Do flares expire?
 

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.

Do flares expire?
 

"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 If out of date you are fined.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.

Do flares expire?
 

In article ,
says...
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.

Yes, they definitely expire but they still may work if they were stored
properly.

Won't help you pass your Coast Guard check...

jps

Do flares expire?
 

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flares, ALL fired, even those 12 yrs out of date.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out of date ones either failed to ignite or otherwise sputtered.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held flares ignited and worked very well, even some 5 yrs out of date.
The single Pains-Wessex parachute flare that was 9 years out of date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.

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for training courses etc up to 20yrs "out of date".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

Do flares expire?
 

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.

Do flares expire?
 

"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message news:b35pf.1552

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?

They may or may not fire. The legal requirement is that you must carry the
proper number of *in date* flares. You may carry additional cases of out of
date flares if you want.

Do flares expire?
 

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...

"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message news:b35pf.1552

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?

They may or may not fire. The legal requirement is that you must carry
the proper number of *in date* flares. You may carry additional cases of
out of date flares if you want.


I remember someone here saying they or a friend of theirs was fined by the
CG for having expired flares on board, even though there were sufficient
fresh flares aboard.

Do flares expire?
 

" JimH" wrote in message

I remember someone here saying they or a friend of theirs was fined by the
CG for having expired flares on board, even though there were sufficient
fresh flares aboard.


afaik, it shouldn't happen, unless perhaps the person had all the old and
new flares mixed together such that in an emergency he was as likely to grab
a bad as a good.

Do flares expire?
 

The bottom line is that the Olin hand held flares are useless
regardless of age.

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.



I saw some recently expired (1-2 years) Orion flares shot on the 4th of
July over a small lake. Of the 12, two didn't make it out of the
pistol, and 5 or 6 launched without much of a flare. The others seemed
to work fine but I have never had to use new flares.

BTW - for those of you discarding your old flares on the 4th of July or
New Years, the good ones made it back to the water before they went out.
He was firing at a fairly low angle - maybe 30-45 degrees - but they
aren't fireworks so watch the direction you shoot them!

Dan

Do flares expire?
 

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.

Do flares expire?
 

Dan Krueger wrote:
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.



I saw some recently expired (1-2 years) Orion flares shot on the 4th of
July over a small lake. Of the 12, two didn't make it out of the
pistol, and 5 or 6 launched without much of a flare. The others seemed
to work fine but I have never had to use new flares.

BTW - for those of you discarding your old flares on the 4th of July or
New Years, the good ones made it back to the water before they went out.
He was firing at a fairly low angle - maybe 30-45 degrees - but they
aren't fireworks so watch the direction you shoot them!

Even on Independence Day, flares are emergency/distress signals and are
not supposed to be fired for entertainment.

Training flares are white. If you want to fire a red flare for
training, testing or whatever, you should check in with the Coast Guard
or local law enforcement first.

And distress flares should go out before hitting the ground (or
water)... unless a fire is the way you are trying to get attention.
Out here on the CA delta that would be a fine way to test flares -
start a peat fire that burns on an one of the islands... for months.

Do flares expire?
 

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.....