West Marine Off Shore 35 Vests

aero3113

A family friend of ours gave us 3 West Marine off shore 35 vests, all 3 need to be rearmed. Anyone know where to get the rearming kits at a reasonable price? Are these kits only available at West Marine? 

Stodge

Amazon has the CO2 cartridges for a reasonable price.  But if you plan to use the automatic feature you need the dissolvable pellet that goes inside.  Those pellets only last 3 years.  I had one discharge because I didn't know the age of the pellet on one of my vests.  I have since switched mine to manual.

aero3113

Doesn't the cartridge usually come with the bobbin (Pellet)? I didn't realize that you can just have them manual if you wanted. I like the auto feature, just have to remember to keep track of the dates.

Stodge

aero3113 said:

Doesn't the cartridge usually come with the bobbin (Pellet)? I didn't realize that you can just have them manual if you wanted. I like the auto feature, just have to remember to keep track of the dates.

There is a kit that has both, but you can also just get the cartridge.  I found the manual set-up inside the vest.  Since it had discharged, the velcro has separated.  The manual valve was inside a pocket in there.  I put the automatic valve in the same storage location.