#WATERROOF SMOKE FLARE CRACKED#

If you’ve burned through the night ends of your day/night flares, don’t give up. The day end can be better at night than the night end: If you have space, keep undamaged expired flares in a box marked “expired flares.” If your three handheld day/night flares don’t get you rescued, you’ll have backup options for years to come.Ģ. That doesn’t mean you can count them as your required flares aboard (rules are rules) but nothing says you can’t keep them for use in an emergency.

But all things being equal, flares far outlive their expiration date.

#WATERROOF SMOKE FLARE CRACKED#

If the casing is cracked or deteriorated in any way, the flares are bad. (Highway flares - made of the same stuff as signal flares - have no expiration date.) From experience, I can tell you that flares that expired a decade ago have a very high probability of going off. They can go bad, they can rust or be damaged, but they don’t really expire. Specifically, it states, “The expiration date must be not more than 42 months from the date of manufacture.” This rule exists to make it harder for you to have bad flares aboard - not because they can’t last more than 42 months, but because the Coast Guard knows many boaters can’t be trusted to inspect them regularly. One stipulation involves the expiration date. Federal regulations require that all pyrotechnic devices must be labeled and marked.

Waterroof smoke flare