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?
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?