Fixing De-laminated Valve

[Alton]

Moved these posts from Westerly Saturday?

[Alton]

Unbelievable ... after repairing my 12m de-laminated valve, today my 7m kite developed a leak for the first time. Again it's the inflate valve but this time I discovered an air pocket that creped through the seam. I decided to fill the air pocket (and seam) with 3M 5200 Fast Cure. Fingers crossed.

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[Alton]

Ever have your dump valve start tearing at the tab? I'm going to see if 3M 5200 Fast Cure can fix it ...

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[decman_r]

Hey Alton
It may not be a coincidence that all your bladders from your Blades are leaking. I know the person you got the kites from and if they have spent a lot of time in a hot car this can cause problems down the road. Most of my kites I have bought new or almost new and never had problems with leaking bladders over ten years of kiting. I even have a kite from 2006 with lots of use but still hold air like the day I bought it. However I bought an Ozone Edge from the same person you bought your kites from and I have already fixed two leaks very similar to yours.

[Alton]

Hey Alton
It may not be a coincidence that all your bladders from your Blades are leaking. I know the person you got the kites from and if they have spent a lot of time in a hot car this can cause problems down the road. Most of my kites I have bought new or almost new and never had problems with leaking bladders over ten years of kiting. I even have a kite from 2006 with lots of use but still hold air like the day I bought it. However I bought an Ozone Edge from the same person you bought your kites from and I have already fixed two leaks very similar to yours.

I doubt if it's the previous owner's fault because my 12m and 7m are from different owners. In fact the 7m had never been used by the previous owner because he was 250+ lbs and never had enough wind.

Actually I am more guilty of leaving kites in a hot car because the time I spend at the beach is well above a regular kiter. 89 sessions at Squamish in 2015 is a lot of time in a hot car.

However, I suspect 2013 Blade Triggers may have had manufacturing quality issues with bonding the inflate valve to the bladder. I won't be surprised if my 9m Blade Trigger will soon develop a leaky bladder at the inflate valve.

Slappy/Angus - did you have any issues with your 2013 Blade Trigger inflate valves?

[Alton]

Stress tested my 7m repair under load at Locust today. After 2.5 hours of aggressive riding no air leaked from the bladder. Looks like 3M 5200 works well to seal the leak.

[Slappy]

Slappy/Angus - did you have any issues with your 2013 Blade Trigger inflate valves?

I had my 2013 Trigger 10m inflate valve crack so I replaced it with a u-stick. That lasted about a year then started to leak so I replaced that u-stick with another and it's still holding.

I haven't had the valves fail at the glue yet.

My 10m dump valve is tearing like yours, I'm just really careful how I pull it now.

[Alton]

My 10m dump valve is tearing like yours, I'm just really careful how I pull it now.

3M 5200 appears to be holding my 10m dump valve tab but I'm still careful how I pull it out. In fact, I'm careful how I pull out any of my dump valves on every kite to avoid tearing the tabs.

[Alton]

Successfully stress tested my 12m leak fix at Squamish today. After 2 hours under load, the bladder showed no signs of any leak - no hiss between the struts and main bladder.

Using Tear Aid type A as an interface between the de-laminated valve (with 3M 5200 Fast Cure) and bladder seems to be the answer. Hoping this fix will last for many years.

[juandesooka]

Probably a dumb question, but just to be sure ... you are using the adhesive to glue valve bottom to the top of the tear aid ... then applying to bladder just by taking off tear aid backing and sticking on. Correct? (not putting more adhesive in between valve bottom and bladder too)

Any idea if kitefix and 3M 5200 Fast Cure are indeed the same? I have kitefix already...don't have a westmarine handy, appears they have closed all Van Isle stores. Maybe a local boat shop will have it