If you’re like a lot of recreational boaters, you may not pay a much attention to your life vest. You might not even know what PFD stands for – Personal Floatation Device. You may have even purchased a type V PFD with your #1 criteria being comfort. You throw it on each time you go out, mainly just to make a show of it, and take it off as soon as you’re outside the marina – confident that you’ll remember to put it back on if the weather picks up.
But here are a few things you might want to keep in mind when you’re wearing your type V:
- If you’re not wearing your type V, it doesn’t count towards meeting the Coast Guard’s minimum equipment requirements.
- If you do end up falling overboard, your type V isn’t going to do you much good if it doesn’t function as designed.
Maintenance Approach
So how do you make sure you’re type V will actually do what it’s supposed to?
My general approach to making sure my equipment will work is to try to understand it and then try to prevent it from failing. Digital PDF format manuals for most equipment these days can be found with a quick Google search. If you can’t find your specific item, you can usually find a similar one. Here’s my type V PFD manual. Despite being 15 years old, it was easy enough to find online.
What does a life vest do?
So what does your type V PFD need to do? And how can you verify that it will work as intended when you find yourself in the water unexpectedly and unintentionally
Inflate
Type V PDFs are defined by their functionality to inflate only when needed. They can be worn deflated and folded up to maximize comfort, but must inflate in a MOB scenario. There are two methods of inflation, compressed CO2 or manual (blow tube). The compressed CO2 cartridge can be triggered by either an automatic sensor that goes off when wet, or by a pull tab activated by the user.
The CO2 canisters have a built in seal that keeps the CO2 in, but can be punctured effectively by the trigger mechanism. The seal has an indicator on it that can be checked visibly. Check it with every use. Green is good. Red needs to be replaced.
You can also check the CO2 canister itself to ensure that it is full. This is done by weighing the canister. There is a label on the canister that indicates it’s weight when full. There is a low risk that the CO2 leaks out of the canister with the seal still reading green, so this check doesn’t need to be done often, if ever. Maybe when you buy a new CO2 canister or when you take your life jacket out of the closet after multi-year storage.
The trigger mechanism can be inspected by removing the canister, but it cannot be tested without puncturing and using up the CO2 canister. Not something you want to do often since it will cost you a new canister, which can range from 25% to 40% of the cost of a new PFD.
The manual inflation tube can be checked easily. Be sure to remove the CO2 canister first so you don’t accidentally over-inflate the vest. Simply unfold vest (pull apart the velcro seals) and blow it up. You’ll find that it takes some work to overcome the one-way valve. It took me 5-6 full breathes. Do this to get a feel for how much effort it takes and you’ll realize that you want to avoid doing this in the water, particularly if you’re not a strong swimmer.
Stay inflated
Once the vest is inflated, it needs to stay inflated. This is also easy to check at home. Simply inflate the vest manually and let it sit for several hours 12-24 hours is usually good enough to get an idea of whether the vest is leaking or holding it’s inflation.
Note that manual inflation will be needed to “top off” after a CO2 inflation, which is another reason to try manual breathe inflation at home to get a feel for it. The PFD material is more permeable to CO2 than to air, so a CO2 inflation won’t hold as long. If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of floating in the water for several hours, you’ll need to give your type V PFD a manual breathe every once in a while to keep it full.
Hold your head out of the water
The whole purpose of a life vest is to keep your nose and mouth dry while you’re in the water so you can breathe, without you having to exert the effort to tread water. To do this, it needs to fit and be sized correctly for your body weight. The only way to test this out is to put in on, jump in the water, and see how you float. Again, it’s best to try this with a manual inflation to avoid the cost of a replacement CO2 cartridge. Next time you’re at anchor, take a swim with your manually-inflated PFD and convince yourself it works correctly.
Deflate and stow
The manual inflation tube will have a one-way valve to prevent deflation when you’re trying to inflate the vest, much like an inflatable dinghy. To overcome the valve and deflate the vest, there will usually be a tab on the top size of the inflation tube cover. You’ll flip over the cover and put it on upside down to keep the valve open. As you re-fold the vest, make sure to do it in the same sequence as when you unfolded it. There should be plenty of labels to instruct you on how to fold it.
Summary of Type V PFD Checks
