Occassionally I have tested our autoinflate SOSpenders and have found
them to be unreliable. In about 30% of the time, I have had to
manually activate them. Anybody else have experience with this?

You don't mention "how" you are testing the auto inflation. What is the
mechanism that triggers the inflation??

I'm using the manual version of a suspender/harness, primarily because I
expected that the automatic inflation might be hydrostatic and suspect if
not tested annually.

Your experiences and statistics would confirm this.

I don't know that these activators/releases are serviceable. In life rafts,
they must be replaced.

Thanks for the 'heads-up' !

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

You don't mention "how" you are testing the auto inflation. What is the
mechanism that triggers the inflation??

I'm using the manual version of a suspender/harness, primarily because I
expected that the automatic inflation might be hydrostatic and suspect if
not tested annually.

Your experiences and statistics would confirm this.

I don't know that these activators/releases are serviceable. In life rafts,
they must be replaced.

Thanks for the 'heads-up' !

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

What you have not told us is what is the condition of the activator
bobbins in the vests. How old are they? Where were they stored before
using them? If you are not sure, I suggest getting some new activators,
and retesting. Then tell us what you find.

Sherwin D.

Parallax wrote:

Occassionally I have tested our autoinflate SOSpenders and have found
them to be unreliable. In about 30% of the time, I have had to
manually activate them. Anybody else have experience with this?

What you have not told us is what is the condition of the activator
bobbins in the vests. How old are they? Where were they stored before
using them? If you are not sure, I suggest getting some new activators,
and retesting. Then tell us what you find.

Sherwin D.

Parallax wrote:

Occassionally I have tested our autoinflate SOSpenders and have found
them to be unreliable. In about 30% of the time, I have had to
manually activate them. Anybody else have experience with this?

SOSpenders had a recall a couple years ago for faulty auto inflator units.
Check the link to see if your PFD's were the ones affected

http://www.sospenders.com/recall.html
Jared Crane

SOSpenders had a recall a couple years ago for faulty auto inflator units.
Check the link to see if your PFD's were the ones affected

http://www.sospenders.com/recall.html
Jared Crane

I use a full "Float Coat" which probably uses the same or similar system.
On one occasion when I was about to jump into the pool to test, prior to
cleaning, I checked the system visually (it's covered under a flap) and
was surprised to see that the CO2 cylinder had become unscrewed from the
release ..... how, is beyond me, and I can think of all sorts of reasons
including "operator error".
Since I use this unit (wear, not immerse) almost on a daily basis,
checking the CO2 has become a much more frequent exercise.
Except for this one time, whenever I jump in for a "test", the unit has
worked as advertised.

otn

I use a full "Float Coat" which probably uses the same or similar system.
On one occasion when I was about to jump into the pool to test, prior to
cleaning, I checked the system visually (it's covered under a flap) and
was surprised to see that the CO2 cylinder had become unscrewed from the
release ..... how, is beyond me, and I can think of all sorts of reasons
including "operator error".
Since I use this unit (wear, not immerse) almost on a daily basis,
checking the CO2 has become a much more frequent exercise.
Except for this one time, whenever I jump in for a "test", the unit has
worked as advertised.

otn

Sherwin Dubren wrote in message ...
What you have not told us is what is the condition of the activator
bobbins in the vests. How old are they? Where were they stored before
using them? If you are not sure, I suggest getting some new activators,
and retesting. Then tell us what you find.

Sherwin D.

Parallax wrote:

Occassionally I have tested our autoinflate SOSpenders and have found
them to be unreliable. In about 30% of the time, I have had to
manually activate them. Anybody else have experience with this?

The activator bobbins are two yrs old when I test them by jumping in
the water with it on. I have done this three times. Twice mine
failed, and once my sons failed to inflate. However, recently, my 7
yr old daughter (who does swim was wearing hers and was playing at the
water edge (she was told not to go in the water) while I worked on the
boat deck a few feet away. Suddenly, I hear, "DADDY, DADDY" I looked
up to see that she had gone in the water on purpose and it inflated.
I guess she didn't remember seeing them inflate and was terrified.