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Life and Inspection of Inflatable PDF's

749 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Minnewaska 
#1 ·
I see lots of inflatable PFD's being marketed and sold, but I've not seen any guidelines on life expectancy. What are the thoughts of the forum regarding life and inspection of inflatable PFD's.

There are three obvious ways of inspecting them, 1) unfold and look over closely, 2) manually inflate using air tube and inspect, 3) inflate using the CO2 cartridge and inspect. Techniques 1 and 2 are easy to do and cost nothing, but require a judgement as to whether condition of fabric and seams are ok. But techniques 1,2 give no assurance that the PFD will hold together under rapid expansion force from a CO2 cartridge when used in an emergency. Technique 3 expends a CO2 cartridge, costs about $25 to rearm, and the explosive force may weaken and stress the PDF such that it looks ok in inspection now, but will not hold together at the next use of CO2 to fill.

What are the forum's thoughts on this issue?
 
#2 ·
#1 and #2 annually (leave inflated overnight to check for slow leaks), and replace the inflators as per manufacturer recommendations. If you've seen one inflate with a CO2 cartridge, it's not *that* rapid like an airbag or anything, takes 3-5 seconds. Fun thing is to jump in with the expired one before changing it out to see how it works.
 
#3 ·
The downside to orally inflating, is leaving moisture from your breath inside the bladder. Trapped moisture isn't good for them.

The trigger and gas cartridge need to be replace periodically anyway, so auto-inflate is my preferred approach. As mentioned above, leave overnight to check for leaks. Don't patch.... replace, if it leaks. Some vests have replaceable bladders, some do not.

The idea of testing their function, by jumping in the water, has pros/cons. I think it's a great idea to see how it actually fits, when floating in the water. Jump from your side deck, just as you might have to in an emergency and see if it jams up around your neck. This may also simulate the affect of very rough water. Thigh straps are usually necessary with these. The downside is needing to clean and dry them extremely well, especially if you jumped into salt water.
 
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