Scuba Tech Tips: Dive Light Care - S06E12

I want to talk to you about dive lights because I've had several comments about dive by Alec how can I say my dive light Alec every time I use a dive light it ruins I go through a dive lights look worse than air they always get ruined on me cheap expensive this matter I hear this I hear this complaint all the time as a legitimate complaint I wouldn't begin to tell you how many dive lights I've ruined in my life and I mean my dive lot experience goes back to a candle on the pickle jars you know wasn't yesterday now they're very sophisticated the dive lights are almost a very made of aluminium you know and coated usually it's it's anodized aluminum so they don't even scratch anymore and they use a very good old range good features no no switches on many of them anymore and that was a big problem battery switches wires is not allowed anymore they're great but there's one thing that will almost guaranteed that it'll make your dive light last a long time one thing and as you you have to do just one thing if you do it your dive light will last a long time I guarantee it okay sorry if you don't do it I do guarantee if you don't do this you'll ruin your dive light in no time at all so what is that secret let me show you let me take a minute this is a fairly relatively simple that's a very simple and rode to the inexpensive dive light 25 30 bucks you get one two and they're great they're led really really bright I won't shine it in your eyes they're really break this kind of we wouldn't have these when I started diving a big dive light we should take a 6 volt battery and hook it on her belt with a wire running up to a tractor sealed the beam now you listen to this and and after we got to turn on at the dive site then we took some grease and we smeared grease all over the contacts over the last of the dive and we were going to dive it'll last the whole diet I'd and the dive we would cut the wire on the battery put a new square battery on it now you know I saw that this is amazing and the light wasn't as good as just here's what you have to do it first of all this particular light is is good because it has no switches you unscrew it a little bit it goes off you screw it in a little bit spring-loaded goes on I'm screwed it goes no switches no wires are two batteries in there now here's the problem those batteries and they're just a couple of double-a batteries you know bunny bunny batteries you know the ones in Deraa cells and but people don't realize that those Duracell batteries dry-cell alkaline whatever you want to call them they they work the same way as your car battery there use different chemicals and they're more sophisticated but the basic principle is the same you have a chemical reaction which produces electricity it also produces hydrogen now in your car battery that hydrogen is gassed off and it disappears and so on but you know and your car battery says don't smoke or have any spark sir on the car battery because yeah how your junkit explode you don't see those warnings on these batteries because they have different systems different way of getting rid of that hydrogen gas but it still is there these little Duracell do emit a gas now if the left in there for any length of time not only will that gas effect the aluminum and destroy it but the batteries will break the shell will break they'll swell up and they get jammed in there you open the battery the open they light you look inside oh it away sorry I can't save it so it's up to you to be sure that doesn't happen so you're on your dive okay oh good die whoa look at that Kevin oh that's great you come up after your dive you turn off the light you get back onboard the dive boat you take all your stuff off and hang up you take care of everything because you I know you do that your insurer regulator well I've talked about that your dust cap and all that nice stuff rinse your BC your suit the day dives off the day and what do you do you take your dive light and throwing it dumping that's why it doesn't last very long you've got to give the dive like the same care you give your regulator it's simple off here's what you do you'll undo the dive light open it up just that simple and then when you get it open you set the head over there good you dump out the two batteries and you set them there good and now you're left with the empty shell okay and it's inside this empty shell that there may be moisture condensation from the from the if you're on cold water die even if you're diving in the ocean it's cooler under the water they be condensation warm and moist on the dive boat they wander water condensation water and there's a hydrogen gas in there the hydrogen gas dissolves in the water that's right now you have an acid and aluminum doesn't like acid so you have to take care of this now here's what you do you do not rinse the head blow it out like that make sure it's dry instead of that however this you're gonna rinse fresh water scoop it shake it all up dump it up now it has to be dried open has to dry open yes you want the outside to dry but that's not critical the inside is critical you gotta rinse the it make sure that the inside dress you set it down maybe in the Sun someplace where it's safe where the wind will get it let it dry thoroughly then you should also check the o-rings and and make sure that the o-rings are good there's a couple of things you can do you can take the o-rings and squeeze them off like no if you even get in close I'm gonna show these folks Kevin how to take ole rings up I'm gonna use this battery kit I think we talked about that before I love this battery kit because in this battery kit can you see that Kevin there's actually an o-ring remover so there's a small ol ring you can you can use this hard plastic it's flexible but it's still hard ol ring remover to get underneath on o-ring you see like that and pop this underneath the o-ring and how or ring just pops right off now why don't you use a needle or a paperclip or a screwdriver is easier an exacto knife or whatever you have because you ruined the orange this old ring remover is soft flexible plastic it pops right out now if you don't have one of those watch this can you still see here Kevin most all rings if they're about an inch or bigger if you take your fingers and you just go like this watch closely there you see that you see your popping up there that's just in squeezing I'll just grab that and pull it out point is don't don't scratch don't crack the old ring you're not only you can tear and Nick the o-ring taking it off with something sharp but just scratch the o-ring groove and I won't seal as well okay so the head the o-rings and the body rinsed and dry what about the batteries or is this still good and this should be let them dry for a little while put him in a ziplock bag and you're all set to go now after this is dried well put your rings back on carefully babadook but you have to roll rings back on put the head back on loosely like so it's nice and dry it doesn't matter and then you take your dive light and you put it with you two batteries with the ziplock so there's to it I mean it's not complicated the point is that you must open the dive light remove the batteries rinse and dry the battery carrier the body okay and then put the batteries into a ziploc bag and you're all set to go for the next dive and that that dive light will last forever not the batteries you have to replace them once in a while but you won't have any problems with corrosion or acid now if you go to a more sophisticated light this is a it's not much bigger type lights are crazy today not much bigger but this light is incredibly strong and has different beams on it as well you can get different powers it has a power indicator on it this is rechargeable you see but the same principle applies even with rechargeable batteries so at the end of the dive same thing the end of the time same thing you take the head off okay make sure the head is dry and clean like that don't rinse it take the battery out rechargeable you did take this anode anyway because you're gonna recharge it for the next time and here's the body nothing in there but is spring give it a rinse and fresh water take your rings off if you if you look at them as any sand result take the o-rings off carefully and clean them maybe a little bit of lubricant go easy in lubricant let the whole thing dry nicely this battery make sure is dry for the end of the charger and you're all set to go when you're finished it's all nice and dry put the body back into the head put the battery into a ziploc bag write acid and that light these lights are not cheap these lights are a hundred dollars or more so that light will last you forever it's just as simple now your photographers out there the same principle applies if you have batteries in your camera you're taking the underwater there's going to be condensation and it's going to be hydrogen gas and acid your strobe what's the strobe I strove was just a dive light it's just a dive light it's either a guide light that stays on if it's if it's one of the newest type of strobes or lights to stay on so you use it as a strobe and as a and for video or even a stroke you know now flash strobe is just a fancy word for flash it means it's an underwater flash which means we can double the price not have this unit difference so flash and they have batteries in them same thing open it up or rings check for sand a meticulous drying the whole thing I would be careful with this because they had the electronics in this which is part of the body she would be careful rinsing out rinse it out with a Kleenex perhaps don't be pouring water in there that the whole thing dry very very carefully and store the battery separately do not put lights or strobes or cameras away for a long period of time and I'm talking a couple of weeks anything longer than a week or to get the batteries out of that darn thing they simply won't last I'm gonna over finish up with just this little kit because this is a great little kit this kits from in Tova but there's lots of these you can go almost anyplace and get these little camera kits but these camera kits are good for dyed lights too I've already shown you the old ring remover okay there's a little squeezy thing with a brush on it for brushing dust but there's lens cleaner there's a there's a lens wipe there's a little q-tip special little q-tips for cleaning inside the grooves and everything else there's silicone grease they all rings on the grease and down here this is pretty more for the power to photographers but these are little packets of desiccant so if you have a camera good camera in the housing you put one of these in the camera first the moisture the condensation which is going to occurs we just talked about we're soaked up by this so it doesn't condense on the lens or the inner workings of the camera easily kits are a little bit like about 10 bucks to buy all that stuff of gosh of 25 or 30 so well and comes in a nice little plastic case so there's there's a good idea okay one more time just to recap dive light right head body battery keep them separate after the dive take them apart check the o-rings clean rinse if you can rinse clean dry put them back together put the battery into a ziploc bag separately and you'll want it any more troubles your dive late just sit simple so I can't remember your names I'm sorry but whoever it was was asking about dive lights there you go it's just that simple it's up to you so don't walk into your die store happened all the time when I had my dime store don't walk into your dime store and say I bought this dive like six months ago and I've used it three times and it's ruined look at the inside it's ruined that's your fault anyway there's maybe some information in there that might be helpful to you hope it is hope and answered your questions thanks very much doctor you game soon Alec Pierce a leaper scuba tech tips talk to you soon bye bye

Channel: Alec Peirce Scuba

Views: 8,754

Keywords: alec peirce, alec peirce scuba, scuba tech tips, tech tip, scuba tip, underwater, scuba diving, scuba, vintage scuba, sea hunt remembered, sea hunt, diving, skin diving, scuba 2000, dive light, led, battery, rechargable, o ring, O-ring, aluminum, body, mosture, condensation, head, rinse, dry, zip loc, maintenance, ruined, care, strobe, hydrogen, gas, acid, AA, batteries, AAA, LED, light

Id: pkYFiAlnXKc

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 10 2017