Hot in the City - the life of a balloon!

The endless summer of 2020

Coronavirus has cancelled a lot of things this year for everyone. Thankfully, one great thing that it hasn’t got its dirty little hands on is our sun! Mother Nature has treated us to an already long and at times, really quite hot summer. This in itself has been a welcomed positive in a deep, deep, sea of negatives and unforeseen challenges.

Another positive is that most of us are now able to entertain a few special guests in our gardens, meaning that we can take full advantage of the glorious weather we are being treated to. Those special birthdays, anniversaries, barbecues and small social gatherings are what we are living for right now and making them extra special seems to be the order of the year as we mourn anything more glamorous than the arrival of some fancy new garden furniture!

How to make that latex last!

Naturally, the relationship with our clients is always balloon related and of course at a time when we are seeing the number of external displays soar, we are keen to educate on how to make your balloons live a little longer and look a little better under the heat of the midday sun. Some of our clients order a fully assembled display, whilst others opt to tackle the construction of the balloons themselves with our DIY kits. Whatever you choose, we thought that it would be useful to share a little of our expert knowledge and advice with you so that you can ensure you get the best results for your hard earned cash.

The most important thing to remember is that balloons may not last as well outdoors as they will indoors, but this doesn’t mean to say that they won’t serve you well and there are a few tips and tricks that can earn your display a little more longevity.

Top tips

We have set out below some pointers to take into consideration when ordering balloons for an outdoor display:

Avoid dark colours where possible – dark colours soak up the heat of the sun a lot quicker than light colours will, so it’s worth considering this when deciding on your scheme. Ultimately white is your best friend in hot, sunny conditions but pastels will also serve you well.
Avoid using helium if possible – extreme heat can accelerate the diffusion process thus speeding up the escape of helium and in turn reducing your “float time”. Shade is your friend when placing helium balloons outdoors.
Underinflate, underinflate, underinflate – this is crucial. Professionals never inflate, for example, an 11” balloon to its full 11” capacity; they will inflate fully and then deflate slightly by a few inches and use larger balloons to gain the sizes required. This will give your balloon some extra elasticity and breathing space, resulting in a more robust balloon, much less vulnerable to bursting of natural causes (aka the death of a balloon, which must be avoided at all costs!).
If you are being particularly advanced and using poles or framework to attach your balloons to and it is dark in colour, it’s always worth covering this with either white duck tape or white modelling balloons if you have them, prior to attaching the rest of your balloons. The latter will be biodegradable along with the rest of your high quality latex balloons supplied by Balloonista so this is the preferable route. This will keep the metal a lot cooler and prevent any unnecessary balloon melting!
If you are feeling ambitious and fancy your skills at a bit of double stuffing, this can be a good trick to bolstering the top layer of your display or arch, by creating a slightly tougher shield to the rest of your display beneath.
Never douse – watering your balloons to cool them down is never a good idea, and keeping them out of the rain is! So where possible, try to plan for your external balloons to be in a covered area. Wet latex can become sticky and if the balloons stick together they can weaken.

It's only natural!

Latex is a natural material and it will expand and contract in heat, there is no avoiding this. Your balloons will also oxidise, but this is not necessarily a bad thing because it just gives them a matt, almost velvety appearance, which we think is actually quite luxurious!

Ultimately as a company we only supply the highest quality balloons, but even we cannot prevent the elements from affecting their lifespan. We can advise and warn of the dangers but we simply cannot make any guarantees. But always remember, we are on hand for advice so just give us a call!

We always strive to make our clients happy and we hope that this little latex discussion will go some way to explaining the variants when using balloons outdoors. They still look amazing and will most likely last almost as long as they would indoors but we just don’t want any disappointment creeping in if they die a little sooner. The good news is, something we are always banging on about, that all of our latex is natural and biodegradable so you can dispose of your popped balloons in your general waste in the secure knowledge that all of those little dead balloon bodies will have disappeared from landfill in around 6 months.

Oh one last thing – please tie them down securely, the last thing we want is balloons escaping from us, the naughty little mites!

So bring on the summer parties! In fact, why not go and have a read of our Summer Party Blog too?

Enjoy!

Best wishes,

The Balloonista Team