The purchase is the easy part. Here is what the first week looks like, so nothing surprises you.
Day one: the box
It arrives as a single carton, 60 by 26 by 3 inches for the common sizes. Inside: the balloon, your choice of a 120-foot tether line or a 105-foot metallic pennant line, and a fill hose if you ordered one at $42.
Open it and read the instructions before you need them. That sounds obvious and it is the step people skip.
Day one, also: ring the gas supplier
If you have not already. Search for welding gas or industrial gas locally, about $300 per 200 cubic foot cylinder.
Ask about cylinder rental terms on that first call. They will also brief you on handling: keep it upright, keep it strapped, cap on when idle, fill somewhere ventilated. Let them.
This is the step that causes last-minute failures, not shipping.
First inflation: allow an hour
It takes some reading and it is slower than you expect. Do it on a calm day, not before an event.
After that first time it is about ten minutes and one person for the common sizes. Genuinely. But the first one is not.
Days two to seven: watch it
You lose about one percent of the gas a day. Nothing dramatic happens; the envelope softens slightly and the balloon sits a little lower on the tether.
Look at it from the road each morning. When it stops looking taut, that is your top-off signal. For most owners that lands somewhere between day three and day seven.
Judge it in the warm part of the day. Cold contracts the gas and makes a perfectly full balloon look soft.
And the one rule
Check the forecast. Over 25 miles per hour, bring it in before the wind arrives.
Do that from week one and it becomes habit. Customers who keep the habit report fourteen years from the same balloon.
Ask for a quote. Call 1-800-791-1445 or email sales@arizonaballoon.com and tell us the size and whether you want it printed.
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