winsbury
Well-Known Member
two stories:
1. bought clapped out one from fleabay and though I would service it myself - after all, as the OP said ' how hard can it be ' - removed it carefully from the container, disconnected cylinder but managed to knock the valve which started hissing - decided it was better to be outdoors at this point but while moving the cylinder it 'went off ' and literally shot six feet in the air dumping vast quantities of freezing CO2-N snow all over the place in a deafening whoosh. After explaining red-faced to the neighbours that had rushed out to see what the hell the noise was I was then faced with a collection of out of date flares, lithium batteries and seasick tablets and an empty cylinder that no-one would recharge without giving it an expensive pressure test first. Finally repacking it into the container was a test worthy of the generation game!
2. Attempt two, another fleabay one but this had an only just out of date certificate so decided to have it done professionally. I took it to Servitec in Southampton and asked if I could watch the process ( in the hope of learning how to do it !) Dismantling done, the liferaft was inflated with dry air and then thoroughly inspected. What was a real shock was that the glue that holds the base and water pockets on had gone crispy and fairly easily pulled away in the technicians hands in places and needed repairing. Had this needed to be used in earnest anyone jumping into the liferaft would have simply gone straight though the bottom !
My conclusion: Dont bother doing yourself, there are a great many things that can go wrong and you wont necessarily have a) the tools or b) the experience to find and/or fix the problems. Since lives depend on it, its just not work the risk imho.
1. bought clapped out one from fleabay and though I would service it myself - after all, as the OP said ' how hard can it be ' - removed it carefully from the container, disconnected cylinder but managed to knock the valve which started hissing - decided it was better to be outdoors at this point but while moving the cylinder it 'went off ' and literally shot six feet in the air dumping vast quantities of freezing CO2-N snow all over the place in a deafening whoosh. After explaining red-faced to the neighbours that had rushed out to see what the hell the noise was I was then faced with a collection of out of date flares, lithium batteries and seasick tablets and an empty cylinder that no-one would recharge without giving it an expensive pressure test first. Finally repacking it into the container was a test worthy of the generation game!
2. Attempt two, another fleabay one but this had an only just out of date certificate so decided to have it done professionally. I took it to Servitec in Southampton and asked if I could watch the process ( in the hope of learning how to do it !) Dismantling done, the liferaft was inflated with dry air and then thoroughly inspected. What was a real shock was that the glue that holds the base and water pockets on had gone crispy and fairly easily pulled away in the technicians hands in places and needed repairing. Had this needed to be used in earnest anyone jumping into the liferaft would have simply gone straight though the bottom !
My conclusion: Dont bother doing yourself, there are a great many things that can go wrong and you wont necessarily have a) the tools or b) the experience to find and/or fix the problems. Since lives depend on it, its just not work the risk imho.
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