How to repair your leaking bladder

DownStream · Since 18 Apr 2007 381 Posts Obsessed

If it is a slow leak and not a blowout i would recommend finding the approximate location of the pinhole before pulling the bladder. Pump the kite, spray LE with soapy h20. You often can't get enough pressure into the bladder to easily find a slow leak if it's already out of the LE.

knotwindy · Since 25 Sep 2011 615 Posts Addicted

dangler · Since 26 Feb 2006 1780 Posts WINDY SPOTS XTreme Poster

Hate em. After repairing HUNDREDS of bladder leaks, I use gallon jugs of dishwater soapy water. The squirt bottle works, but all the spraying gets old.

1st: flip the kite and dump a gallon on the leading edge where it makes contact with the ground. ( 50 % of leaks)

2nd: squirt all valves, hoses, one pump connections ( 30% of leaks)

3rd: hit everything again with the gallon jug. Even a four hour leaker will reveal itslf, provided you have a well pumped up kite.

The most frustrating leaks are intermittant, they only leak when moved or manipulated a bit, so you sometimes have to wiggle stuff like valves, hoses, connections.

Had a mind bender a while back, located leak. pulled half the bladder and fixed, tested in the tub, reinserted, still leaked.

Did this again, TWELVE TIMES. The thirteenth time it held. Around 5 hours total time.

Come to find out the kite had crashed into sticker bushes, must have been a tiny sticker in the sleeve making new holes, until all my in and outs got rid of it.

rhizuli · Since 20 Dec 2008 6 Posts Astoria, Oregon Kook

After chasing pinhole leaks on 4 different kites, I finally decided it was less hassle in the longrun to just pull the suspected bladder rather than working on the outside of the kite with soapy water. There is a lot of information around on the best way to do it on any particular kite and once you figure out a system, it's rather quite simple. I had an ongoing battle with leaks on my 15m Cult so finally pulled the 42' LE bladder and took it to my local pool and immersed it foot by foot. I found a total of 12 holes thanks to a broken-off spine from dune grass that had been protruding to the inside of the LE fabric. It seems everytime I reinserted the bladder after a patch job the hidden spine was tattooing new holes for my torment. This is not a process you can just plow through in a short time and be back in action. Attention to detail is critical.