Super balloons... or super helium?

[lellolicious]

I'm just baffled. I attended a local Baby Loves Disco event with my son last Saturday (eight days ago). We came home with four helium balloons. They're not the silver mylar kind, and they're no bigger or different than any other helium balloon we've been given at free kids events. Yet, these balloons are *still* up on the ceiling, over a week later. How is this possible?? It's not static, because if you pull them down to the floor, they float all the way back up. One of them even has a tiny plastic guy that my son tied to the end of the ribbon.

The pack of latex balloons we bought at Party City and filled with a disposable helium tank a few years ago were barely up in the air by the time his party was over, and i thought maybe we just didn't fill them enough. Even if we had, I've never had helium balloons not fall by the next morning. Is it some kind of special balloon, or are they filled with something other than helium?

[trales]

Hydrogen is the only thing lighter than air that is a gas on the periodic table. Air has a molar mass of 28.97, nitrogen is 28, helium is 8g/mole, hydrogen is 2 g/mole. Every other gas is heavier. It must have been either tied tighter or less leaky is some way. I can't imagine filling a balloon with Hydrogen. You can check, if you put a match against it, it blows up into a large fireball (I do this for my students).

[Tondi G]

They have some stuff that you can put into latex balloons that make them float longer... but I've never had one last more than a day! WOW

[Georgia]

We have one of those mysterious super balloons right now too. DD went to a bday party last Saturday and that balloon is still going strong. She just went to another yesterday afternoon and those two balloons are sitting on the floor. And they look pretty much identical. I hadn't thought about it until reading your post, but I've never seen a latex balloon last longer than a day or two. Spooky ;).

[octmom]

They have some stuff that you can put into latex balloons that make them float longer... but I've never had one last more than a day! WOW

Yeah, I think it is some sort of powder. DS pnce had a balloon with something added to it and it lasted much longer than usual.

[shawnandangel]

I worked for american greetings corp. for five years. The stuff we used to make the balloons last longer looked like a white glue that you pumped into the balloon before you blew it up. It didn't make them last eight days though! That's just crazy!

[lellolicious]

Mystery solved! I wrote to the site that gave out the balloons (Suzysaid.com) and asked them about them. I didn't expect them to write back on a sunday evening, but they did, and here's what they said:

"I'm glad to hear that your son was able to enjoy the balloon after the event.

We had them filled at Jonathan's Balloons. Jonathan has a special coating that he puts in the balloons before he inflates them. It's an extra charge but as you experienced, it really extends the life of the balloon. I'm sure he'll appreciate hearing your story when you go on."

I googled it, and it looks like they probably used something called Ultra Hi-Float: http://www.hi-float.com.

So there ya go - cool!

[Thatchermom]

I used to fill balloons for a business my brother had while I was in college, but I've never heard of hi-float doing that well in latex! We did have our own super balloon last winter, though it was mylar. We wrapped a Mickey balloon in a box on Christmas Eve to give to DS to let him know we were taking him to Disneyworld...it was still floating on his birthday in September! We just recently gave in and tossed it, but by now it was like a member of the family.