Last year my buddy and I went on an ocean crossing from Maui to Molokai and back, and the skipper of our chase boat recommended that we carry some personal flares, just in case. We purchased a package of four of these flares, and thankfully didn't need to use them at the time.

Later on we tested all four of the flares, and one fired ~20' (not the advertised 450'), and the other three were complete duds!

The flares were supposed to be waterproof, but just to keep them safe, we had stored them in new watertight cellphone bags (which have kept our phones dry on several occasions). I didn't inspect my buddy's flares, but he said that his had stayed dry. We carefully inspected my flares, and they were perfectly dry and had never been exposed to any moisture, and yet both of mine were duds.

I'm shocked that anyone would in good conscience still sell this product -- they are useless, and worse than that, misleading!

A failure rate of between 75% and 100% in a product designed to save your live is unconscionable!

The flares we purchased had an expiration date of September 2010, and we tested them between July 2007 and July 2008.