Valve Delaminating/Repair - 2009 Best HP Nemesis

[edt]

Most of the times when I get a ton of tiny holes it's because I stuck the kite in a bramble or on sea grass. Sea grass will tear new holes in your kite every time you do a self launch if you're not careful. You find one hole, patch it, then find the next hole, seems like you never make progress. It's not necessarily because there are new holes, it's just that after you patch one you find a new hole. You want to pump the kite up as hard as you can 10 psi if you can press down that hard, and then dunk the kite underwater, find every single hole. When you pull the bladder, look for holes, put it back in, a lot of times those tiny holes don't show up because you can't pump the kite as hard with the bladder sitting outside of the kite. I love the idea of blaming foreign objects inside the kite, but usually that's not the problem. I'm always imagining that a piece of glass got inside the kite and causes all the holes, but pretty much every time I have 50 holes in a kite the reason is because I self launched where there is sea grass or I crashed it in a bramble. Then you patch 1 hole, 2 holes, 3 holes, it seems like there are new holes but it's really just because you stuck it in a bramble. Good luck finding out the cause and patching all the holes. It's sometimes hard to find the cause of these things. Let us know what you figure out. I recall that your kite is different from the original poster so I'm not sure how old it is exactly.

[Flyboy]

Most of the times when I get a ton of tiny holes it's because I stuck the kite in a bramble or on sea grass. Sea grass will tear new holes in your kite every time you do a self launch if you're not careful. You find one hole, patch it, then find the next hole, seems like you never make progress. It's not necessarily because there are new holes, it's just that after you patch one you find a new hole. You want to pump the kite up as hard as you can 10 psi if you can press down that hard, and then dunk the kite underwater, find every single hole. When you pull the bladder, look for holes, put it back in, a lot of times those tiny holes don't show up because you can't pump the kite as hard with the bladder sitting outside of the kite. I love the idea of blaming foreign objects inside the kite, but usually that's not the problem. I'm always imagining that a piece of glass got inside the kite and causes all the holes, but pretty much every time I have 50 holes in a kite the reason is because I self launched where there is sea grass or I crashed it in a bramble. Then you patch 1 hole, 2 holes, 3 holes, it seems like there are new holes but it's really just because you stuck it in a bramble. Good luck finding out the cause and patching all the holes. It's sometimes hard to find the cause of these things. Let us know what you figure out. I recall that your kite is different from the original poster so I'm not sure how old it is exactly.

I agree that tiny holes often don't show up until the bigger holes have been patched & then only under higher pressure. My kite was a new kite, used previously perhaps 2 or 3 times with no problems. I frequently self launch & self land, which occasionally results in the kite bouncing around across the beach. I haven't had a punctured bladder in several years.

In this case, I simply pumped the kite up, flipped it over - no bouncing the kite across the beach ... & it deflated in a matter of a few minutes . Sharp spurs are a known hazard on Hatteras & I've punctured bladders there in the past, but on this occasion I didn't notice any obvious pointy stuff on the beach. I could understand a couple of holes in a single spot (which is what it originally appeared to be), but the multiple holes seems so odd to me, that I am searching for other possible explanations. What I definitely don't want is to put the new bladder in & immediately puncture it ... that would be extremely demoralizing.

[edt]

sounds like a bad valve to me. little holes generally will hold pressure for a half hour or so even if there are a lot of them. I would pump the kite up as hard as possible and dunk it. Mark on the outside of the kite every place you see air coming out.

[jmatbastos]

The valve donuts left residual adhesive on both the valve and bladder. I was able to get it all off with Goo Gone. No problem, just took some time.

Was wondering if Aquaseal is better than Stormsure? Or 3M 5200. Sounds like most use Aquaseal. BTW I used Aquaseal a few years ago on a 2006 Waroo but sold it so I don't know how it held up.

Aquaseal and Stormsure are the same thing...

And you can get 20 double-sided adhesive disks for the price of 5 kiteaid valve donuts at soles2dance (http://www.soles2dance.com/mobile/Produ ... 9474-disks) and they are even better...

[jmatbastos]

kiteaid valve donuts suck! Even rubbing the bottom of the valve and the bladder with 600 grit sandpaper the donut doesnt stick strong enough!
Either use a self-stick valve with Tear-Aid type A stuff,
or reuse your valve buying a Tear-Aid type A roll (http://www.tear-aid.co.uk/index.php?mai ... ducts_id=8), cut a circle of the required size, and glue your valve to it using polyurethane glue Aquasure/Stormsure.

[stephk]

Hi jmatbastos,

Sorry that you had a bad experience with our Valve Donuts. As of May 2018, we have changed supplier for the adhesives discs with much improvement in the versatility of bladders that it sticks to. It seemed like the older Donuts had issues with certain type of bladder materials. From what I recall, you had sent us an email and we had sent you free tubes of valve glue for your troubles. I hope this solved your valve issue in the end.

Regards,

Stephan