Auto Inflating PFD

[Ranger R61]

My wife and both wear them all the time we are on the water some times we forget that we have them on. I bought them from BPS when on sale. They are both auto and manual inflate. Haven't tested them and do not want to either.

[Lonnie84]

Glad this post come up I guess I had better take a look at the expiration date on the cartridges; pretty sure my 10 year old will need replaced.

[RustyJig]

I have Onyx and love it. One word of caution. I bought another brand name and had my passenger use it for three years and came to find out that it did not have a cartridge installed. ALWAYS check your vest’s cartridge even if new.


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[Ketchn]

they are a hoot on a person running along in his boat when he sees your ketchn fish and tries to hurry over to ya ….
that much I know....don't know why his went off but it about threw him out of his boat ….
just saying ….

[wicklundrh]

Check your state laws. Some states only recognize them as flotation devices if they are worn. USCG now recognizes them as a normal life vest.

That said, because of the above, some of the older vests are labeled as "Type IV". Any type IV vest MUST be worn to count. If you have an older vest, look at it to make sure.

Newer vests with auto inflate will have a viewing window that showd of the Co2 cartridge is good or not. Green equals good. We own 10 vests. All of them are Cabelas 3500 series. Vests are required in my boats if the main motor is above trolling speed, the deck is wet or ice while trolling, the water is below 55 degrees, or the weather forces you to put on an additional jacket or bibs. Winter boots also equals a free ticket to wear a vest.

[agruss]

I have onyx that i wear anytime i am on the water. Getting a little older and fish a lot in cold weather, been looking at some of the newer pfd non inflatable. There are some good looking jackets out there, the only reason i don't have one now is i want to try one on and no one has the better ones in stock. NRS ion is a jacket i am looking at they run around $100 not bad if you wear it.

[Tom 513]

I bought 2 of BPS manual/auto deploy vest, I use mine on the boat and also when im in my kayak, this past summer while smallie fishing a river in my yak, I tryed turning the boat just past a riffle and rolled it, down i went along with a $250 pole/reel, the pdf deployed so fast it straightened my neck out which added to the excitement (not) needless to say the pdf worked but shocked the tar out of me.
One other thing to remember is that in my state unless you are wearing the pdf, it doesnt count as having one on your boat and you can be fined.

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[Central Minn]

I've have 3 onyx am24s every year I re-arm the oldest one, (so every life vest gets re-armed every 3rd year).When it's time to re-arm,I manually inflate the vest with the pull cord or one of my teen kids will jump in lake with it on to auto inflate it...both ways they've always worked as they should.
Also every spring I manually inflate each one through the manual fill tube with a inflatable toy blower and leave them set for 24-36 hours to see if there's any leak down.
I'm always a little leary about CO2 cartridges,having owned quite a few CO2 powered BB/Pellet guns in my youth,it wasn't to uncommon to put a new cartridge in and it would be empty, but that was 40 years ago.I'm sure/hope the life vest cartridges are held to a much more stringent standard.

[SeaRay]

I store mine in my garage hanging on top of my go to fishing rod that I always take. I often fish in a partner's boat instead of mine so I keep mine safe and dry and ready to go with me in mine or another's boat.

[Clint]

While I agree that the Hydrostatic vests are the safest ones, the price kept me to an auto-inflate and a manual inflate. The key to long life is to unscrew the cartridge when not in use and store them inside. The end of the cartridge is made of a very thin piece of metal that the inflator can puncture with a needle when the "pill" dissolves or when you pull the cord. If that thin metal membrane gets rusty it will breech and the vest will inflate. For this reason I never stored either of mine in the boat.

Two words of caution: One - always screw the cartridge in tightly before using and Two - test your vest when you get it. Someone stated above that it goes off and can be shocking. True! The price of a cartridge kit is worth it to experience the inflation. I just emptied my pockets and then walked down the launch ramp until - BANG - off it went. It floated me face up with my entire head out of the water.