Company Ultra Hi-Float with Pump Balloon Treatment, 16 oz, Multicolor …

In preparation for my daughter's upcoming 5th birthday, I decided that I would test out this Ultra-Hifloat at our Super Bowl party. I followed the directions as included in the box, with two minor exceptions. First, the amount I put into the latex balloon was a little less than the guide recommends. In this case I uses 3/4 depression to fill an 11" balloon versus the recommended 1 full depression. And two, I did make sure to get a little into the neck of the balloon too (the instructions advise you not too). This last point did make it a little difficult to tie the balloon (slippery), but we managed just fine. You do have to inflate the balloons quite well to ensure adequate rise. I did have 1 that I under filled and the kids played with it all day, batting it around the house. That was until the Hifloat dried on the inside and the balloon started to rise! Now I would normally awake to a balloon graveyard the following morning (maybe even that night). The site of shriveled, pathetic balloons and wasted helium used to irritate me. Today I come down, and they are all still flying high, taught with helium, and show zero signs of weakening yet. This Ultra-Hifloat states it will make helium filled balloons float up to 25 times longer...I don't know if I will get 25 times longer, but so far we are on the right track. Amazing product. Will definitely use for my daughter's birthday coming up in a few months.EDIT: 2/12/12 Update - Simply Amazing. Exactly 1 week later, of 11 standard latex balloons inflated, 10 of them are still flying like the day were inflated. Midweek, the one that isn't, literally deflated before my eyes. I can't figure that one out. But the rest are still up and the kids are enjoying dragging them around the house. I will continue to update this review to give others an idea on how well this product continues to work.EDIT: 2/19/12 Update - Seriously! This stuff is now outlasting the Mylar balloons. 10 latex balloons still full and show no signs of losing helium. The 2 Mylars on the other hand are now about 1/2 full. Ultra Hi-Float is crazy good stuff!EDIT: 2/26/12 Update - OK. Whomever said this stuff doesn't work, doesn't know how to properly use it. While the 2 Mylar balloons dropped into the trash this week, I am staring at 10 full-filled latex helium balloons that are now starting to get on our nerves. They simply refuse to die. They've been up so long even the kids are bored with them. My wife asked if she could pop them so we could get rid of them. When has that ever happened with your latex balloons? I said no. I'll keep you posted. 3 weeks in and going strong.EDIT: 3/4/12 Update - Week 4 complete. The Hi-Float has started to crack and break off in some of the balloons leading to some rattling in them. As a result of the cracking, you can see that the lift to the balloons is starting to weaken and in fact 2 of the latex balloons are only flying at half height right now. I assume more will follow quickly this week. Still 8 balloons out of 11 flying at full height 4 weeks is pretty darn amazing.A little math - I've never had a untreated 9-11" latex balloon stay afloat for more than 12 hours at any one time, but it is of the general consensus that a traditional 11" latex balloon is estimated to remain afloat with helium for 18 to 24 hours. Ultra Hi-Float's guarantee of 25 times that time would equate to a staggering 18.75 - 24 days of rise. And here we are at 28 days, with roughly three quarters of my balloons still floating high! All I can say is it does work, and it does work well.EDIT: 3/11/12 Update - I can't believe I am still updating this review. I counted the balloons today that are still at full height and there are 7. We lost the 2 that were not quite as full last week plus 1 more. The balloons have been up so long at this point, I barely notice them anymore. Week five complete with an amazing 35 days of rise.EDIT: 3/18/12 Update - Well we are officially down to 3 balloons. But hey that's 3 latex balloons still floating 6 weeks after first inflation! I will say that the quality of the latex balloon must play a large part too, because we did our daughter's birthday this weekend and within the week we've already had 3 to 4 fall and I did the exact same protocol as I did in the original post. At this point though I'm so sick of balloons. I'm ready to pop them all just so I can stop editing this post.EDIT: 3/25/12 Update - Down to 2 balloons at 7 weeks. We've actually removed the remaining to to the basement since they seem so out of place. I mean they are from a Super Bowl Party. I think one of them is starting to falter so hopefully in one to 2 weeks, this review will be over. I never expected it to go this long.Late Additional Updates:EDIT: 4/1/12 Update - Down to 1 at 8 weeks.EDIT: Between 4/8 (9 weeks) and 4/15 (10 weeks) it seems the the last holdout fell. Today is 4/21 and I don't recall seeing floating earlier this week. I found it 3/4 to full will helium, resting on the basement floor. It was banished to the basement because we just couldn't stand to look at them anymore. Too funny. Who would have ever thought?So in closing 75% of the balloon made it 28 days. And a few held on for 8-10 weeks. Overall a truly remarkable product. But buyers beware. The effect generated by the Hi-Float is STRONGLY correlated to the quality of the balloons that you use. It can only help poorly made balloons so much. But it can drive you batty with good balloons as they never seem to want to die!

Did its job. Before getting this, balloons were falling within hours. I needed it to last at least 6 hours so I bought this. The balloons held up for days. Very easy application.

Review for hifloat, I did my birthday balloons on Monday morning, it is now Thursday morning in the photo, still flying high, it took me about 3 or 4 balloons to get the amount right, it's a little less than the package says, literally just enough to wet the inside of the balloons, I will absolutely use this every single time now...

Weighs helium balloons down so they won’t float at all. Waste of money.

When organizing a kid's birthday party, you pretty much need balloons. It costs about $24 to get a helium tank and a bunch of balloons. For $14, however, you can make those balloons last much longer. The trick here, is to buy a jug of Hi-Float.Hi-Float is a plasticizer that you squirt into a balloon to create a layer of plastic which is much less permeable to helium than the latex of a balloon. The idea is that you'll squirt the plasticizer into balloon, massage the balloon a bit to spread it, then fill the balloon with helium, tie it off, and then you'll end up with balloons that'll last about as long as the mylar balloons you can buy for $1 each. Each 16oz container of Hi-Float will provide enough coating to use 2 of the standard tanks you can acquire at Target.There are a few issues that you have to work through to use Hi-Float successfully:You have to stick the nozzle of the Hi-Float all the way into the balloon. Otherwise, the plasticizer might not coat the balloon evenly, and you'll get early deflation. This happened the first time I tried it.The plasticizer itself adds weight to the balloon. So while you might have gotten used to filling the balloon to a certain level before it'll float, you have to add more helium than before to do so. This caught me out the next couple of times.Because of this, the standard helium tank will fill fewer balloons than it would if you didn't have the plasticizer installed. However, those balloons will float for quite a bit longer.The plasticizer also has the effect of darkening the insider of the balloon. If the balloons used to be closer to being translucent, they will now become quite a bit more opaque. Test a few balloons first if color matters to you. (It didn't matter to me or the kids who liked balloons)All in all, it's relatively cheap compared to the helium tanks, and if your kids keep asking for balloons every time the previous one deflates, this will make your intervals between helium tanks much longer. Recommended.