The one's I use mostly are a pair of Remploy Commodore II manual inflatable life jackets... now no longer made. Label in the sleeve of the vest says they were made in March 1997 and to be fair I will be replacing them in the next few years - not because of age related failure, but purely because the outer covers are beginning to wear.
One of the main things that had stopped me from doing servicing before was a concern that I wouldn't be able to fold them up again once I had completed (!) the service.. foolish... but in the end the nagging in the back of my head that they just wouldn't work in an actual emergency overcame all and I did them.. I would recommend everyone does theirs at least yearly
For anyone coming along after me, the following provides a view of what I found/did etc., oh, and it was of course much easier than I thought!
So...
Like most jackets, the inner bladders are retained in place, and protected, by
an outer cover - blue - with a zip fastening... the idea being that the
zip comes undone if you pull the toggle (that's the "manual" bit as other life
jackets can be automatic) and inflate the jacket.
Undo the zip, unroll/unfold the inner bladder (making a rough mental note of
how it's folded). Two things should be apparent - first a gas canister (looks
like a mini gas bottle) on one side which will be attached to some kind of
trigger mechanism.
In mine the the activation system for the gas canister is one of these:
The red semi circle indicates the safety pin is out - the safety pin is a green plastic "drawing pin" with a head that sits inside the semi circle - the pin stops you accidentally pulling down the trigger, but doesn't stop you doing it in earnest!
Top view of the Halkey Roberts:
Trigger on the right - gas bottle screws into that hole - in the centre of
the hole is the spike on the bottom of the trigger arm - recessed here as
the trigger is in the up position..
Unscrew the gas bottles and have a look at them.. On mine the first time I did them, they looked like this - not good - the white stuff is salt calcification, you can also see rust..
There is some writing on the bottles - I couldn't make mine out, but a visit
to the local chandlery was enough to show me that these were 38gm bottles
(they come in various sizes depending on size of jacket, and make of
jacket/trigger mechanism)
Rust...
I did some searching on the web, but in the end I bought two new one's
from the Marine Superstore at Port Solent - they were competitive and I prefer
to support an actual shop where I can..
Weigh them before you put them back in the life jacket, make a note of the weight (I write it on the bottle with a Sharpie, and also on a record slip in the lifejacket) as when you service them next time you'll need to weigh the bottle to make sure it's roughly the same (and therefore not losing gas)
The other thing you should see (on the other side of the bladder) is a tube used for manual blowing up... blow the jacket up wit this, and then leave it fully inflated for 24 hours. If it's still inflated after 24 hours the bladders good.
Inflation test
24 hours later - de-inflate the life jacket and get all the air out as it makes it easier to fold - on mine there's a stop valve in the tube you used to blow it up - deflate by pressing in the valve, and to get the last out you can suck it out, then screw in your gas cylinder - re-insert the safety/drawing pin.
Re-fold, and re-zip - jobs a good 'un, once you've made a note of the servicing date and the cylinder weight on each jacket..
Weigh them before you put them back in the life jacket, make a note of the weight (I write it on the bottle with a Sharpie, and also on a record slip in the lifejacket) as when you service them next time you'll need to weigh the bottle to make sure it's roughly the same (and therefore not losing gas)
The other thing you should see (on the other side of the bladder) is a tube used for manual blowing up... blow the jacket up wit this, and then leave it fully inflated for 24 hours. If it's still inflated after 24 hours the bladders good.
24 hours later - de-inflate the life jacket and get all the air out as it makes it easier to fold - on mine there's a stop valve in the tube you used to blow it up - deflate by pressing in the valve, and to get the last out you can suck it out, then screw in your gas cylinder - re-insert the safety/drawing pin.
Re-fold, and re-zip - jobs a good 'un, once you've made a note of the servicing date and the cylinder weight on each jacket..
No comments:
Post a Comment