hey.I recentlyposted a topic on repairing bladders.I went for my appointed lesson having asked to use my own kite which had no problems at the time as far as I was aware.My instructor inflated my kite while I was getting changed.When I got back I was told I had a leak and arranged for its repair.I used one of their kites on that day.Next time,after the repair ,it was again inflated to check the repair and another leak was found,I repaired it myself,successfully but the now familiar hiss was coming from another valve,strut valves.Im up to number 4 now and fear it will be the same for all valves,being 16 I think.When I looked at the leaks,it seemed that about 30% of the heat seal around the valves had lifted.I am wondering if this could be due to over inflation,after reading the post about exploding bladders.I have a standard pump with no pressure metre.How much is too much and has anybody out there experienced such a thing.It has ironically been instructive for me to have this problem,if a tad inconvienient,as I have learnt a little about self repair,still cant surf but I can fix a valve ha.The leadiing edge bladder bothers me in that it has 8 or so valves and whilst resetting the valves was relatively easy with a string pull to get the valve back into position,how do you do it with 8 valves needing to be repositioned on the one bladder,cant find an instructional video for that one.Any advise would be appreciated
Don't think it would be over inflation. The flange around the valve is pushed against the fabric of the kite when inflated and there is no way the adhesive can lift when it is inflated. The seams would split in the leading edge before the valve seal would blow. More likely heat related.. perhaps the kite has been left in a hot car boot or on the sand on a scorching day? This would cause the adhesive to let go.
POP
Have to agree with pintof, likely to be a hot car causing valves to delaminate, as for bladder removal/re-insertion see this link to an old back issue of kiteworld
reader.exacteditions.com/issues/4250/spread/122
cheers Todd