2 year old ABS bag question?
- Thread starter 007
- Start date
ABS recommends testing the airbag every year. ABS canister refills are now only $29 (+ HazMat shipping charge if it needs to be shipped) if you exchange a yellow or black canister. I recommend testing the pack; once you pull the handle, listen for any leaks in the airbags, and then look at the puncture on the canister. The puncture should be centered and the firing pin should not have left any scratches on the canister.
If you don't test the airbag, I recommend taking the canister out of the airbag and weighing it with a gram scale. The weight of the canister should be written or stamped on the canister and the current weight should be very very close to that weight.
If you don't test the airbag, I recommend taking the canister out of the airbag and weighing it with a gram scale. The weight of the canister should be written or stamped on the canister and the current weight should be very very close to that weight.
The silver canisters are not refillable, but the threads are the same as the Black or Yellow canisters. So you can test your pack with the silver canister and then buy a new Yellow canister. That way you'll have a refillable canister for the next time you deploy the pack (hopefully only for testing).
canister color
why do some of the bags have different color bottles. my first bag i bought had a silver cyl. i bought it when we were riding in the states a few years ago. if they are not refillable here can they be refilled in the states. can they be exchanged here or there??
thanks
giddyup
why do some of the bags have different color bottles. my first bag i bought had a silver cyl. i bought it when we were riding in the states a few years ago. if they are not refillable here can they be refilled in the states. can they be exchanged here or there??
thanks
giddyup
- ABS canisters have a LONG history. The black canisters are the european canister, which is refillable, that was in the states but was not legal to ship within the United States because they were not approved by the D.O.T. (Department of Transportation)
- The silver canisters were the first-years attempt to have an ABS canister in the U.S. that was DOT approved; however, it is not refillable (in the US or elsewhere).
- The yellow canisters are the DOT-approved AND refillable canister now available in the United States.
- Soon we expect to have the carbon-fiber canister available in the U.S., but it is not yet approved by the DOT
The short answer is: only black and yellow canisters are refillable and the silver canisters are not refillable. Hopefully that helps clear the muddy-water, at least in part.
As always SnowBigDeal has clear and informative advise. The important thing on why it is important to test the bag is more for you to get use to pulling the bag. You are good at what you do cause you do it a lot. If you never practise pulling your avy bag, how good do you think your going to be at it in a real emergency?
This is not to get you to blow of the bag to create sales of refills it is mearly to remind you that it is important for you to think about pulling your bag a lot and once a year practise by actually pulling it...
A perfect example is they actually have to teach military jet fighters to eject out of their planes before they hit the deck, since they are so driven that lots of times they think they can recover the aircraft...there has to be a point in which they pull the pin...they don't want to waste the plane due to its expense but also in their minds it is a failure on their part...the same is true with you, if you are hit with an avy or in one your first reaction will be, what the hell is happening, then you will wonder how to get out of this situation and hopefully somewhere in there you have remembered to pull your avy bag...make it a common thing in your brain and practise in your head and grabbing for the handle, it is important!
This is not to get you to blow of the bag to create sales of refills it is mearly to remind you that it is important for you to think about pulling your bag a lot and once a year practise by actually pulling it...
A perfect example is they actually have to teach military jet fighters to eject out of their planes before they hit the deck, since they are so driven that lots of times they think they can recover the aircraft...there has to be a point in which they pull the pin...they don't want to waste the plane due to its expense but also in their minds it is a failure on their part...the same is true with you, if you are hit with an avy or in one your first reaction will be, what the hell is happening, then you will wonder how to get out of this situation and hopefully somewhere in there you have remembered to pull your avy bag...make it a common thing in your brain and practise in your head and grabbing for the handle, it is important!
W
WARY
Well-known member
We make an avalanche air bag system and we talk about this problem all the time in the shop. Avalanche air bag systems should be checked regularly and inflated once in awhile as well. By checking we mean visually looking at the gas pressure gauge on the bottle every time you ride.
What you need to keep an eye on with gas inflation systems is either low pressure or no pressure. Obviously this is caused by a leak. Why do bottles leak? Because they are not welded shut but instead use small rubber gaskets inside the cylinder head, O rings, to contain the gas in the bottle. When these O rings are subjected to very cold temperatures they can change shape and move about on top of the bottle. The metal bottle itself can also change shape when subjected to extreme temperatures, and even though it's at a microscopic level the leak is there and any gas under 3000 pounds per square inch of pressure will find the leak and escape. This is why we subject each of our avy air bag systems to minus 30 degree F endurance testing before we ship them out.
We first manufactured a flotation system for snowmobiles that crash through thin ice and it uses a welded shut CO2 bottle with 20 cubic feet of gas inside. The gas bottle is welded shut with a thin metal sheet over the opening of the bottle and it takes a sharp pin, a bayonet loaded by a big spring, to puncture the bottle and release the gas. These bottles do not leak. Ever.
So the obvious answer is a welded bottle, which may not leak for centuries. But the problem is that nobody manufactures a welded bottle filled with 150 liters of air. The machine necessary to make these welded bottles would need to be custom made, as it doesn't exist right now.
Bottom line, check your pressure gauge before you ride, practice reaching for your rip cord, and remind yourself at the start of each avalanche prone run you make to pull the rip cord if you get in trouble.
What you need to keep an eye on with gas inflation systems is either low pressure or no pressure. Obviously this is caused by a leak. Why do bottles leak? Because they are not welded shut but instead use small rubber gaskets inside the cylinder head, O rings, to contain the gas in the bottle. When these O rings are subjected to very cold temperatures they can change shape and move about on top of the bottle. The metal bottle itself can also change shape when subjected to extreme temperatures, and even though it's at a microscopic level the leak is there and any gas under 3000 pounds per square inch of pressure will find the leak and escape. This is why we subject each of our avy air bag systems to minus 30 degree F endurance testing before we ship them out.
We first manufactured a flotation system for snowmobiles that crash through thin ice and it uses a welded shut CO2 bottle with 20 cubic feet of gas inside. The gas bottle is welded shut with a thin metal sheet over the opening of the bottle and it takes a sharp pin, a bayonet loaded by a big spring, to puncture the bottle and release the gas. These bottles do not leak. Ever.
So the obvious answer is a welded bottle, which may not leak for centuries. But the problem is that nobody manufactures a welded bottle filled with 150 liters of air. The machine necessary to make these welded bottles would need to be custom made, as it doesn't exist right now.
Bottom line, check your pressure gauge before you ride, practice reaching for your rip cord, and remind yourself at the start of each avalanche prone run you make to pull the rip cord if you get in trouble.
