Avon Liferaft Service -- No More?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by nigel1

If the rafts are close to 15 years old, they might be considered too old to service.
For rafts on commercial vessels, 15 years is considered end of life.

Thanks, Nigel. They are actually more than 20 years old.



I hate to get rid of them as they are wonderful quality and were really good as new the last time I serviced them.



But everything has a limited life span, including us. So maybe it's time to start thinking this way.

[maury]

I just manually opened an old Avon 6 person from 1986. Raft is in beautiful condition. One issue I found is the pull cord goes through a plastic hose which screws into a top piece on the regulator. The plastic connection was broken and I am curious if it happened during the last repack in 1994 or on its own over the years. I searched for the Kiddie brand part with no luck. This means I need a new regulator and a company which can i stall it and transfer the gas.

I learned that as part of the testing the close the overflow relief valves and fill it to double pressure to test tubes. Personally I would trust this old rubber raft before many of the newer ones.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by maury

I just manually opened an old Avon 6 person from 1986. Raft is in beautiful condition. One issue I found is the pull cord goes through a plastic hose which screws into a top piece on the regulator. The plastic connection was broken and I am curious if it happened during the last repack in 1994 or on its own over the years. I searched for the Kiddie brand part with no luck. This means I need a new regulator and a company which can i stall it and transfer the gas.

I learned that as part of the testing the close the overflow relief valves and fill it to double pressure to test tubes. Personally I would trust this old rubber raft before many of the newer ones.

The Avon Ocean rafts are beautifully made. In Europe, new rafts are half the price they are in the U.S. (tort tax, no doubt) so if I didn't love my old Avons so much I would just toss them. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do about this.

[carstenb]

Dockhead - we have a similar problem - before we left Copenhagen in 2016 we purchased a Zodiac raft. We had it serviced without problems on tahiti but now when we tried to get it serviced, we are told that in 2017 Zodiac went out of the leisure raft market and our raft could no longer be serviced. We tried to get it serviced in Mazatlan MX, San Diego, Miami etc and got told the same thing.

We contacted Unisafe, the company that sold us the raft and I noted for them that they qave a 12 year warranty. Obviously, if they warrant a product for twelve years, they also are obligated to service and certify the raft for another 5 years.

They said they would service and certify the rafts for another 5 years when we return to Denmark.

You might try contacting them - UNISAFE - they have several location in Denmark

[h20man]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Dockhead - we have a similar problem - before we left Copenhagen in 2016 we purchased a Zodiac raft. We had it serviced without problems on tahiti but now when we tried to get it serviced, we are told that in 2017 Zodiac went out of the leisure raft market and our raft could no longer be serviced. We tried to get it serviced in Mazatlan MX, San Diego, Miami etc and got told the same thing.

We contacted Unisafe, the company that sold us the raft and I noted for them that they qave a 12 year warranty. Obviously, if they warrant a product for twelve years, they also are obligated to service and certify the raft for another 5 years.

They said they would service and certify the rafts for another 5 years when we return to Denmark.

You might try contacting them - UNISAFE - they have several location in Denmark

I also got screwed by zodiac... lovely life raft bought in US at US prices. UNSERVICEABLE... (I can DIY... but the liability is not worth it)


Very sad... and US prices are more expensive.. but.. can't fly it in.. have to 'ground' ship or bring on a boat from europe...



I would have thought that a safety item would be taxed at next to nothing, to encourage all to use.. Sad Sad Sad.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Dockhead - we have a similar problem - before we left Copenhagen in 2016 we purchased a Zodiac raft. We had it serviced without problems on tahiti but now when we tried to get it serviced, we are told that in 2017 Zodiac went out of the leisure raft market and our raft could no longer be serviced. We tried to get it serviced in Mazatlan MX, San Diego, Miami etc and got told the same thing.

We contacted Unisafe, the company that sold us the raft and I noted for them that they qave a 12 year warranty. Obviously, if they warrant a product for twelve years, they also are obligated to service and certify the raft for another 5 years.

They said they would service and certify the rafts for another 5 years when we return to Denmark.

You might try contacting them - UNISAFE - they have several location in Denmark

Thanks; hot tip.