"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
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?

Yes.

Will they fail to ignite or will they explode, or what?

Maybe, maybe not. The USCG and Auxiliary however only looks at the
expiration date when they inspect your boat. If out of date you are fined.



Well, the container was worth the purchase price.

I forget my exact results but for the last two years I have conducted a
firing of many expired flares on New Years eve. Of the 12 guage
flares, ALL fired, even those 12 yrs out of date. However, most of the
out of date ones either failed to ignite or otherwise sputtered.
The Olin (now Orion) hand held flares were worse than useless and ALL
failed to light, even the current ones. All of the Pains-Wessex hand
held flares ignited and worked very well, even some 5 yrs out of date.
The single Pains-Wessex parachute flare that was 9 years out of date
fired but the parachute failed.
The tiny pen-like "Skyblazer" flares all worked very well far outdoing
the 12 guage flares, too bad they seem to be off the market.
You'd be lucky to get those old Olin hand flares to ignite by pouring
diesel on them.

I figured I probably wasn't the only one doing that except I prefer 4th of
July:-) I have had the same experience with 12 gauge flares. They always
fire no matter how old.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I forget my exact results but for the last two years I have conducted a
firing of many expired flares on New Years eve. Of the 12 guage
flares, ALL fired, even those 12 yrs out of date. However, most of the
out of date ones either failed to ignite or otherwise sputtered.
The Olin (now Orion) hand held flares were worse than useless and ALL
failed to light, even the current ones. All of the Pains-Wessex hand
held flares ignited and worked very well, even some 5 yrs out of date.
The single Pains-Wessex parachute flare that was 9 years out of date
fired but the parachute failed.
The tiny pen-like "Skyblazer" flares all worked very well far outdoing
the 12 guage flares, too bad they seem to be off the market.
You'd be lucky to get those old Olin hand flares to ignite by pouring
diesel on them.

JimH wrote:
"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
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?

Yes.

Will they fail to ignite or will they explode, or what?

Maybe, maybe not. The USCG and Auxiliary however only looks at the
expiration date when they inspect your boat. If out of date you are fined.

The auxiliary is not a law enforcement agency so they won't cite you
for expired flares. If they discover them on a courtesy inspection
there is no action taken. They don't want people to shy away from
courtesy inspections by thinking they will get fined for this kind of
stuff.


The regular Coast Guard will only site you if your flares are expired
and you have no other up to date, appropriate visual signals. You can
have expired flares on board if you also have current ones too. Many
folks, including CG people have nothing against keeping the latest set
of expired flares with their replacements.




Well, the container was worth the purchase price.

JimH wrote:
"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
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?

Yes.

Will they fail to ignite or will they explode, or what?

Maybe, maybe not.

What a wealth of information, Jim. I'm sure the poster is enlightened
about flares now.....