Golden Time
Well-Known Member
Perhaps there is a gap in the market for a bouyancy aid that contains a manual life jacket?
Firing off old life Jackets
- Thread starter dylanwinter
- Start date
prv
Well-Known Member
Such things used to exist (partial buoyancy at all times in the form of foam, plus a bladder for full flotation when required). I think they're still made in kids' sizes, but I haven't seen adult ones for years.
Pete
tinkicker0
Well-Known Member
Tsk Tsk SR you are posting on PBO where everybody does everything by the book and no one ever makes a mistake.
Indeed tradesmen with 30 years experience quake when confronted with the technical expertise of the typical PBO regular.
Write out 200 times: I will test weigh my lifejacket cylinders thrice per year; note the weight on every occasion and replace when a disparity exists of 0.00005 grammes or more.
Alternatively you could concentrate on what you do best..........making sure you never need to use the cylinder.
prv
Well-Known Member
It looked to me like the gas was escaping around where the cylinder screws in, rather than from a rip in the bladder. The fact that the part that did inflate didn't instantly deflate (until she started squeezing it) also suggests that it was escaping through the relatively small hole in the mechanism, not through a rip in the seam.
Checking that the cylinder is screwed in tight is really easy, never mind actually servicing. With my old manual jacket I used to check it all the time (the new ones are Hammar sets with the bottles glued in).
I'm a long way from being a safety obsessive, but servicing the lifejackets (and the Jon buoy) is one of those jobs (like correcting all the charts) that's satisfying to do while the boat's up on bricks each winter.
Pete
Checking that the cylinder is screwed in tight is really easy, never mind actually servicing. With my old manual jacket I used to check it all the time (the new ones are Hammar sets with the bottles glued in).
I'm a long way from being a safety obsessive, but servicing the lifejackets (and the Jon buoy) is one of those jobs (like correcting all the charts) that's satisfying to do while the boat's up on bricks each winter.
Pete
yachtorion
Well-Known Member
He possibly did one thing wrong.
When you buy a jacket the instruction book tells you how long the jacket is designed to last. I've yet to find one that said 10 years. That's why the jackets failed. They live in a harsh environment...
Even my Spinlock Deckvest - which I think most would agree is a good quality jacket - states 5 years use in the manual. My seago jackets 3 years.
Last edited:
wotayottie
Well-Known Member
Race today and a new crew member came on board with his deckvest. Messing round on deck before we dropped the pontoon lines he suddenly produced a metal spring thingy with a few bits of plastic attached wondering where it had come from the fall on the deck. It was the auto inflate thingy from his life jacket. The plastic had gone from UV.
Applescruffs
Well-Known Member
Call me daft !
Call me daft....but isn't testing that your life jacket inflates by using the gas a waste of time??
It only proves, or otherwise, that that gas cylinder and associated arming kit worked, not the one that you will replace it with....so do you test the new one as well??
A bit like lighting every match in a box just to make sure they all work.
I use , (when I do), a dinghy bouancy aid jacket type thing....keeps me toastie.
Call me daft....but isn't testing that your life jacket inflates by using the gas a waste of time??
It only proves, or otherwise, that that gas cylinder and associated arming kit worked, not the one that you will replace it with....so do you test the new one as well??
A bit like lighting every match in a box just to make sure they all work.
I use , (when I do), a dinghy bouancy aid jacket type thing....keeps me toastie.
nigelmercier
RIP
- Joined
- 20 Jun 2007
- Messages
- 16,234
- Location
- Live in Kent, boat in Canary Islands
I've always thought that Velcro was a dumb idea for this purpose. It is very hard to rip it open unless you start at the end. My Kru lifejackets have a zip, with a weak area to initiate the tear.
King Penguin
Well-Known Member
I'm not worried about the inflation bit, if the gas bottle is full it's probably going to inflate, it's the degredation of the glue of older jackets that I have found to be the problem, that was the cause of my two failures. Other LJs I had of the same age were fine and passed my rough handling test, but I still retired them.
I dont want to scaremonger but i just wonder how many yachties are currently using 10 year plus LJs, they may be fine..........but they may not be!
The manuals of these older ones don't give a use by date on the bladder and I often see them being sold on eBay secondhand and I'm sure the owners don't know about the potential problem.
Perhaps this is a good subject for a PBO article?
dylanwinter
Well-Known Member
I agree
I think it would be a great subject
I am amazed at how flimsy the bladders are
Dylan
I think it would be a great subject
I am amazed at how flimsy the bladders are
Dylan
King Penguin
Well-Known Member
UPDATE
Being a sad git, I keep the manuals of everything, so I looked for the ones for my current LJs, purchased within the last 3 years (two crewsaver comfort autos and two Seago 175 autos - popular makes I believe)
Both co.s offer a 3 year guarantee, both warn about out of date auto firing mechanisms, none give any indication of the retirement age of the actual lifejacket or bladders. (The cause of failure of both I've had - one was a Sowester Osprey and the other a Crewsaver Comfort and both were over 10 years old)
There we have it, I can add nothing more.......
Being a sad git, I keep the manuals of everything, so I looked for the ones for my current LJs, purchased within the last 3 years (two crewsaver comfort autos and two Seago 175 autos - popular makes I believe)
Both co.s offer a 3 year guarantee, both warn about out of date auto firing mechanisms, none give any indication of the retirement age of the actual lifejacket or bladders. (The cause of failure of both I've had - one was a Sowester Osprey and the other a Crewsaver Comfort and both were over 10 years old)
There we have it, I can add nothing more.......
tim_ber
Well-Known Member
different type of lj
http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/Projects/Project.aspx?ID=2780&RegionId=0&Winindex=4
Designed for free divers.
Now that would take some serious servicing.
http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/Projects/Project.aspx?ID=2780&RegionId=0&Winindex=4
Designed for free divers.
Now that would take some serious servicing.
maxi77
Well-Known Member
Many years ago I worked for a company that used the same material that is used in lifejacket bladders (we thought about trying to make them to get greater utilisation from our machines but decided the market was pretty overcrowded at that time). They are not glued but welded so there is no glue aging problem and the devices we made were intended to have a 10 year shelf life with no maintainance but reasonable storage conditions. Not maintaining lifesaving devices is crazy and people who expect them to work after many years with no maintainance perhaps deserve the results they get. All goes to show that perhaps the RNLI campaigns on lifejacket maintainance and wearing may just have a little value
yachtorion
Well-Known Member
That surprised me. The manual for my Seagos (Olympic 180) clearly states 3 years, and the Spinlock manual clearly states 5 - https://spinlockrya.s3.amazonaws.com/2159-3R425A_2 Instruction book.pdf - page 16.
King Penguin
Well-Known Member
They've obviously changed it since I bought mine, are yours very modern?
yachtorion
Well-Known Member
Sadly they're just a bit over 3 years.... time to replace.
I do think it's possible that some of the modern ones perhaps aren't as heavily engineered as some of the older ones were. The way the Seagos are constructed I wouldn't have wanted to use them for many more years, even though I normally rate Seago kit highly.
One possible difference is mine are harness jackets.
Vara
Well-Known Member
I had my life jackets checked over by a terribly nice man from the RNLI, who inflated them weighed the cylinders and visually inspected them, in return I bought two jars of chutney, a beanie hat and a signals inscribed mug, fair exchange....
pyrojames
Well-Known Member
I have a 13 year manual jacket. It gets checked for leaks and tighness of cylinder every year. About 3 years ago the cylinder was rusted, so I fired it, no problems at all, and I fitted a new cylinder.
About a year later I gave a new inflatable to my daughter. So that she knew what to expect, I gave her my old life jacket to take to school for show and tell. She couldn't get it to fire, because it was too big and her arms were too short, but her teacher fired it for her.
The teacher later told me it was the best show and tell she has ever had, but the whole class jumped when it went off!
About a year later I gave a new inflatable to my daughter. So that she knew what to expect, I gave her my old life jacket to take to school for show and tell. She couldn't get it to fire, because it was too big and her arms were too short, but her teacher fired it for her.
The teacher later told me it was the best show and tell she has ever had, but the whole class jumped when it went off!
King Penguin
Well-Known Member
Mine are with the harness too, but they don't mention the lifejacket or bladder life, just the firing mechanism date & that's about the the dissolving tablet.
Think I'll call Seago tomorrow........to replace the whole thing every 3 years seems wasteful, esp if it's been serviced every year!
yachtorion
Well-Known Member
Cool - please could you post the result? Hopefully they'll say I've got it wrong and I don't need to buy new lifejackets!
