Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

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  • Eduloon
    Junior Member
    • Feb 2020
    • 19

    Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

    Hi,
    As is getting harder to get my hands on tuftex balloons, im planing on buying a bulk of them (a lot of bags, probably a $200 ish order). And as a non popper, they will probably last me years. But for what i know tuftex balloons do degrade faster. Even more on Crystal colors.

    Early this year i bought a bag of Crystal Green TT17 from amazon, and they have the old packaging and were really old and degraded, felt really fragile and were weak. Unusable!

    So im thinking new methods of storing my TT. I store my balloons mainly on my closet, which is dark, dry and don't open so often. Thinking about buying some kind of drawer with opaque containers, and then place the balloons inside ziplog bags, don't squish them hard together and maybe put some gilica gel bags inside each balloon bag.

    What do you think about storing balloons as fragile as tuftex?
  • LoonerHoax
    Senior Member
    • May 2020
    • 333

    #2
    Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

    Since Tuftex were originally sold as outdoor balloons, my personal opinion is that they were designed to degrade faster because they expected some of them to go free. I've rarely had them last for more than a year or two without going bad. Especially the crystal colors.

    Comment

    • SusieDK
      Senior Member
      • Dec 2017
      • 201

      #3
      Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

      Hi,

      My balloons seldom last very long, so I only rarely have trouble with degraded balloons. I do have an idea, but it is not based on practical experience, but purely theory:
      Oxygen very often plays an important role when it comes to degrading processes, so maybe it would be an idea to remove as much oxygen from the packaged balloons as possible. As it is not good to compress the balloons it might be a good idea to replace the air in the bags with carbondioxide. Compress the bag to remove the air, then inflate it with carbondioxide and seal it off.
      This just might help slowing down degrading. Off course it only works if you don’t open the bag and let air into it again, but I guess you wouldn’t do this when storing for a long time. Besides you can of course renew the carbondioxide before resealing an opened bag.

      Again I have no experience with long time storing, but it might be worth trying it out.

      Thank you for reading my posting.

      Sincerely
      Susie
      Last edited by SusieDK; 02-07-2022, 10:49. Reason: Inserting missed out words.

      Comment

      • Balloonboy99
        Junior Member
        • Sep 2019
        • 16

        #4
        Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

        Would there be any benefit to using vacuum storage bags over ziploc bags? I've been tempted to try them but they're obviously a bit more expensive than ziploc bags. Wonder if anyone has had the same idea?

        Comment

        • AJK64
          Moderator
          • Jun 2018
          • 725

          #5
          Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

          Vacuum storage bags hold the balloons tightly together which can cause them to stick together and degrade faster.

          Comment

          • LoonerPlanet
            Senior Member
            • Nov 2018
            • 144

            #6
            Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

            At this point, I would be very reluctant to buy Tuftex balloons from anyone but our favorite dealers. I, too, have been burned with bags that contained old or poorly stored balloons. A mixed bag of colors can contain some colors that are old and others that are fine. I would be especially suspicious of Tuftex on sale or eBay specials.
            I store my balloons in a cool basement, in the dark, and in sealed bags. Nevertheless, I have had a few recent premature pops with stored Tuftex. I don't have that problem with my saved Q24's, which are much older. I believe that Tuftex--especially the ones made with the old formula latex--lack the additives that other manufacturers use to prevent degradation. I am slowly working through my Tuftex collection, waiting for the factory to crank out fresh 17" and 24" balloons.

            Comment

            • Meililoon
              aka lyckr
              • Sep 2014
              • 700

              #7
              Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

              Originally posted by LoonerHoax
              Since Tuftex were originally sold as outdoor balloons, my personal opinion is that they were designed to degrade faster because they expected some of them to go free. I've rarely had them last for more than a year or two without going bad. Especially the crystal colors.
              This has been my theory too. They don't want deflated or popped balloons lying around in nature for any longer than they want to, so the poor lifespan is very likely intended.
              That being said, the Tuf-Tex (crystal blue) that I bought recently feels very different to those I've had before. They felt a lot less stretchy, almost plasticy. Not sure if this will affect their aging. It's only been 3 months since I got them.

              Comment

              • BalloonFun
                Senior Member
                • Apr 2022
                • 222

                #8
                Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                Just try not to order balloons of any kind out of Amazon. I have read one too many horror stories of their condition once you receive them. Also, I work in an Amazon fulfillment center and can definitely attest to the sometimes horrid conditions.

                Best to do our favorites like Balloons United, Jenny Loons, Ballon QC, etc.

                Comment

                • Eduloon
                  Junior Member
                  • Feb 2020
                  • 19

                  #9
                  Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                  Originally posted by SusieDK
                  Hi,

                  My balloons seldom last very long, so I only rarely have trouble with degraded balloons. I do have an idea, but it is not based on practical experience, but purely theory:
                  Oxygen very often plays an important role when it comes to degrading processes, so maybe it would be an idea to remove as much oxygen from the packaged balloons as possible. As it is not good to compress the balloons it might be a good idea to replace the air in the bags with carbondioxide. Compress the bag to remove the air, then inflate it with carbondioxide and seal it off.
                  This just might help slowing down degrading. Off course it only works if you don’t open the bag and let air into it again, but I guess you wouldn’t do this when storing for a long time. Besides you can of course renew the carbondioxide before resealing an opened bag.

                  Again I have no experience with long time storing, but it might be worth trying it out.

                  Thank you for reading my posting.

                  Sincerely
                  Susie
                  Wow actually that sound like a pretty clever solution, im thinking on just using ziplog bags or maybe one of those meat vacum sealers, but i don't like the idea of the balloons being so compressed either. But the CO2 option sound pretty interesting, i did a quick research and didn't find any paper that said that CO2 could be bad to latex. The thing is how to get it and manage it carefully

                  Comment

                  • Eduloon
                    Junior Member
                    • Feb 2020
                    • 19

                    #10
                    Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                    Originally posted by LoonerPlanet
                    At this point, I would be very reluctant to buy Tuftex balloons from anyone but our favorite dealers. I, too, have been burned with bags that contained old or poorly stored balloons. A mixed bag of colors can contain some colors that are old and others that are fine. I would be especially suspicious of Tuftex on sale or eBay specials.
                    I store my balloons in a cool basement, in the dark, and in sealed bags. Nevertheless, I have had a few recent premature pops with stored Tuftex. I don't have that problem with my saved Q24's, which are much older. I believe that Tuftex--especially the ones made with the old formula latex--lack the additives that other manufacturers use to prevent degradation. I am slowly working through my Tuftex collection, waiting for the factory to crank out fresh 17" and 24" balloons.
                    That's a good point, for sure they do it asuming you will use all the balloons in one time, and then throw them away.

                    And yes I have heard about them changing the formula, that's not good.

                    Comment

                    • Eduloon
                      Junior Member
                      • Feb 2020
                      • 19

                      #11
                      Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                      Originally posted by BalloonFun
                      Just try not to order balloons of any kind out of Amazon. I have read one too many horror stories of their condition once you receive them. Also, I work in an Amazon fulfillment center and can definitely attest to the sometimes horrid conditions.

                      Best to do our favorites like Balloons United, Jenny Loons, Ballon QC, etc.
                      Im planing on buying them on LABalloons, have you ever known something about that store?
                      Also then i have to ship them with a courrier to south america.

                      Atleast i think this balloons could be a more recent batch, because they ship in bags of 50 units, not like the old ones that used to ship in bags of 72 units

                      Comment

                      • SusieDK
                        Senior Member
                        • Dec 2017
                        • 201

                        #12
                        Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                        Originally posted by Eduloon
                        Wow actually that sound like a pretty clever solution, im thinking on just using ziplog bags or maybe one of those meat vacum sealers, but i don't like the idea of the balloons being so compressed either. But the CO2 option sound pretty interesting, i did a quick research and didn't find any paper that said that CO2 could be bad to latex. The thing is how to get it and manage it carefully
                        CO2 should be very easy to get. It is used for many purposes: Fire extinguishers, sodastream machines, in connection with electro welding just to mention a few. I cannot imagine there being any restrictions - at least in Denmark there aren’t any, and it is not especially expensive. You can even make it yourself by adding water to baking powder, but as it will be mixed up with water vapor, which might not do anything good to balloons. It is a non-poisonous gas, and there are very few precautions needed. The only one I can think of is due to the fact that CO2 is quite a bit heavier than air, meaning that it will stay in enclosed cavities and thereby replace the air including the oxygen, sodon’t work with CO2 in a cellar or similar places, this might be dangerous.
                        Apart from this CO2 is completely harmless.
                        You can btw use other inactive (or very little active) gasses instead of CO2 like for example argon or nitrogen, but I think CO2 is less expensive and also easier to get.

                        That was quite a lot about very little. To my excuse I may add that I teach chemistry (among other things), so maybe I am a bit too much interested in such matters. If you get some CO2 you can btw try to inflate a balloon with it. This will result in a balloon that is quite heavy and behave somewhat funny compared to air-filled balloons.

                        Thank you for reading my posting.

                        Sincerely
                        Susie
                        Last edited by SusieDK; 06-07-2022, 05:24. Reason: Correcting bad language

                        Comment

                        • srob2
                          Senior Member
                          • Dec 2017
                          • 352

                          #13
                          Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                          Sulfur hexafluoride is 6 times the weight of air. If you use it to inflate a balloon and tie it off, the balloon will overinflate on its own. CO2 is 1.5 times as heavy as air - I wonder if the same trick will work, but never tried it.

                          Comment

                          • zhilman
                            Senior Member
                            • Dec 2018
                            • 147

                            #14
                            Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                            Originally posted by BalloonFun
                            Just try not to order balloons of any kind out of Amazon. I have read one too many horror stories of their condition once you receive them. Also, I work in an Amazon fulfillment center and can definitely attest to the sometimes horrid conditions.

                            Best to do our favorites like Balloons United, Jenny Loons, Ballon QC, etc.
                            No wonder my q16 and q18 stuffer that I bought from amazon pop sooooo easily. But I’m quite amazed my geo donut I bought from amazon is in good quality. That was so ironic.

                            Comment

                            • john1bl
                              Senior Member
                              • Jan 2014
                              • 114

                              #15
                              Re: Long term Balloon Storage - Tuftex 17

                              If you are going to pack your balloon in a gas why not use nitrogen? it is inert and is easy attained.

                              Comment

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