renewing flares

[gruntahunter]

Hey people be aware of the use by date on the flares when u renew them as some I seen today had expire 6th month 2005.Doing you out of 5 months of life for the same price.
I wonder what the industry standard is on keeping old flares on the shelf.. I would have thought 1 month then a reduction in price should happen.What do you think.
I know they don't cost that much but does the same apply with epirb 's which do cost a fair bit and you definately want the full life of the unit.

[Steve44]

It always pays to look at the dates on items when buying off the shelf. I bought my last lot of flares at a reduced rate as they were 3 months into their use by period. Its just a matter of doing the maths to see if the discount reflects the reduction in legal use of the item

[blaze]

Hi all
I have been checked by the marine police in tassie a few times a year and not once have they checked my vessel for safety equipment and I volenteered my flares and they did'nt even know where to look for the use by date was, all they were intwerested in was my licence and serial No's of outboards (pretty slack I thought).
cheers
blaze

[jaybee]

Interesting topic, so how long a shelf life do flares suppose to have, or is it just to turn money around to keep sales going? Mooloolaba is the place to be, get pulled up by the harbour boys up there and they go through everything and know what they are looking for, probably because of the easy access to the ocean, should be more of it every where else eh. If we are going to be stupid enough to let our safety devices expire, come the day we may need it, will put more lives other then our own at risk. So if we are buying a safety product in good faith, then surely there must be some government legislation in place to protect us and other people involved in sea safety when it comes to unscrupulous sales people. food for thought
cheers.

[Kerry]

I believe there is a time period (can't recall what that period is at the moment) when unsold flares have to be sent back to the manufacturer supposedly to be re-manufacturered into new ones.

One would hope re-manufacturing isn't creative modification of the date stamps but being what flares are required for one would think not.

One would assume the manufacturers have the supply and demand thing down to a tee as I'm sure the last thing they want to be doing is making product that is returned.

One of those habitual out of curiousity things when ever in a marine shop is check the dates on flares #;D

Cheers, Kerry.

[Jewmaster]

Also have been pulled up by the marine boys, they didn't check the dates but made sure we had everything that was needed by means of safety gear, had FISHWATCH sticker for reporting illegal fishing witht he phone number ect stuck on a couple of places on the boat, o seeing this they became very relaxed. Bit of a bonus, had all my gear anyway.