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posted to rec.boats
K. Smith
 
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Default Do flares expire?

Suanne Lippman wrote:
I bought a case of Olin hand held flares at an auction. I thought it was a
good buy until I found out the expiration date was 1989.

Do flares actually expire? Will they fail to ignite or will they explode,
or what?

Well, the container was worth the purchase price.



The expiry date is the legal thing however we've had flares still work
for training courses etc up to 20yrs "out of date". Some do some don't &
surprisingly outward appearances don't seem to be a good indicator.

In this jurisdiction (Australia) it's equally illegal to have out of
date flares as it is not to have any flares. (However so long as the
correct number of indate flares are on board mostly the police turn a
blind eye to slightly some recently out of date backups)

K