new lifejacket manufacture date may 2013

[keithb]

Hi
new member, sail from chichester itchen ferry mk 2, taken up again after a 20 year pause...
I wonder if i could seek advice please - I bought a new standard price Kru lifejacket through Amazon from a chandlers in the southwest (mail order) and it arrived yesterday. Auto CO2 and harness included.

Looks great but i note date of manufacture on belt and on cylinder is IV (? april) and 6 2013 respectively.
seems it is a year old already, and would have hoped for a 2014 manufacture, or is that being picky?
its just that these things seem to have a bit of a shelf life....they seem to market a lot more replacement cylinders than my expected rate of use of lifejackets would predict...?

thanks

 

[rogerboy]

seams no one knows the answer to this which surprises me . I would like to know the answer to

 

[Pye_End]

The cylinder can be checked by weighing it, and does not have a shelf life. A bit of Googling suggests the firing mechanism may have a shelf life stamped on it. Not sure if this depends on whether it is a hammer action or pill type.

 

[prv]

The jacket itself has no expiry date, though if you're still using it in 2033 you might want to think about a replacement.

The cylinder likewise should be good until its weight at the annual service drops below the gross weight stamped on it.

The auto-inflation mechanism (if fitted) does have an expiry date. 12 months old at purchase is not ideal, but doesn't feel scandalous to me. What's the shop supposed to do, dump hundreds or thousands of pounds worth of stock each year?

Pete

 

[keithb]

Hi
thanks for the replies. Yes Pete and prv_end are right, that the auto inflate mechanism does have an expiry date and it states "replace by 09 2016"
Re dumping of stock, that sounds expensive for someone I agree, hopefully they wont get their stocking rates that far out...?
cheers

 

[andygc]

The United Moulders auto inflation capsules currently being supplied are dated 2016. I must admit to being surprised when I got a couple recently, but another supplier was also stating that their current batch was freshest supply in the UK, and dated 2016. A service life of less than 3 years seems short. The answer for those who need new ones is to not buy the ones in a packet labelled "Crewsaver", but to buy the physically identical ones sold as UM at half the price (remembering that there are two versions and not forgetting to buy the clip for the manual trigger).

 

[Strikeliner]

The "IV" refers to a manufacture date of the fourth quarter of 2013. The 6 on the cylinders indicates June. Cylinders do not have an expiry date so no probs there.

 

[scubajohn]

.( i have KRU 175 38g)
Re-charge kit may as well have new cylinder as well, expiry date 01/ 2017