How do you measure the size

[Fred]

When I blow up a balloon I'm scared of it popping and when it gets to a certain point I don't know if that's the recommended size of say a 24 inch.
How do you measure the size

[Fred]

Re: How do you measure the size

Sorry if it made no sense

[Steve_inflator]

Re: How do you measure the size

Size of balloon is measured by its diameter across the body of the balloon.

[craggy2012]

Re: How do you measure the size

Err..... when there’s very little neck left I’ll stop inflating lol!

[WannabePopper]

Re: How do you measure the size

Good post.

I also am a nervous popper, and experience some anxiety when trying to get balloons to their "rated" size.

With all the different types of balloons out there and their different characteristics, this can be tricky. E.g. some balloons neck an awful lot, while others don't neck much at all even when over-inflated.

I find it hard accurately gauge or measure the diameter of a balloon. It's the longest straight line through the balloon itself, so you obviously can't use a tape measure!

The balloon industry actually make tools that look like cut out holes in a hard plastic sheet. If the balloon can fit through, but touches the edges, it's the right size. Otherwise, too big.

I have even thought about making my own sizing device out of PVC pipe with connection fittings to make "U". The inside dimension would be the diameter.

I think I have a tendency to underestimate the diameter of a balloon. I remember once, I blew up a 36" balloon to what I thought was the correct size. It had not necked much, so I thought I was fine. Anyway, it had only been inflated and was on top of a smooth table for about 30 seconds when it exploded with an earth-shattering boom! Totally startled me😕

[Meililoon]

Re: How do you measure the size

There's two ways to do this.
1. Place the balloon between two objects (between the wall and a chair for example) and then measure the distance between the two.
2. Measure the circumference of the balloon and divide by 3.14.

[craggy2012]

Re: How do you measure the size

Yeah Qualatex made a very expensive fold up box with six different sized holes in each size to pass an inflated balloon through to gauge how inflated a balloon was for those that needed consistent sized balloons (like balloon decorators making display pieces).

I’ve only ever seen one of these though and from memory I think it only went upto 16 inches- no good for their Q24 and Q36 inch loons they sold back then.

[Seidenki]

Re: How do you measure the size

The chair-and-wall technique is the usual one for the looner. Another guide for the more huge balloons is a doorway. I've had 36" balloons inflated far enough that they couldn't fit through the bedroom door...

[Vicci]

Re: How do you measure the size

Err..... when there’s very little neck left I’ll stop inflating lol!

We all know the attachment here is wrong, all three of those are under-inflated

[t17forLife]

Re: How do you measure the size

We all know the attachment here is wrong, all three of those are under-inflated

Huzzah!

[srob2]

Re: How do you measure the size

Comparing size to rated size isn't the best indication. Some cheap balloons pop before this, Uniques get a lot bigger, brands vary. I've never accidentally blown to pop without trying to at least overinflate, except balloons blown up too many times and defective ones. You won't either.

If you really want blow exactly to rated size, multiply by Pi and cut a string or ribbon to this size. For example, 16" balloons take 50" or so of ribbon. Then blow the balloon to the size the ribbon goes around without any space or overlap.

[EthylTheAardvark]

Re: How do you measure the size

I don't go by size, and I'd be surprised if many of us actually do. I go by how much it's resisting my blowing into it, and how squishy it feels when I squeeze it. That also varies from manufacturer to manufacturer -- I have some TufTex 14" balloons that never put up the same amount of resistance as pretty much any Qualatex balloon I've tried. The TufTexs feel like they have very think latex, but they can put up with a surprising amount of abuse.

[Meililoon]

Re: How do you measure the size

I sometimes measure balloons while inflating them, especially bigger balloons (24"+), since I don't have that much experience with them. And unless I intend to pop the balloons, I prefer to keep them at rated size or slightly below.

[SusieDK]

Re: How do you measure the size

Hi,

Some time ago I helped arranging a game for a ‘newcomers party’ in the youth club where I work a couple og evenings each week.
All the younsters were divided into two teams which were to compete in various games. One of the games was a very simple balloon game. Each team was given a lot of uninflated balloons, and the objektive was to simply blow up the most balloons within 10 minutes. The balloons of course had to be blown up ‘properly’, and in order to control this we made two ‘balloon measures’. These were made by forming two rings from wire. We determined the size of the rings by forming them around a tightly inflated balloon. We used a little extra wire to form a handle.
In case somebody would like to know how the game played off, each team had one from the ‘staff’ as captain (I was appointed captain for the one team btw), and at a given time the captain gave a big bag of balloons to their team, and all the team members started blowing balloons like crazy. As soon as a balloon was blown up it was ‘presented’ for the captain, and if the balloon couldn’t pass through the ring it was counted in and the captain popped it with a pin. If the balloon could pass through the ring it had to be blown bigger.
The team who had blown the most balloons in 10 minutes won the game.

Need I say, that it was great fun? Even though pinpopping isn’t really my thing, it was pretty cool with all the blowing and popping. Besides how often do you get the opportunity to pop several hundred balloons within 10 minutes •giggles*

I think the kind of balloon measure should be quite quick and easy to make, and it can always be adjusted to a rated size either by measuring with a tape or by the way we did it. It took only minutes to make the measures after we had got the idea.
If you want you can make a set of measures for the balloon sizes you use.

Thank you for reading my posting

Sincerely
Susie

[tebe2hu]

Re: How do you measure the size

Take a measuring tape scaled in CENTIMETERS. Measure the perimeter and divide by 8 (three times 'half'). You receive the diameter in inches - almost exactly (2.54xPi=8)