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Leading Edge Seam on the Waroo???

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uncleneil
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Postby uncleneil » Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:04 pm

just do it wrote:Don't know whether Best had an issue with the Waroo and blown leading edges but on our beach we only had two Waroos owned by the same guy and then one newcomer who took some lessons turned up with a 9m Waroo.
Sadly his Waroo 9m blew up whilst sat on the beach on day two.
So one out of 3 makes 30% failure rate.
20000 Waroos. You guys are killing me. :thumb:
Only seen one flysurfer in my neck of the woods. @ 20 Waroos though and not one blowout except for that one, but it hit a big sailboat first so that may have something to do with it. The bridle on the FS broke and nearly killed the guy riding it. So I guess the 100% failure rate isn't too bad either.

A 9m Waroo sitting on the beach in the sun may explode but that goes for any inflateable. Kind of funny hearing from the FS rep. though. Bash, Bash, Bash!!!!! Also kind of funny that I was in Viginia Beach a few weeks ago and saw 5-6 Waroos flying. Even funnier that you never see them huh?

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sq225917
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Postby sq225917 » Fri Aug 18, 2006 11:06 pm

svens a mate, he's just playing rough and tumble...

el_mago
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Postby el_mago » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:58 am

i also experienced a waroo blowout of LE seam during small wave tumble. luckily was still under warrenty and real/best sent me replacement bladder for free and i was able to get LE locally re-stitched for minimal cost. i love my waroos but i do think they are not as tough as some other kite brands. happy to hear that best has addressed this issue with 07 but doesnt much help me. so far no other problems with other waroos in the quiver. ive been pumping up the LE less to max 7psi to try and avoid further blowouts and so far so good...

cheers,

el_mago

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sq225917
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Postby sq225917 » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:00 pm

tech features

check out the features on the w-pro,most of them are carried over onto the waroo 07[/url]

qbo
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Postby qbo » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:22 am

just want to add my experience......

i bought a 2006 9m and 16m waroo 9 months ago and just a week ago my 9m leading ripped at the seam and then 5 sec later the bladder, which was bulging out of the hole, exploded.

I cam to this thread to see if other ppl were having the same problems. After reading all the post i have to say that the 2006 waroo on a whole is a well design kite but there is a small percentage that are defective. And its a nasty defect which could only materialise after the 3 month warranty is over; leaving u uncovered.

In regards to Best's warranty, i havent check other warranties offered by other kite manufactures but lets say i concede that:

"BEST'S WARRANTY IS SECOUND TO NONE"

however one then ask about best warranty:

"IS IT GOOD ENOUGH"

from my personal experience i have to say NO. Considering how much i paid for my kite i expected it to last more then 9 months and if there is a 1-2% defect rate for a known manufacturing defect then that should be address.

BEFORE ANYONE STARTS LABELLING ME A BEST HATER

I been a loyal supporter of best products for awhile (bought yarga 13.5m, 138 balsa board, 2 sets of bars and lines, fins, 9m waroo, 16m waroo etc over $3000 of products) and this just an honest and accaurate depiction of my experiences to help those deciding whether to buy a 2006 or 2007 waroo or not.

BiteMe
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Postby BiteMe » Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:05 am

qbo wrote:just want to add my experience......

i bought a 2006 9m and 16m waroo 9 months ago and just a week ago my 9m leading ripped at the seam and then 5 sec later the bladder, which was bulging out of the hole, exploded.

I cam to this thread to see if other ppl were having the same problems. After reading all the post i have to say that the 2006 waroo on a whole is a well design kite but there is a small percentage that are defective. And its a nasty defect which could only materialise after the 3 month warranty is over; leaving u uncovered.

In regards to Best's warranty, i havent check other warranties offered by other kite manufactures but lets say i concede that:

"BEST'S WARRANTY IS SECOUND TO NONE"

however one then ask about best warranty:

"IS IT GOOD ENOUGH"

from my personal experience i have to say NO. Considering how much i paid for my kite i expected it to last more then 9 months and if there is a 1-2% defect rate for a known manufacturing defect then that should be address.

BEFORE ANYONE STARTS LABELLING ME A BEST HATER

I been a loyal supporter of best products for awhile (bought yarga 13.5m, 138 balsa board, 2 sets of bars and lines, fins, 9m waroo, 16m waroo etc over $3000 of products) and this just an honest and accaurate depiction of my experiences to help those deciding whether to buy a 2006 or 2007 waroo or not.

It sucks, but unfortunately it can happen to any kite from any manufacturer.

You may want to PM Vietkiter. He is "Pro Consumer" and has championed the cause for strong warranty, customer service and strong refund policies in the past. He has gone to bat for others when they had similar issues with their kites.

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sq225917
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Postby sq225917 » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:39 pm

or you might just want to send me the pics... :wink:

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Postby kitester » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:05 pm

I had two '06 14s blow out. Both were new kites and Best just replaced them quickly. My '06 12 has a LE seam that looks like it might go as well. I think the pumping up the kite harder to prevent inversions can cause this failure. BUT it is not necessary to make it rock hard. Just so you know, the problem has been addressed and the 07s have a seam that looks like a Flexifoil seam. I dont know if you could pop it if you tried. I have the '07 7m and you can pump it way past what you might on an '06. to be fair I have seen Cabs. pop as well. To me just the fact that Waroos are so much less expensive is enough to offset the inconvience of a blown seam since it can happen on any brand. BTW I can go up wind on the '07 7m with a 145 Crazy Fly board and about 17 mph winds. If I work the kite hard I might be able to do that in 15. I am 185 pounds. I love the new stuff!

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Postby mucil » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:11 pm

I agree with qbo,

If there is a clear issue with the kites fit for purpose/manufacturing that arises then It is not the consumers fault and It is in a companies best interest to address it regardless of the fine print on the warranty.
BEST did this with the hellfish ( hat's off to them.....It raised my respect for them 100 fold because of this ).

I think with the small percentage of waroo's that have clearly suffered from LE seam issue's ( Can't blame over inflating because several times Alex has stated to pump it as hard as you can ) BEST would be doing themselves a service to at least cover the repair cost of these kites.

I think for the most part that BEST probably have been doing this. But keeping in mind that there is a known issue with SOME waroo 06 seams ( obviously dealt with in the 07 waroo's ) I would encourage BEST to be careful to not let some customers with bad seam issue's fall through the cracks.

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Postby dwarf » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:58 pm

I have seen about 10 LE of waroos explode during flight on several beaches. (especially in gusty conditions!) That said, there are really a lot of these kites flying around so I cannot tell whether this is a specifick Waroo problem. I also think that indeed people are pumping these kites to hard sometimes.

Warrenty: if you are not happy with the 90 days that best offers choose a brand with 12 months warrenty:

F-ONE has it
OCEANRODEO has it

and I am sure a few others have it as well. I would say add to the list:


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