Quinko valves, anyone?

[stephk]

Hi!

I am wondering if anyone has any experience using these types of glueless type of replacement valves. Would love to know what the community thinks of these.
http://kite1replacement1valve1repair1no ... works-new/

colour-diagram-copy.png (149.74 KiB) Viewed 2539 times

Stephan

[Bushflyr]

Expensive, complicated, heavy, and more of a PITA to install than just regluing a standard valve. Having said that, it could be worth throwing a couple in the kite bag if you were going on a trip as emergency backups. Being able to replace a blown nipple on the beach without pulling the bladder could be a session saver.

[kiterocky]

With AQUASURE i repair in one minute....
One tube 15euro 1 kite....

[stephk]

The fact that it does not contain any components that can cure or dryout prematurely is nice. Tapes and Glue don't like hot cars for years at a time. No matter what manufacturer you get your spare valves from.
Weight: I am not sure if they are that much heavier than original valves and plastic plates like Cab kites have on their struts.

I am not too impressed by not having a valve plug... just bending the hose over to keep the air in seems like an afterthought.

what do you guys think?

[stephk]

With AQUASURE i repair in one minute....
One tube 15euro 1 kite....

Aquasure requires 24 hours to fully cure. That QUINKO product addresses. We sell Stormsure at http://www.KITEAID.com that also works... but it takes 2 hours to gel over and a full 24 hours to fully cure as per manufacturers recommendations.

[kiterocky]

Usually with aquasure i repair during the day and kite the day after.. they sell additive to fast the glue if u need..become solid in few hours..but never use

[Bushflyr]

I am not too impressed by not having a valve plug... just bending the hose over to keep the air in seems like an afterthought.

what do you guys think?

Good catch. I didn't notice that, folding a tube over for the main inflation point is kind of ghetto.

@kiterocky

I'm all for Aquaseal and regluing, but repairing a valve in 1 minute is WAY overly optimistic.

[stephk]

Has anyone used these though? Seems like the weak point of any valve the adhesive joint. This solves this problem. I see this product being very useful!

[stephk]

Has anyone used these though? Seems like the weak point of any valve is the adhesive joint. This solves this problem. I see this product being very useful!

[langfordja]

I ordered some of these and tested them in a bladder, outside of a kite. Disclaimer : I have not actually flown a kite with these valves yet. If anyone has used these and kited with them, let us know.

pros :
no glue, no tape (unlike the other expert glue-er posters, I hate glue and tape)
ready to inflate and leak test in minutes (it was easy to install once you see how it works)
repositionable, if a leak is found
cheaper than stick-on valves (if you don't count the international shipping)
reusable in other kites
ingenious design (I am an engineer, so this is attractive to me)

cons :
international shipping (maybe they will have a US distributer someday)
size (I will cover this issue, below)
struts only, due to the small valve opening diameter (deflating a main bladder through one of these would take a long time)
clamp method of sealing (unless you connect two of them in a one-pump configuration, I will kludge some kind of stopper)

other :
weight was not a factor for me (I don't think they weigh enough to matter)
The screw that locks the blue nut, actually locks by screwing into the threads of the purple valve stem, fouling the threads (not a big deal but it may cause problems if you re-use them)
I don't think the red flexible washers will survive too many removals and replacements (they look like they may tear after multiple uses).

They would not work for the small kite I was going to use them in, due to the small size of the strut bladder sleeve opening. Once assembled and installed in the bladder, these valves are rigid, so you can't bend them in order to pass them through an opening. I will try them in a larger kite and report back. One poster mentioned installing them without removing the bladder from the kite. I don't see how you could do that.

I also added and extra flexible washer to the design. One of the parts that comes with the valve is a red flexible washer/grommet with two equal halves, that sandwiches the bladder (half inside the bladder/half outside). I think the distance between these two halves is too large (greater than the bladder thickness) so I added my washer in between the two halves, to fill the gap and help seal.