Check your lifejackets!

[Solitaire]

On Friday we did a sea trial for a new owner. He said he had lifejackets on the boat! He said they were in a locker. So we went down and after taking one look brought them back for checking. They were a mixed bunch and OK they did inflate on the pull of the toggle - all manual - but did not all inflate properly.

And a few went down after inflation or did not inflate to full capacity. They were a mixed bunch of makes - 2 Seago which we did not inflate because of the recall, and most were a make I'd never heard of and there was one Typhoon which inflated OK.

Now the make I'd never heard of were clearly cheap the bladders were incredibly thin when compared to the Typhoon.I certainly would not want to be relying on them in any kind of situation. The Typhoon on the other hand had a much thicker bladder and was much better put together around the seams. The other you felt that in a short period of time would in fact start pulling apart..

Moral of the story - check your life jackets and be wary of buying cheap! Here are some pictures.

A mixed bag.

The cheap make - look at the seams.

Condition of the cylinders was not good.

The more expensive jacket had a much better quality bladder and again look at the seams.

The jackets had been stored in a damp locker and most will be binned. OK so you hope you never have to use a jacket in "anger" but I wouldn't want any of those to rely on.

 

[Duster]

Some years ago, I arranged a "sea survival" course for myself and a group of friends. It was a good day and I am sure that we all took some benefit away from it but, the most allarming part was when we went into the pool to do the liferaft execise, we chose to use our own lifejackets and almost half of them either failed to inflate automatically or did not inflate at all. The reasons were variouse, damaged bladders / incorrectly installed gas cartidge / faulty fireing mechanisms etc. Since then we have used the Cosalt check and service scheme alternate years.
mikej

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Timely reminder - thanks

 

[gjgm]

funnily enough, I pump inflated all mine and weighed the gas this week.

 

[timgriffin]

Keep one back for your First Aid at Sea Courses Dave
Hilights the need of Lifejacket Servicing and an inflated lifejacket with a magic extra carried in your first aid kit makes a very good neck brace.

Tim

 

[Sneds]

Note to oneselve - manually inflate all of them next weekend!

 

[Otter]

Anyone know the best source for those Spinlock lifejackets? I tried one on at LIBS and was very impressed, but have only seen prices above £180 since.

 

[Solitaire]

[ QUOTE ]
manually inflate all of them

[/ QUOTE ]

Use a pump though. Avoid blowing up by mouth as the moisture in your breath will start to rot the inside of the bladders.

 

[Solitaire]

[ QUOTE ]
Keep one back for your First Aid at Sea Courses

[/ QUOTE ]

We will most likely keep a few for use on sea survival courses as we have loads of spare cylinders which can be put in for such a course. Although we encourage people to bring their own so they can use them and know how they react.

Good idea as a neck brace though.

 

[Solitaire]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone know the best source for those Spinlock lifejackets? I tried one on at LIBS and was very impressed, but have only seen prices above £180 since.

[/ QUOTE ]

The answer is too Google - this was at the top.

Less then £180

 

[Otter]

Thanks for that. I was puzzled to see the design of the safety line being a clip only at one end. I thought one of the recommendations from the Fastnet disaster was that safety lines should be clips at both ends so that if you are trapped underwater you can unclip yourself?

 

[BlueJasper]

OK without going OTT on price what brand would you recommend Solitaire. I have seago and inflated them last weekend - 1 started to go down after 10 minutes.

 

[Gemini]

it can get slighty more complicated, Long story but upon arriving in the Hamble last summer, grand kids always wearing there jacket, grandson managed to fall of the pontoon wiithin 10-min of arrivingl jacket inflated as soon as he hit the water scared him, but all OK .
Dragged him out and hosed him down washed life jacket, and dryed, but was not carrying any re-arming kits or clyinders, now about 16.00pm simple walk down the end of the pontoon to the chandlers and buy a couple, wrong, didn't stock the Seago make or any re-arming kits etc, I could buy a new jacket option asked if he had spare re-arming kits NO.
Back to the boat quick ring around local chandlers located re-arming kits but no small cylinders. ?
Next day located re-arming kits and cylinders, brought spares.
Advised by one chandlers assistance that it was OK to insert a lager capacty cylinder into a childs jack.
Suggest you carry spares also check the sell by dates on cylinders before you purchase as some kits only had months left on them.
Without them it could prevent you moving on.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Interesting that you had problems locating small cylinders. One of my junior lifejackets inflated itself in my shed last year(the grandchildren now have adult sizes) I also had problems getting another cylinder; the cylinder fitted was a 24gm size but the printing on the lifejacket said use an 18gm...... which are almost impossible to get. Still have'nt got one yet as I won't be needing it for a little while.

 

[peterandjeanette]

[ QUOTE ]
Advised by one chandlers assistance that it was OK to insert a lager capacty cylinder into a childs jack.


[/ QUOTE ]

Caution. Fitting a larger size air cylinder can cause the bladder to over inflate and burst. Not a good thing.

 

[John100156]

Hey - I purchased two new Spinlocks last year and on a trip back from Majorca last October one (my one) auto-inflated whilst I was at the helm, whilst comfortable I was not too impressed! Tried numerous times via email to contact Spinlock but on all occasions they just ignored my complaint - very dissapointed!

 

[Al Dickson]

Surprised to see how bad the surface corrosion is on those cylinders - when were the jackets last opened checked & rinsed off?

Never had any probs with Seagos - every winter they stay up for at least 48 hours when they get checked - I usually use a bicycle pump !

Last year the recall meant we ended up with 6 spare cartridges - the family are all going over the side (in wetsuits!) this Easter so they know what to expect from an auto jacket should it ever happen for real !

Rearming kits for kids auto jackets are easy to get

 

[Vanilla]

John what didn't impress you about the Spinlock LJ please? I've got one but never experienced it inflated. Very interested to hear more if possible.

 

[Refueler]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
manually inflate all of them

[/ QUOTE ]

Use a pump though. Avoid blowing up by mouth as the moisture in your breath will start to rot the inside of the bladders.

[/ QUOTE ]

So think on this : You inflate by pump in a warm house or nice sunny day. All around you feel comfortable in the air / climate you are in. You deflate the jacket and fold, close and stow away happy in the thought that you've tested your jacket and not blown into it with a 'mouth'.

Temp goes down as it's a nice cool stowage place .... oh dear ... any air still left in the jacket in little pockets will now start to condense out tiny drops of moisture. But you say - we did it with a pump.

Warm air especially in a house or nice sunny day when it feels really comfortable is air that has high moisture content. If it was dryer - you'd start to feel uncomfortable, get sticky tickly throat etc.

Agreed that oral inflation will introduce moisture, but so do any pumps unless you pump through moisture traps - which I am sure no-one is going to do.

I've serviced / maintained LJ's for years - privately and on ship - never had a bladder rot on me yet after oral inflation.

Think about stowage of the jacket ... do people really think it's nice and dry ? maybe to touch ... but rarely dry.

 

[Solitaire]

[ QUOTE ]


Never had any probs with Seagos

[/ QUOTE ]

Just to clarify, and as stated in my original post, the jackets shown are NOT Seago. I rang Seago today and they were very helpful, in fact they are coming tomorrow to look at the jackets. Very commendable to my view and I don't want any confusion.