Maintenance of life jackets

As an independent maintenance center, we guarantee a professional and appropriate inspection of your lifejacket and replace the mandatory spare parts. We are independent of the lifejacket manufacturer, but comply with the relevant standards and use the same tools and spare parts as official maintenance centers. Our own inspection stamps and stickers show you when maintenance has been carried out and when the next one is due.

You know this from fire extinguishers or repairs to your car: you can have maintenance and repairs carried out by any expert. The main thing is that the quality and service is right. Thank you for your trust.

Here in Tübach, we service SECUMAR and Mustang Survival lifejackets. However, as experts in the field of safety on the water, we are familiar with all brands commercially available in Switzerland.

We are also happy to organize the maintenance of Vests from Spinlock, Crewsaver, Besto, Compass, Marinepool and Kadematic for our customers. Thanks to our online registration, maintenance is quick and easy.

For the maintenance of other brands, please contact us!

Swiss law requires that periodic inspection and maintenance of inflatable lifejackets is carried out professionally and that the manufacturer's technical instructions are followed. We will be happy to carry out this maintenance for you.

In Switzerland, however, only those life jackets that comply with the product regulations of the EN ISO 12402 series of standards are permitted as recognized life-saving appliances. The water police will also kindly point out to you during the "acceptance" of your boat that the maintenance of the life-saving equipment must be carried out professionally.

However, a common misconception is that laws such as the Swiss Inland Navigation Act, the Inland Navigation Ordinance and the Lake Constance Navigation Ordinance require maintenance to be carried out by the manufacturer or an authorized maintenance centre. However, this is not the case.

We will carry out the following steps when servicing your inflatable lifejacket.

• Visual inspection of the float for damage (e.g. cracks, chafing, porosity).
• 16-hour leak test of the inflated float using a precision test manometer.
• Water activation of the automatic release and function check using test mandrel and plates.
• Testing the manual release using test mandrels and plates.
• Check the mouth valve for cracks, porous areas and leaks.
• Insert all seals.
• Insertion of new trigger tablet.
• Assembly with torque monitoring.
• Visual inspection of seams, straps and fittings.
• Checking the CO2 cartridge for content quantity with precision scales and visual inspection for external damage (e.g. corrosion)

At Schäffeler Wassersport , we value competition and healthy competition, because we want to constantly improve our services and offer you the highest quality. Since 1975, Swiss sailors, rowers, the police, shipping professionals, trade specialists and office workers have placed their trust in us. We look forward to counting you among our customers.

We would be grateful if you could send your inflatable lifejackets to us in a clean and dry condition. You can pack the Vests in a cardboard box or a bag designed for shipping. It is important that the vest does not get wet during transportation and that all enclosures reach us safely.

You should have your SECUMAR lifejacket checked every two years until it reaches the end of its service life after ten years.

Any equipment that contributes to the safety and protection of life and limb requires regular inspection and maintenance. This applies in particular to inflatable life jackets, which are rarely used in an emergency, but when they are, they must function perfectly. Lifejackets are often exposed to weather and nature during use, but ageing processes can also occur during storage, which can affect both the fabric and the buoyancy chamber as well as the function of the automatic inflation mechanism.

The inspection and maintenance carried out is confirmed by the maintenance center with a stamp. This certifies that the inspection has been carried out appropriately and in accordance with the specifications and standards specified by the manufacturer for authorized maintenance stations.

The time of the next urgently recommended inspection and maintenance can also be seen on the service sticker attached to the outside of the lifejacket.

An inflatable lifejacket generally has a service life of ten years. Once this period has expired, we generally recommend that you no longer use the lifejacket in question.

Although an inspection and maintenance can still be carried out after ten years, this must bedone annually and only by the manufacturer .After fifteen years, the vest must definitely be replaced.

You don't have to do any maintenance yourself. We will do it for you!

As soon as you have sent us a maintenance order via the web form and received confirmation, you can send the vest(s) to us. Please enclose a copy of the confirmation. This will help us to clearly assign your vest(s) to the order received.

We will return the Vests(s) to you after maintenance.

As soon as we have received your vest, we will get to work. Depending on the order volume, however, it may take some time before your vest is ready.

The maintenance itself must be carried out on two working days so that the buoyancy chamber can remain inflated for 16 hours. As soon as the maintenance is complete, we will send the Vests back to you.

This usually takes a week, in a few cases up to two weeks.