|
REARMING KITS
To arm the jacket for inflation, a CO2 cylinder is
screwed into the rearming assembly, which contains
a lever attached to a jerk cord. When the jerk cord
is pulled, the lever will pierce the CO2 cylinder
and quickly inflate the jacket’s bladder. In
an auto inflate model like the Stearns Auto 33 we
tested, this rearming assembly will also contain a
second lever held in place by a small pill. When the
pill comes into contact with water, it will dissolve
quickly and release the lever, piercing the cylinder
and inflating the jacket. All inflatables can also
be inflated orally through a blow tube.
A rearming kit consists of the replacement
cylinder for your inflatable life jacket and any other
parts it needs, like the green pin used to put into
the rearming mechanism and the dissolving pill used
for auto-inflate models.
There were four different cylinder
sizes used in the seven models we tested: a 16 gram,
25 gram, 33 gram, and 38 gram. More grams mean more
air is pushed into the bladder to inflate it. Each
model is specifically designed as a 16, 25, 33 or
38 gram. To make matters even more confusing, cylinders
come in 1/2 inch and 3/8 inch thread sizes.
Each model’s instructions clearly
state which rearming kit to buy. We recommend you
pick up a couple of extras at a time since we discovered
that not all stores carry all rearming kits.
Using an improper rearming kit can
either under-inflate the unit, leaving you with inadequate
buoyancy or it could over-inflate the unit leaving
you with a damaged unusable piece of equipment.
|
