The joys of valves leaking

[maxriderkite]

So I don't know if it's too common or stupid questions but:
- Is it common for you to repair your kite valves or am I the only one?
- Is it less frequent for some brands over others? I mean do some brands have stronger / weaker valves than others?
- Do you have any advice or techniques so you never have a valve peeling off, leaking, ..? I know that you should never store them under the heat, in the car trunk, ... but still, it seems there's always a new reason or situation leading to a leaking valve.

I'm asking this because I spent more than a week fixing valves one after another valve on my two kites (my new Switch and my old Fone which I already repaired the valves a while ago). I haven't been able of going kiteboarding for more than a week because of valve issues.
I didn't store them under the heat, well they spent one hour on the beach under the sun but like a lot of kites on my spot so I thought it shouldn't damage them so much...

Anyway, it seems that valves leaking is one of the most common problems with kites. I don't understand why brands are not trying to make them more durable or strong to extreme conditions instead of working on some futile features or small improvements. If it continues like this, one day I think I'm going to consider launching a company specializing in building super strong valves.

[Pemba]

If you are talking of valves coming "unglued", I've heard others on this forum say that it happens with all kites after a few years and I'm sure they are right. However, I think I have noticed differences in brands. I too have lost a lot of kiting time because of this issue. I even bought a foil because of it. Cabrinha and Ozone appear to be very good - I haven't come across any of their valves coming unglued yet, while most of the other brands (Slingshot, North, Core, Best, Naish, Airush, CrazyFly), I have. But it's possible that these have now improved their valves. To get them off, just use hot water. Boil some water, put it in a cup, dunk the valve in, leave it for a minute and start removing (under water if necessary).

[FLandOBX]

Last week, I repaired 6 leaky valves on my buddy's 2011 Cabrinha Switchblade. He kites about one week per year, and stored the kite in a hot basement. All kites have the leaky valve problem after a while, and the problem is accelerated with hot storage conditions. Sometimes it makes sense to replace the valve with a stick-on valve, but other times it's better to re-glue the existing valve. For my buddy's kite, which was in good condition except for the valves, I used AirTime Valve Traps. He'll be able to use the kite for a while, until the 4 valves that I didn't repair begin to fail, too, which is just a matter of time.

[alexeyga]

It's funny how one starts to appreciate kites with less struts - once having done a few valve repairs...

[tegirinenashi]

This is marketing at its best: "We have quadrupple rip stop; we have max flow tube valve connectors, ...", which doesn't make a shit of difference, but they are completely silent about how durable bladder/valve connections.

To me the manufacturing solution to this frustrating leaking valve issue is trivial: don't use glue. Find two compatible materials that can be heat fused together. Obviously, the valve has to be fused to a sheet of plastic film, first. Then, the sheets have to be cut and sealed to form the bladder.

[Flyfish]

It's funny how one starts to appreciate kites with less struts - once having done a few valve repairs...

Or.....
kites with no valves at all.

[grigorib]

So I don't know if it's too common or stupid questions but:
- Is it common for you to repair your kite valves or am I the only one?

You're the only one
..
..
..
jk. it's a lot like masturbation - most people do it

- Is it less frequent for some brands over others? I mean do some brands have stronger / weaker valves than others?

no. But valve construction could be pretty effed-up and hard to work with - Naish/LF/Best

- Do you have any advice or techniques so you never have a valve peeling off, leaking, ..? I know that you should never store them under the heat, in

besides not storing kite in heat I try to stay on new wings as much as I can. All my LEIs kites are 2017 model now, 15 month old or less.
I had brand new, never opened 2012 Rallys once bought in 2016 which had valves peeling almost right away and chicken loops dry rotten and cracking due to improper storage by original owner

[alexeyga]

It's funny how one starts to appreciate kites with less struts - once having done a few valve repairs...

Or.....
kites with no valves at all.

Would be nice, but we have to get the best of what we've got. 3 struts are the absolute maximum I'm prepared to accept. 5 don't make any sense anymore...

[Pemba]

To me the manufacturing solution to this frustrating leaking valve issue is trivial: don't use glue. Find two compatible materials that can be heat fused together. Obviously, the valve has to be fused to a sheet of plastic film, first. Then, the sheets have to be cut and sealed to form the bladder.

That's an obvious but interesting idea, do you know if there are companies actually doing that and if not why not ? I'd be prepared to pay extra for that..

[MartinO]

I keep my kites very long, and I never had any valve issues really until last summer, when at a certain point ALL valves on a old Royal kite suddenly failed one by one during a week. I used that kite as my main kite during 9 years and it held up extremely well apart from that. The glue just seemed to have reached the end of it´s life span suddenly and the kite went from working perfect to be unusable without a full bladder makeover. I never bothered repairing it since it was so worn out. On my smaller kite, a 2008 9m Naish Cult, that is now in year 10, the valves are still holding up without issues, but I am just waiting to get the same effect there. I must still say that I am very impressed with both those kites in the sense that they actually were fully functional for almost 10 years. I don´t kite every day, but still probably 30-40 sessions every summer. When I bought them back in 2008, I never would have thought that they would last so long. But I kept using them and tried new kites and never found the performance difference be big enough to justify the cost to change. When the valves finally gave up on the Royal, the rest of the kite was also worn out, so for me that was really no big deal. It was time to change it.