You probably have encountered this problem a couple of times: The wind was great… You stayed a couple of hours in the warm water and the summer heat.. You keep thinking, that this kite you are riding – maybe 2 or 3 years old – holds up very nice… You are happy as a kiter can be!
Then you come to the beach, wrap up your gear, and head home. Thinking that the next session will be as great and your kite will hold air like it did the last time.
But when you attempt to pump up that awesome, favorite kite of yours… it fails.. You got one leaking valve connection… Frustrated you take one size bigger or smaller and you are not really happy..
Why did that happen?
So here are some reasons: Most kite valves are glued with a heat process on the bladder. That means that in the beginning the connection between polyurethane Valve and Polyurethane bladder is pretty much awesome.. They bond quite well. The only thing that can harm this connection is… HEAT!
The last time you wrapped up your kite, the vales and bladders were heated up by the sun. Then the kite is wrapped up, mauybe rolled very tight and pushed in the kite bag. That is the first step wich can harm the valves. In the car – still warm – the kite and valve connection is squeezed in the bag… Then depending where you store your gear (garage, climatized rooms) the entire kitebag cools down.. and sits waiting for the next session.
Then at the next session, you pack out the cooled down kite and you pump up… that is when the soft, flexible material of the bladder delaminates from the valves, because its still hard and in the squeezed form. The heat “treatment” from the sun causes this connection to get weaker and weaker… and usually after some seasons: The kite starts to leak..
Quick fix (NOT recommended): There are valve traps, stick on vlaves and other quick fixes… Although in some situations it is quite nice to have a quick fix at hand (while travelling, or in remote areas..) it is not the ideal solution. The stick on valves and Valve traps come with a self adhesive and are stuck on the bladder.. You have to clean the bladder thoroghly in order to get a good bond. further, you need to keep the bladder as flat as possible, so there are no channels which would permit air to escape.
Here comes the culprit with that fix: Usually it lasts only one season, or some sessions. Then the same process res=tarts. However: once you used one of those self adhesive valves, there is no second chance of fixing it. The glue becomes gooy and sticks to anything. While you might think, that this is what you want for a good bond, it does not work. Then you need a new bladder.
Our process is based on a special polyurethane glue. If possible we try to recover the original valves. If they are not too hard, we can clean and reglue them. Also some heat treatment may bring them back in terms of softness. Then we re-glue them through a special process of compression. We prepared differen molds for the different diameters of valves. The compression of the clamps is distributed evenly throughout the valve seat and any glue that is pressed out or inside the bladder is prevented from glueing the inside bladder walls together. After a lot of trial and error (ouch) we found out a process which is fast, reliable and produces perfect results each time we apply it to a set of bladder.
One thing we also learned: If one valves delaminates: All the others will follow eventually… So we always recommend:
“If you do one, do them all!”
Its not that we don’t want you to come back, but imagine each valves goes one after the other: A modern 1-pump system kite with a couple of struts has at least 3 to 12 valves… You want to come back 12 times?? So please let us do them all
Usually after taking the bladders out, having everything cleaned and glued, the bladders need to cure over night. Then we check them for leaks and reinstall the bladders. turn over is something around 1 to 3 days, depending on the brand (Naish is a nightmare…) and of course our backlog..