I've just had all the valves replaced on a 7month old unit due to delaminating????
Anyone else had the same problem???
I thought I could claim warranty but no avail.
That wing has been around enough that it's probably you not them. Leave it in a hot car?
if it were them there would be dozens of threads. Like when Best kites **** the bed in 2016 and a whole years worth of product was trash.
The wing is only 7 months old.
It is being professionally repaired by an experienced repairer (Adam @ kite loft)
His comment was he hasn't see that in a wing that new,older kites and wings yes.
Im just asking if anyone has had a similar problem,
No,It hasn't been locked in a hot car
I have a couple of Switch wings and the valves delaminated. As each valve came adrift I would stick it back on with urethane glue, which worked fine.
After the 3rd delam, and two years after I bought the wings, I emailed Switch and had a whinge about having to re-glue the valves. They sent me two full sets of bladders free of charge. They have a lifetime warranty and they honour it.
It's funny that the cheapest brand of wings gives better service than one of the most expensive.
Select to expand quoteFitzsup said..
The wing is only 7 months old.
It is being professionally repaired by an experienced repairer (Adam @ kite loft)
His comment was he hasn't see that in a wing that new,older kites and wings yes.
Im just asking if anyone has had a similar problem,
No,It hasn't been locked in a hot car
I had the centre strut bladder explode on one that was 2 days old... apparently the strut valve was attached a little offset on the bladder and it was a known problem so the retailer just sent me a new set of bladders.
I had a delam around the 3 month mark on the wing tip valve. Through my retailer, Duotone (USA) paid for the repair with Airtime Kite. Around the 5-month mark, the center bladder started leaking (not sure where from), i asked my dealer about it thinking it would not be covered and no-questions-asked, Duotone offered to have it repaired or give me a replacement bladder no charge (i took the bladder to reduce my downtime). Frustrating to have this number of issues but good that it was taken care of. I had similar issues with an Armstrong AWing v2 and they also took care of everything for me.
This.
To fix it, pull on the valve to make sure it's as delaminated as it gets. Smear on urethane glue. I use StormSure. Make sure it doesn't go down into the hole and stick the insides of the bladder together. You could put baking paper or something inside it to protect it with a piece of string going to the main valve so you can pull it out again. Being careful is probably enough.
Press it down nice and flat. I lay the bladder out flat, put the hole of a roll of duct tape over the valve and put a weight on top and leave it overnight.
I've done this for 3 valves and none have failed after repair.
None of the valve delams failed catastrophically out on the water. The bladders got a bit soft but I was able to ride back to the beach. I think the pressure of everything squished up inside the strut and LE tube keeps things down to a slow leak. Once the pressure eases off too much the bladder deflates immediately and can't be reinflated.
Here's a sneaky trick. If you notice your wing getting a bit soft while you're out, you can release the strut clip and the pressure between the strut and LE equalises and makes the wing stiff enough to give you a chance to pump onto the foil and get back to the beach.
PS I exploded a strut after contact between foil and strut in the surf the other day. I repaired the torn strut fabric then had a go at welding the split bladder with a hot iron. After a couple of experimental goes it worked surprisingly well. The bare bladder held some pressure overnight. I re-installed it and pumped it up to 8 psi and it held pressure for 24 hours. I haven't needed to use that wing since I repaired it and I'm a bit reluctant to commit to going out with a potentially dodgy wing in any kind of demanding conditions. The bladder material has a few scary stretch marks, one where it ballooned out of the hole prior to exploding, one near the leading edge (maybe cause by the strut end fold over thing), and stripey stretches near the handle positions.
PPS 20 years kiteboarding and zero delams, zero punctures, one burst bladder on an old kite. A couple of severe canopy tears on a really old kite. 3 years wingdinging, 3 delams and one burst bladder. 3 fairly major canopy tears and one exploded strut.
Select to expand quoteGorgo said..
20 years kiteboarding and zero delams, zero punctures, one burst bladder on an old kite. A couple of severe canopy tears on a really old kite. 3 years wingdinging, 3 delams and one burst bladder. 3 fairly major canopy tears and one exploded strut.
On the pages about the Unit V3, Duotone says that the stress on wings is twice as high as the stress on kites. Sounds reasonable just looking at sizes used. They ended up using a new material and heavier wings. It will be interesting to see if other companies follow suit.
