I have always inflated my with the rubber pump and left it inflated for 3 days before sucking the air back out and re-packing it. On this occasion the raft wasn't inflated. We performed a good visual of the entire raft and couldn't find any deterioration of the fabric. The moisture didn't appear to do any damage other than the foam and batteries. The batteries concerned us but no apparent damage there either.

We discussed inflating it but the decision was not to based on the visual inspection. I unpacked an old Avon a few years ago and discovered a completely deteriorated raft. When I inflated it using the bottle (the raft appeared wasted) it still held air for a few hours and only needed a few pumps every so often to keep it fully inflated. Wouldn't have liked needing to use it in a storm though.

According to rule #1 he'll never need the raft anyway right?