A club member donated a 20-year old chute to our club recently.

It turns out that the 20-year limit varies by manufacturer.

Our chute was from Strong, and we sent it back to them to have it repacked and inspected. They found and fixed a few problems with it.

The shipping was expensive, and the repacking/inspection was more expensive than our local guy. But, I figured that the manufacturer's expertise was worth it to make sure a chute that had been in a closet for a decade was airworthy. And it was airworthy when we got it back.

When I was doing the research for this donated chute, I also contacted National along with Strong. National have a different approach to dealing with older chutes. Also, it's possible that both companies have different rules for different models. It was helpful to email photos of the parachute's placard and logbook with my inquiry. So, I recommend checking with the manufacturer and see what they say about it -- they're the experts, not me.

The point is that mailing the chute off to the manufacturer to be inspected and repacked is an option. It's not the cheapest or fastest option, but it has some benefits as well. I'm likely to use this option for the first repack the next time get my hands on a used chute. After that, I'll use our local guy.