Ozone leading edge bladder failures?

[leightong]

A number of riders (6) at my local beach switched to Ozone Edge v9's after trying mine... Most bought quivers of 3 kites... Some 4... All of us had bladder and LE issues. 3 riders have switched back to their original brands due to the constant leaking bladders, 2 riders have experience blow outs on the LE next to radial seams. Fresh out the bag 8m Edge with leaking bladder and a reluctance from Ozone to ship a new bladder without finding and photographing leak, removing bladder to photograph leak, and filling in documentation before it would be considered. I now have V10 Edges which have been without any issues to date.. I love flying them but I can understand why local riders lost faith with ozone and switched brands

[Pemba]

I've had valves coming off of Naish, Cabrinha (few), Slingshot, North, Best, Core, Airush, RRD, Crazy Fly, Epic and probably others that I can't think of now. I actually bought a flysurfer because of it. Just not on.. Ozone.. Bought the Ozone second hand, used it for years, until the cloth was really "thin" (even tore mid air). At some point the valve actually broke off as somebody else mentioned earlier. When I tried to get it off (hot water etc) to replace, I actually gave up and ended up gluing a another valve over the broken one.. I've always been amazed, gluing them with aquasure seems to work so well, why don't they produce them like that in the factories ?

[Dowbblering]

Hey had the v8 version which as i was walking to the beach with kite in air went bang. Blew a hole in the fabric as well, was still under warranty but had to agree to pay $450 to get upgraded to the v9. V9 was about 10 months old with little use. Same thing pumped up kite. Hadnt made it to the water yet when bang kite went down. This time didnt blow a hole in the fabric just a hole in the centre strut bladder right next to the leading edge where it sits off the ground and cant be touched by shells sticks etc. contacted shop as last time went straight to ozone and shop said i should of contacted them. They were not too interested after several back and forth emails so decided since just the bladder i would repair it myself with the local repair guy. Down to the beach inflate and it popped in a dif spot. Got the shits opened a new kite i had still in the packaging and used that for the next few months but going away soon so decided to try and fix again. Put a few patches on, inflated to test, all looked good then a couple of mins later bang. Massive new hole blew out. Have heard soooo many problems about ozone bladders since unfortunately. Think ill b waiting till they use aluula material to upgrade again. Will have to buy a new centre strut but they should have just done this in my opinion. Cost em prob 20 bucks n my kite would of been useable. Im disappointed to be honest with ozone bladders and how they handle it when u have a warranty issue especially when would prob cost wm less than 20 bucks to fix.

[Qman]

I have learnt the hard and expensive lesson with Ozone. It's pretty pointless having a great kite, if you can't use it because of bladder problems.

Ozone are missing a point of difference for marketing, coming from a paragliding background, where I would imagine equipment quality is critical.

[Dowbblering]

Yah unfortunately I’m now on to my 3rd ozone kite that has had bladder issues in less than a yr. of use. Seems my ozone kites last about 9 months then crap out. Bout to try n sort out my ozone c4 now as well.

[mr_daruman]

HI, this is Iain from Ozone. Just to clear up some of the posts. We do have our own factory, we do make our own bladders but we purchase the valves from a supplier, we do not have injection moulding machines in the factory. The valves are ultrasonically welded onto the bladder material and should not peel off. They are not stuck on, they are fused onto the material.

In the factory, we do pump up all our bladders for 4 hours after they are made and then the kites are pumped and left for 24 hours after the bladders are put into the kites. Any leaking bladder is changed for a new one, we never repair them.

It is true that we have had customers that have had some issues with their bladders, the issue is mainly due to an odd plastic infection that is usually kicked off in hot and humid countries or if left in the boot of a car for a long time in the summer. The infection creates small holes in the valve and it goes white and can leak. We found the source of this issue and changed the process at supplier level earlier this year, there have been no issues since then. We are reacting to these cases one by one as they account for less than 1% of all the kites out there.

We are reacting to any kite with this issue by shipping new bladders from our factory to the shop, school or distributor where the kites were bought.

If you have a leaky bladder there could be one of 2 things. The first is the more likely that it is from a puncture on the beach, this can happen to all of us, the second is that there is an issue with the material. If it is the latter then take the kite to the shop where you bought it and the warranty will be dealt with very quickly by us, we are on it with customer service and as we are all riders we know how frustrating this is. The shop will be shipped a new bladder set from the factory.

I hope that this helps to clear up any questions. Cheers Iain

In Okinawa Japan were its basically humid and hot most of the year I haven't met a single person flying Ozone that hasn't had their leaking bladder changed. Sometimes on nearly brand new hardly used kites. The hard black plastic tube which links struts just snaps. I have probably two dozens pictures across the whole kite range from 2015 to 2019.

It looks as this has been fixed for the 2021 kites. Newly designed strut links. Hopefully.
Got the new EnduroV3, love the kite but and the bag looks even cheaper this year though.
My main gripe with ozone kites are always the stupidly small bags to kite size ratio, and I don't mean the Alpha kites sac. Flimsy zipper to boot. They are even smaller/tighter this year. Yea its light but an incredible pain to fit your kite in. Compressing your kite every session to fit that tiny space is asking for trouble. And that army green color basically camouflages your bag...At an average price of over 2000$ Ozone should provide a sturdy, plenty of space, high quality bag AND that flimsy super light bag 0/10.

The EnduroV3 is amazing. Kept that great low end smooth power but drastically improved for strong winds. I quickly felt overpowered on the V2 while no big deal with the V3. The kite is super silent, no noise in hard turns/quick depower. Its weird, the kites LOOK bigger for the given size compared to V2 but feel smaller. Strut diameter has decreased. The wave setting is incredible this year, nice and powerful pivot turn, it feels like a Reo on steroids. The new leading edge fabric feels sturdy. I like the new colors but hate the new graphics. 9/10

[mr_daruman]

HI, this is Iain from Ozone. Just to clear up some of the posts. We do have our own factory, we do make our own bladders but we purchase the valves from a supplier, we do not have injection moulding machines in the factory. The valves are ultrasonically welded onto the bladder material and should not peel off. They are not stuck on, they are fused onto the material.

In the factory, we do pump up all our bladders for 4 hours after they are made and then the kites are pumped and left for 24 hours after the bladders are put into the kites. Any leaking bladder is changed for a new one, we never repair them.

It is true that we have had customers that have had some issues with their bladders, the issue is mainly due to an odd plastic infection that is usually kicked off in hot and humid countries or if left in the boot of a car for a long time in the summer. The infection creates small holes in the valve and it goes white and can leak. We found the source of this issue and changed the process at supplier level earlier this year, there have been no issues since then. We are reacting to these cases one by one as they account for less than 1% of all the kites out there.

We are reacting to any kite with this issue by shipping new bladders from our factory to the shop, school or distributor where the kites were bought.

If you have a leaky bladder there could be one of 2 things. The first is the more likely that it is from a puncture on the beach, this can happen to all of us, the second is that there is an issue with the material. If it is the latter then take the kite to the shop where you bought it and the warranty will be dealt with very quickly by us, we are on it with customer service and as we are all riders we know how frustrating this is. The shop will be shipped a new bladder set from the factory.

I hope that this helps to clear up any questions. Cheers Iain

In Okinawa Japan were its basically humid and hot most of the year I haven't met a single person flying Ozone that hasn't had their leaking bladder changed. Sometimes on nearly brand new hardly used kites. The hard black plastic tube which links struts just snaps. I have probably two dozens pictures across the whole kite range from 2015 to 2019.

It looks as this has been fixed for the 2021 kites. Newly designed strut links. Hopefully.
Bags looks even cheaper this year though. My main gripe with ozone kites are the stupidly small bags. Flimsy zipper to boot. They are even smaller/tighter this year. Yea its light but an incredible pain to fit your kite in. Compressing your kite every session to fit that tiny space is asking for trouble. And that army green color basically camouflages your bag...At an average price of over 2000$ Ozone should provide a sturdy, plenty of space, high quality bag AND that flimsy super light bag 0/10.

[JTKiter]

Just to throw in my experience with Ozone kites: many years, hundreds of sessions, never an issue with bladder failure or valve leakage. I live in a coolish place and I solo launch in a grassy area. So, no sand and not much extended sun or heat exposure--maybe that's the secret? I fly Ozone Enduros (v1) and Edges (v8). FWIW I've never had a bladder or leakage issue with my kites from other manufacturers either. In fact, I'm amazed at how good almost all kites are from all manufacturers.....

I'm not saying that Ozone never has a glitch or that these leakage problems aren't real, I'm just saying it hasn't happened to me.

With all that said, it's a total drag to pump up your kite and have it blow or start leaking. And then trying to get it fixed or replaced is a huge hassle.

[krivo]

Flying Ozone kites since 2011 and must have gone through at least 20 kites over the years.
Currently on 8m Reo v5, 9m C4 v6, 12m Enduro V2, 10m Edge v9.
No affiliation or anything just love the kites and very much used and happy with the Ozone feel.

Never had a single broken valve or leaking leading edge until this season when 3 of my kites had number of valve connections break all at the same time. Ozone has been extremely helpful and replaced all parts that broke with no questions asked very quickly.

I can only explain this as in the past 5 years I've been living in a tropical climate with high temperatures and humidity most year around.

According to the repair shop in the area leaky valves is a common issue with all kite brands (different issue to my kites but just shows that climate has a major effect on kite durability as in cold weather locations it's hardly an issue).


I reckon that with the new valve connection system this issue will become very rare.

[gibsonandpickett]

Flying Ozone kites since 2011 and must have gone through at least 20 kites over the years.
Currently on 8m Reo v5, 9m C4 v6, 12m Enduro V2, 10m Edge v9.
No affiliation or anything just love the kites and very much used and happy with the Ozone feel.

Never had a single broken valve or leaking leading edge until this season when 3 of my kites had number of valve connections break all at the same time. Ozone has been extremely helpful and replaced all parts that broke with no questions asked very quickly.

I can only explain this as in the past 5 years I've been living in a tropical climate with high temperatures and humidity most year around.

According to the repair shop in the area leaky valves is a common issue with all kite brands (different issue to my kites but just shows that climate has a major effect on kite durability as in cold weather locations it's hardly an issue).


I reckon that with the new valve connection system this issue will become very rare.

i dont live in a tropical climate and its happened twice on my v9 7 meter edge. Ozone have been having bladder problems for years.