Has anyone else had problems with the big dump valve at the tip of the leading edge bladder separating from the bladder ? My three Rhino05's have all done this in the last 6 months. I would try to blow up the kite wondering why it does not inflate. I would find that the valve on the end (which I only use occasionally to deflate and have never pulled hard on it) had completely and cleanly separated from the bladder. Not even any glue left behind.

All of my three Rhino05's have done it and always the same valve. I tried to get north to replace the bladder when it happened to the first kite but they refused because it was more than 12 months old and hence the warranty had expired.

Has anyone else experienced this problem ? I was going to get some new Norths but now having second thoughts.

Holgs
I had the same problem with my r5 14 , Sent to Moti Levi on the gold coast , done a great job , cheap , and delivery in the cost of the repair.

ring steve at kitepower...they have stick on replacement valves for about $25 or something. I had the valve go on my '05 and the new stick on valve works sweet, piece of cake to put on and a hell of a lot cheaper than frieghting it to a pro repair shop.

- kitepower also do cheap repairs to torn kites etc, got a leading edge/tear along a batten (about 80cm in all) done for $70 inc freight to the south coast...too easy...

Not trying to pimp his store, but credit where credit is due...i have had nothing but great service and great prices from these guys.

had a similar problem on my 06 fuel,but not all of it can all unglued, got some pvc cement glued it back on, no problem since!

This is a common problem on a lot of kites made in the last two years. The same thing happened to my 17m Slingshot Fuel 06 last month. Slingshot/Balmoral Boards supplied a stick-on replacement straight away, no questions asked, but it still required removing and replacing the bladder to find the problem which took quite a few hours. I understand that Naish also had the same issue and recalled a number of kites to fix the bladders. Apparently the problem exists because the material used by the manufacturers for the dump valve is a different material from all the other valves and does not bond to the bladder with heat like all the others. There was no glue used, just heat. Because of the different melting tempertature the valve didn't actually melt enough to bond to the bladder. After time, it just comes off. Mine just came off in my hand when I took the bladder out. I suspect we'll see this start to happen with all the kites of this vintage as they age a bit. Not something you want to happen when you are 2km out from shore.

i had the same problem with a few of my naish kites (not on the tip of course)
but i just used some stormsure on it, it worked really well cos usually around the valves is a ridge type thingy which helps hold it