How often do you need to replace your double wrapped rubber bands?

[ChrisD2.0 2]

Hooknswoop

Rinse the rubber bands in soapy water, leaving the soap on them as they dry. This removes the powder they ship in, which reduces their life span and makes them a little slippery, extending their life a bit.

Hard openings are mostly caused by either not slowing down before deploying or the slider not being against the slider stops. Even a small decrease in speed can make a big difference. Putting your knees on the slider grommets is hard on your knees, hard on the slider material, and can move the grommets away from the slider stops.

If the canopy is staying in the bag until line stretch, the rubber bands breaking are not the cause of your hard openings.

Derek V

More than 90% of skydiving rubber bands come from this place:

http://www.keenerrubber.com/

If you leave soap on natural rubber bands that soap dries them out more quickly. There are some "natural oils," that prolong the life of rubber bands, but those natural products leave a residue on Nylon if improperly applied. That white stuff is a product designed to increase the life of those rubber bands. As well as keeping rubber bands out of the sun, hot and dry temperatures, and if they can be kept un-stretched, they will last longer. Even water dry's out and "crystalizes" natural rubber more than if they were left alone.

The people at Keener Rubber are more than happy to answere anyone's questions. BTW. (and they do not recommend washing in soap to remove the dry powder) This is from the manufacturer. I'm not looking for a discussion about this. Do your homework.

Brett Bickford Did Not Commit Suicide.

He is the victim of ignorance and faulty gear. AND as in the movie: "12 Angry Men," of an ignorant and callous jury.

[timski 80]

JTH

was refering to these beauties that I was using first and hard 2 hard openings, prior to switching over to double wrapped rubber bands which I am currently using. (please see attachement)

Thanks for all your comments.

Looks to me like a REALLY bad idea. IMO that is a recipe for out of sequence deployment, resulting in funky opening.

I double stow ALL four grommet's(elastic's) with a bag just like that. I do have slightly less bulk with a 7 cell... Perhaps think about a semi-stowless? To answer the question, I replace one of the two main locking stows every 5 jumps on average. "The cost of doing business".

[LeeroyJenkins 3]

timski

***was refering to these beauties that I was using first and hard 2 hard openings, prior to switching over to double wrapped rubber bands which I am currently using. (please see attachement)

Thanks for all your comments.

Looks to me like a REALLY bad idea. IMO that is a recipe for out of sequence deployment, resulting in funky opening.

I double stow ALL four grommet's(elastic's) with a bag just like that. I do have slightly less bulk with a 7 cell... Perhaps think about a semi-stowless? To answer the question, I replace one of the two main locking stows every 5 jumps on average. "The cost of doing business".

Why would it lead to an out of sequence deployment?

I have those bungees on my d-bag, granted I only use 2 of them but have never had any issues. Its a semi stowless bag, it would be insane to see one of those bungees come undone before the lines come out of the line pocket.