Life Jacket

[argonaut]

One of my passengers thought it would be funny to pull the inflation cord on his life jacket.
So need to 're-arm'

This is a Compass 150N
Only other name on it is 'Comfort'
It has a 33g CO2 cylinder
The manual inflation mechanism 'blows off' a green disc and a green manual operated clip.

Anybody re-armed a life jacket?
Assume it's a question of buying kit & screwing parts in ?

[mlines]

Yes, simple quick rearming kit. New cylinder and new breakaway clip. Worth firing one every so often to test and to show people what they do. The surprise is how slow they inflate and the noise of the Velcro. People think they will go bang like airbags

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[argonaut]

Firing one to show then .... I think not ...

That is what youtube is for.....waste my money live that.

Thanks, I'm try & find a kit on-line

[Ianfs]

I agree with Martin, re-arming is very easy.

All mine showed a green circle which should go red if they require re-arming but they had gone over time so I figured is £34 (they're Auto firing) worth someone's life, not a difficult decision for me.

Auto inflating jackets have a spring loaded mechanism which fires when the mechanism is approx. 1m under water. The pin in the mechanism pops the CO2 cartridge to inflate the jacket. The Manual mechanism used in the Auto Jackets similar to the Manual ones so when the toggle is pulled the pin pierces the cylinder to inflate the jacket.

The manuals suggest they are inflated yearly to check for leaks and all mine can be blown up through the mouth piece. So I now blow them up and leave them over night to verify they are ok before re-arming.

Hope this helps!

[argonaut]

I can orally blow then up ... how do you deflate them ? Do you have to disassemble the valve?

My dive kit is simple .. pull any dump valve to let out the air.

[Ianfs]

Yes there is a blow up valve tube available.

[mlines]

Try and blow them up with a low pressure low volume pump of some description. Blowing them up by mouth makes the inside of the bladder damp and liable to stick together

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[argonaut]

You misunderstood my comment.
I was saying that I know I can orally inflate - no problem there.
The question was how do you deflate.

[ColinR]

On mine the cap on the inflation tube, when reversed, has a bit that presses on the non return valve in the tube and releases the air.

I hope that makes sense.

[argonaut]

Yep it did ....

Just as well one got inflated .... checked the ones on boat ... although gas cylinders fine the auto-inflate mechanism all had expiry date of 2005 !

Bit like flares - the dates don't last long (4 yrs) ... and in all probability will be absolutely fine.

Just ordered re-arming kits ..... in case it is of interest for others best price I found (and longest dates) were:
http://rt-supplies.co.uk/product/uml-mk ... rming-kit/


I did also manually inflate with air pump to make sure no leaks.