fibers don't get everywhere.
Medic, I keep a couple of Always Mini Pads sanitary napkins in my care kit. I cut them into strips and pieces that will fit inside my housing. Be sure to tape the edges so the cotton fibers don't get everywhere.
Phantom Joe
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fins:
Has anyone tried heating the dessicant packets in an oven to rejuvenate them? Olympus would have us use a new packet each time we closed the housing. As I recall, they are about a buck apiece.
I have a larger dessicant package (hydrasorbant 40 gram silica gel pack - looks like it has a tin cover) that I have in my Pelican case, and it says to heat at 300 degrees for 3 hours when the silica looks pink in the little window. I stuck my Oly packets on the same cookie sheet, but don't know if it really works. Any thoughts?
Joe
I haven't tried rejuvenating the Oly ones, but I plan to at some point. I bought some smaller dessicant packs from The Preservation Station. They have a small window so you can see the gel turn from pink to blue as they absorb moisture. I found out that I was changing the Oly ones more often than I needed to but better safe than sorry. Even though the humidity is high in Roatan, I'll only change them once a day and that's really sooner than needed.
Hi Fins,
We used to run into problems here in the Great Lakes when we would take our video housing from 95' F w/80% humidity on the boat, load it and close it. Then drop down to 37'F water at the bottom. The inside of the housing would fog terribly. I have tried the dessicant w/little to no luck under the same conditions. What I did find that works well was to purge the housing w/the very dry gas from our cylinders. Right before locking down the housing, place a second stage next to the back hatch of the housing and purge for about 30 seconds. Make sure that you have NO water in the second stage as that would be sprayed into the housing and make this pointless. Use a nice dry second stage and purge it for about 20 to 30 seconds before purging the housing. Then purge the housing and lock it down. This cured our condensation problem and costs nothing.
brandon
We used to run into problems here in the Great Lakes when we would take our video housing from 95' F w/80% humidity on the boat, load it and close it. Then drop down to 37'F water at the bottom. The inside of the housing would fog terribly. I have tried the dessicant w/little to no luck under the same conditions. What I did find that works well was to purge the housing w/the very dry gas from our cylinders. Right before locking down the housing, place a second stage next to the back hatch of the housing and purge for about 30 seconds. Make sure that you have NO water in the second stage as that would be sprayed into the housing and make this pointless. Use a nice dry second stage and purge it for about 20 to 30 seconds before purging the housing. Then purge the housing and lock it down. This cured our condensation problem and costs nothing.
brandon
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