Weakspots?

[jw66644]

Hi All,

Would you be able to tell me if these are dangerous defects?

The red balloon is a Q16 from a local balloon store. It has a small thin spot that's not that close to the drip point.

The blue balloon is a TT17 from the same store. I bought a variety of colours from them, and the majority of their TT17's all seem to have this same defect. I looks like they might be old and the latex is breaking down. On most of the, it's usually near the neck (as per this balloon), but some have these spotty streaks along the body too. Thoughts?






https://imgur.com/a/0U1Cekw

Thanks,

[zman21]

The defect on the red balloon seems not really dangerous to me. There is some kind of "ring" with thicker Latex around the spot which should stabilize the weak spot. I would inflate this one to its full size.

The blue one is interesting... I´ve never seen such defects before. No idea if you could trust this balloon, but I´m really curious about it!!! If I had a few of those, I would definitely try it out!
Do you have the chance of blowing it up from a safe distance? For example with a long hose or a remote controlled pump? I´d love to see how big they get

Have fun and don´t think too much about the defects

[LoonerHoax]

I get the spots like on the blue one all the time. Mainly in balloons that are stored where they are exposed to air. They can be extremely unpredictable. I have a bin on my headboard that I keep balloons and condoms in. When they sit in there for a month or so, they start getting those spots. If you are not into balloons popping, just throw them away.

[Casey88]

yeah the blue balloon spot is kinda weird, reminds me like leather form somehow lol

[Nopops4me]

I take it you're not referring to the larger circle on the red balloon, that is only the reflection from the light source.
I assume it's the small thinner spot with slightly thicker ring just underneath it.
I used to discard balloons with these until I blew a balloon up and found one. I took a risk and kept on blowing, expecting it to burst with every breath, but no, it kept going until the balloon was overinflated. I then noticed that the 'weakspot', as I thought, had evened out and hardly any sign of a problem at all. So enjoy your balloons to the full with this kind of mark. They'll be ok.
Whereas, the blue balloon with the rippled 'stretch' marks, I consider to be dodgy and only suitable for those who like the unexpected, at any time pop in a B2P situation. They are not for me, it's in the bin they go.

[loonerlee]

The blue balloon looks familiar to what I have seen in a bunch of gl500s I once purchased from dekoballon, I purchased about 10 gl500s that all had this weird weakspots, but not on ever popped and all inflated to the max rated size no problem.

[yet_another_aussie]

Thread dig but what what's going on with this one? it looks diseased. Reached just above rated size OK

[Casey88]

yeah the latex has broken down on that one, i wouldnt risk doing anything with it

[Nopops4me]

It's funny how this topic returned on the morning I blew up a 12" gold balloon to find a weak spot in the latex, one of those pinhead size thin spots. As I've found they are relatively safe, I kept blowing it up. Reassured by the fact it was in the 'drip point' and many times have I've seen on tv performers pushing a needle through the drip point and out the knot without the balloon bursting, so I took the risk and over inflated my balloon successfully tight.

[LoonerHoax]

Thread dig but what what's going on with this one? it looks diseased. Reached just above rated size OK

I run into that issue with crystal 17" Tuftex balloons that have aged. Also ran into that issue with a bunch of Q24's.