Weakspots?

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  • MalunEri
    Member
    • Sep 2015
    • 33

    Weakspots?

    Hi, I apologize if this have been answered before, I know I have read somewhere on the web years ago, but I've been gone from the looner community for so long I've forgotten.

    What about balloon weakspots? Which ones are safe, which ones aren't?
    I'm a very phobic non popper, but I like my balloons tight, even with the neck showing. And that can be a tricky combination some times unless I'm very careful.
    I often inflate my balloons near a source of light, and hold it up every few breaths just to see if a new weak spot shows up. Depending on how bad it looks, I may either continue blowing, let some air out and tie the balloon, or just let it go entirely while I run away screaming.

    But I believe I might be over reacting sometimes, so which kind of weak spots are dangerous, and which ones aren't?

    There are a few kinds that seems to be coming back.
    1. One looks like almost a small pinhole, but doesn't really grow in size even when the balloon grows, often found near the neck or at the drip point.
    2. One I believe may be the color of the balloon fading? It seems to be a larger area of the balloon that can appear more transparent than usual. It looks so dangerous I usually freak out.
    3. One kind probably doesn't seem very dangerous to me, it's lines that goes along with the shape of balloon, every balloon seems to have at least two of these. But some times it appears that a lot of other weakspots appear at them, and those scare me.
    4. Patterns in color, some times the color seems to be pretty spotty, in lack of a better word. Usually fades out a bit when the balloon gets bigger. Used to scare me more than it does now, but I'm still careful.
    5. Piece of rubber that kinda sticks out, like a wart or something. I have blown a balloon to full size with this kind of defect, and it have appeared to be alright, but some times there is a small ring of unevenes near these, and that scares me...
    6. Circle of doom, this I really believe to be dangerous, but I rarely see it. Its as if a pinhole mentioned above expands a lot as the balloon inflates. These I really believe to be deadly.
    7. Random effects that appears on an inflated balloon. I check my balloons when I inflate and before I tie them, but some times I see a weakness, usually a pinhole or something on the balloon after some play. It may have been there all along, but it still freaks me out. Can these burst an already inflated balloon?


    So, which ones of these should I really watch out for? It seems most balloons at least have one kind, but I have gotten braver.
  • Harley
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2016
    • 269

    #2
    Re: Weakspots?

    Hi! First off I must say that I'm really not an expert on this as I haven't handled many overinflated balloons due to phobia, but I wanted to thank you for the list of "defects" and your thoughts on them - it's very reassuring to hear that some of them may not be so fatal as they would appear!

    However, I would like to say that 1 and 6, the "pinholes", do scare me a lot. Probably because they are usually more defined than other defects.
    And when there is an area that appears more transparent I grow really wary and usually stay the heck away, so it would be interesting to know more about the causes and risks with these!

    Comment

    • MalunEri
      Member
      • Sep 2015
      • 33

      #3
      Re: Weakspots?

      Not an expert myself, so I'm asking if anyone know more than I do, this list is my own experiences, and because I'm phobic I havent been able to experiment much.

      I still believe large transparent areas just might be the color on the balloon fading and thus not dangerous at all, but Im afraid I might be mistaken and I havent dared to find out XD

      Pinholes I find in a lot of balloons. I might just have bad luck, but I believe if I find them this often, how dangerous are they really? Considering how many balloons being inflated, how many would pop before reaching full size if all those little defects are as bad as I fear? Thats why I believe small pinholes, at least the very smallest ones that only look like a thinner part of the latex may not be as dangerous as they look?
      But Im certainly too afraid to find out for myself.

      I read an article on this on a looner site many years ago and Ive been desperate to find that again, with no luck.

      Comment

      • OverTheTop
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2013
        • 711

        #4
        Re: Weakspots?

        #3 is usually a (harmless) side effect of using flute molds instead of paddle molds. If the balloons are flat, without folds, when you get them, they're typically made with paddle molds. When they have 4 "flaps" (or more, or less) then they'll have those lines.

        Comment

        • Meililoon
          aka lyckr
          • Sep 2014
          • 700

          #5
          Re: Weakspots?

          I won't say these things are 100% true, but they're based on my experience and things I've read online in the past. Please correct me if I'm wrong on some of these points

          1: Pinholes are harmless most of the time. These have still always concerned me just because of how weak these areas looks, but I've pushed several balloons with a pinhole quite hard without them popping, so you should usually be safe with these.

          2: I think these are what they call "church windows". They can be dangerous depending on how they behave. If they're either really big (more than about 2cm?) or if they start growing after you've inflated the balloon, they might cause it to pop. If they stay small, you should be safe.

          3: As OverTheTop said, these are mold lines and they're harmless 99.9% of the time. I had one 16" Cattex that had several pinholes and an actual hole along one of these, but it didn't pop even though it was half full by the time I realized it was leaking.

          5: These are usually just a small patch of slightly thicker latex I think. They usually show up as a little darker patches when you blow them up and are harmless.

          You might also find some useful information on the old UKLooners forums. It doesn't have much activity anymore, but there's a lot of good old posts if you do a bit of searching.

          Comment

          • MalunEri
            Member
            • Sep 2015
            • 33

            #6
            Re: Weakspots?

            Thanks, that cleared a lot up for me.
            I was active at those uklooner forums many years ago, so yeah, might have been where I read it.
            But I forgot my old password, so I haven't been able to log in again to check there.

            Comment

            • wildheart
              Senior Member
              • Apr 2015
              • 859

              #7
              Re: Weakspots?

              I'm unable to register at uk looners, you have to email an admin. Never got anything back
              How big will it go? Only one way to find out...
              My website: loonerstories.weebly.com

              Comment

              • MalunEri
                Member
                • Sep 2015
                • 33

                #8
                Re: Weakspots?

                Can confirm #2 as dangerous, I saw one on a blue TT17 today. No other weaknesses on the balloon, so I decided it might not be so bad.
                It popped as I squeezed the balloon to try to stretch a neck.

                Luckily, wasn't super loud, and I wore my ear protection, which mutes it a lot, but still freaked me out.

                Comment

                • InflatableSeal
                  Junior Member
                  • Apr 2016
                  • 11

                  #9
                  Re: Weakspots?

                  This is something I struggle with alot myself. I can't recall the number of times I've aborted a balloon inflation simply because I saw something that was even slightly suspect about them.

                  Comment

                  • craggy2012
                    Senior Member
                    • Jan 2012
                    • 824

                    #10
                    Re: Weakspots?

                    I've a bag full of 'dodgy' new loons that I'm not sure about using....

                    Some are quite thick latex, but have visible, deep cracks in the surface of the latex and I'm fearful of them failing whilst inflating them for the first time...

                    I've even got a couple of Qualatex 36 rounds with thin spots that gradually appear in the latex when you start inflating them... Again- these I tend to keep underinflated so they're still dull matte looking rubber and just use they for sitting or laying across.

                    Comment

                    • OverTheTop
                      Senior Member
                      • Dec 2013
                      • 711

                      #11
                      Re: Weakspots?

                      Originally posted by onemoreblow
                      Quality could be better, that's for sure. Especially when heat stretched, then any defect is multiplied by 10.
                      I find that heat stretching balloons can occasionally actually help with weakspots. It makes the latex stretchier so that less pressure is needed to inflate it, which means there's less pressure on the weakspot.

                      Comment

                      • MalunEri
                        Member
                        • Sep 2015
                        • 33

                        #12
                        Re: Weakspots?

                        Noticed a new one, kinda.
                        Had a 16" yellow Qualatex with smiley print inflated for 2-3 days now. Blew it to the neck, it felt really tight, but also very safe, so I tied it off and had it around.
                        But just now, when I held it to the light, I saw kinda like a "line" of small "pinholes". I did not see that at all when I inflated it, and I checked very carefully as I always do.

                        Can weaknesses like that form over time, or did I just not check close enough?
                        I immediately freaked out and let a lot of air out of it, and its now tied off to half its original size.

                        Comment

                        • Meililoon
                          aka lyckr
                          • Sep 2014
                          • 700

                          #13
                          Re: Weakspots?

                          I haven't had a balloon inflated for more than a day since I was a kid, so I can't really tell you much about that, but the only times I've noticed a similar thing (on the initial inflation) is along the folds, mostly of fluted balloons (Tuf-tex, 16" Cattex etc.). I have checked a balloon I was inflating and thinking it was fine, just to find a couple of pinholes after a while though. Thankfully they seem to be mostly harmless.

                          Comment

                          • MalunEri
                            Member
                            • Sep 2015
                            • 33

                            #14
                            Re: Weakspots?

                            This was actually across the balloon and not along the folds.
                            It might have been folded in the package, but it did seem fine during inflation.
                            Would probably have been harmless, but the balloon was very tight, so would have been a huge bang.
                            I cut the knot, let some air out and re tied it, been safe, soft and nice for two days now.

                            Yeah, pinholes do seem mostly harmless, at least on an already inflated balloon. Usually, they'll probably leak some air, as long as they are not growing in size over time, but they still make me freak out.

                            Comment

                            • Looner Nisden
                              Junior Member
                              • Mar 2016
                              • 27

                              #15
                              Re: Weakspots?

                              Originally posted by MalunEri
                              Noticed a new one, kinda.
                              Had a 16" yellow Qualatex with smiley print inflated for 2-3 days now. Blew it to the neck, it felt really tight, but also very safe, so I tied it off and had it around.
                              But just now, when I held it to the light, I saw kinda like a "line" of small "pinholes". I did not see that at all when I inflated it, and I checked very carefully as I always do.

                              Can weaknesses like that form over time, or did I just not check close enough?
                              I immediately freaked out and let a lot of air out of it, and its now tied off to half its original size.
                              That's just the natural proces of oxidation. Also (sun)light is a big culprit which speeds this proces up even more. So having more or less air in it really won't make that big of a difference.

                              Qualatex balloons are 100% biodegradable. So when they are inflated for a while... They degrade ofcourse because of this oxidation, haha. Qualatex says 'to decrease this progress, you should cover them with a plastic bag if the will be exposed over a long period of time'.

                              All in all, balloons were designed to decorate in the first place, not to be used by people with a balloon fetish unfortunately. However, I do recall there is some sort of stuff so you can make them shiny again? Not sure about that...

                              Comment

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