Dear all,
We came across this topic due too a tip of one of our customers.
We are the distributor of U-Stick for the most part of Europe and service thousands of customers each year with one of our Orange bladders or stick-on valves.
We support many kitebrands with their warranty issues and work very closely with many kiterepair stations in Europe.
Introducing a new material will always set off bells and make people ask questions and we are happy to answer to all comments both positive and negative to learn from eachother to keep developing better products.
Since we introduced Orange bladders we saw a massive drop in warranty claims due too the fact most kitebladders get damaged due too blow-outs when strut sleeves pop open for instance.
With thousands of bladders being sold each year and many more valves there will never be a time warranty issues will drop to zero as where people work both in production and installation mistakes can be made.
However if someone ever experiences problems with our orange bladders we'd love them to contact us to see if we can help out in any way. We will always find a solution which keeps us both happy!
To answer to the questions we could get out of this thread:
- If there is a leak in an Orange kitebladder please use Tear-Aid Type A to do a repair. We sell it as branded item in our shop though you can get it from pretty much any outdoor shop around. It sticks very well as long as you make sure to clean (and even better lightly sand) the surface with alcohol. When using this you won't need any additional glue.
- The orange material when outside the bladder is a bit more fragile to sharp object then a regular kitebladder. Keep notice when installing the bladder to not have any sharp objects around. When the bladder is installed the Orange bladder is a lot stronger and lighter then the original bladder. Therefore we still decided to choose Orange as our preffered material.
- Make sure to use Orange stick-on valves when using an Orange bladder. The adhesive used on an Orange stick-on valve is different then the adhesive we use on our Fix Kit valves (for the repair of OEM bladders). A Fix Kit valve will in heat or due time not hold very well on an orange bladder. You can see the difference between Fix Kit and Orange by reading the packaging or checking the shape of the sticker. (Octagon shape: Orange. Round shape: Fix Kit)
If you feel your bladder isn't holding out as expected please contact us via our contact form
http://www.u-stick.eu/contactsor by private message including a picture of what seems to be the problem so we can help out.
@Mr Weetabix: Please contact us if you have any questions and note our kite bladder repair manual
http://www.u-stick.eu/leading-edge-replacement for a step by step outline on how to do a repair.
Best regards
Dominique Kwaks
U-Stick Europe