Q: What should I do about Storage O-Rings for my Nikonos and strobe?

with his permission, all rights retained by Mike Mesglesi

This question pops up from time to time regarding "storage" o-rings. There are 8 non-user accessible internal o-rings on a Nikonos V that are replaced on an overhaul. (There are 4 additional ones that are semi permanent that are not replaced unless they are damaged.) There are 6 non-user accessible internal o-rings on the SB-105. Unless you plan on using storage o-rings for all the internal o-rings as well as the user replaceable ones, why bother?

I have had students & customers flood equipment not because of a flat o-ring but because they left an o-ring out after storage or the storage o-ring was the wrong size for the seal they were trying to make.

Instead of spending money on a storage set, change your user replaceable o-rings every other year - sooner if they are damaged. And have your equipment overhauled every 12 - 18 months depending on the amount of use it sees. It is important to have the o-rings and sealing surfaces you can't get at cleaned, to have the electronic functions tested and calibrated and to have a pressure test to confirm the sealing integrity. Hope this helped.

with his permission, all rights retained by Geoffrey Semorile

I just couldn't help rising from the muck for this one. I would totally agree with Mike on the matter of storage o-rings. Have been preaching this for years to my clients. Storage o-rings are a total waste of time, money and energy. They buy you absolutely nothing and are one more hazard on the road to flooding your equipment. The only purpose they serve, is to those who sell them.

The original o-rings will not develop serious memory problems in two years or less. One should replace all o-rings once a year anyway. There is no substitute for regular service of your underwater equipment if you want to keep the water on the outside.

Lets examine storage o-rings with some logic. If one should replace one o-ring with a storage o-ring why not all the o-rings? The o-rings you need to be most concerned with are the ones you cannot see. In all underwater equipment these are numerous.

Storage o-rings are not the same dimensions as the original ones, hence they do not properly seal your equipment. So what purpose do they serve? The equipment should not be getting wet during storage and if it was the storage o-rings would not protect your equipment anyway.

Conclusion, storage o-rings are a Trojan horse.

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