I did try out the impulse sealer over the last three days The impulse sealer itself works like a charm. I bought the 8inch $30 one off of Amazon altho I strongly recommend the 12" one if anyone is considering it.
It did not solve my problem because every time I pumped the kite up to the pressure I liked, it would blow out another hole, albeit never on the seam I had sealed with the impulse sealer. At this point the tip of the bladder is expanding alot to make up for the 5 inches I have gone down to seal past the prior holes/patches, so the bladder is getting stretchy and weak near the tip. The whole tip of the bladder going down about 6" has this abused creased look instead of smooth PU plastic look like the rest of the bladder.
I have given up on trying to fix this bladder myself and will look for a replacement bladder. Patches are really hard to apply without a second person to stretch out the bladder fabric unless its a small hole and you can get some air pressure in the bladder. The seams with the impulse sealer work great, none of them have blown out despite putting the bladder under pressure. The bladder material on the wingtip area is just too weak at this point and keeps blowing out at new spots before I can get the struts solid while pumping to test.
I will have pictures later, I had been hoping to fix this before my trip to Cabarete but no cigar. I am hoping my 12m can carry me while there, using a smaller 145 cm x 44 and larger 165x44 board to compensate for wind (Im down to about 222 lbs). Not sure if anyone in Cabarete would have a replacement bladder at a reasonable cost, its not really liquid force territory. I had wanted to use my 16m for morning sessions.
Gotta say,trying to fix this bladder was a very frustrating experience. Seal, pack it, pump it up (this is alot of work on a 16m x 4 strut kite), let it sit 15min only to hear that pop telling me it failed, then deflating and setting patching/sealing the section that failed. Did this like 12 times
