hello there, i was out floating around this morning when i noticed that one of the chambers on my fish cat was leaking. i took it home and tried to find the leak. it seems to be leaking around the valve. it is fine where it screws in but is leaking where the valve attaches to the cover and the air chamber. how do i fix this. i read through some of the posts on here and found info on fixing pinholes and tears but i don't know what to do with this valve. anybody got any suggestions?
I use a glue called Aquasure for jobs like that, where a tape or conventional patch cannot be used due to proximity to "a corner".
I think this stuff is called Aquaseal stateside ....
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[cool][#0000ff]Both the Fish Cats and the ODC 420 have those same valves. If they are not properly seated, when you put them together, they can leak air. And, sometimes it just starts leaking for no apparent reason...usually when you are a long way from shore. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The best remedy is to undo the valve and reassemble it, making sure that you do not have a thread or piece of the cover wedged in there to mess up a complete seal. It is not a good idea to glue the connection with something like aquaseal because that makes it impossible to do the fast deflate thing, and it takes forever to dump air by just depressing the center of the valve.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You can use thick silicone lube on the connections to help them seal better.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Just be sure that when you first air it up that it is not leaking then. You can do that by squirting some water around the valve and watching for bubbles. You might have to reseat it a time or two. Pain in the rear, but once you get it properly set up it is not likely to be a problem often.[/#0000ff]
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thanks for the suggestions. i went and looked at the valve. i can't figure out a way to detach it from the chamber. am i missing something. mine has a valve that screws in that only lets air in. then it has a cap that screws over that. i am pretty sure that the leak is not coming from either of these places. where the valve screws in is fine. it must be leaking where the air chamber connects to the valve. should i put a bead of aqua seal around this area. and if so should i put it inside or outside of the outer shell. hope this makes sense. thanks again for the help.
I think what TD is talking about is the main valve...ie the part that screws in to let air in and if you unscrew it it lets the air out rapidly. ust to rule out the valve you could also just use plumbers teflon tape on the valve to make sure it is tight. inflate the tube and squirt with water. Once I had not seated that all the way and the tube was deflated pretty quickly so I reseated the entire valve and re aired up the tube. Problem solved. I would give that a try. Now if it is leaking around where the valve meets with the bladder you probably would want to look at aquaseal or something like that.
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[cool][#0000ff]Outcast sells a valve repair kit that includes the tools necessary to completely remove the valve from the air chamber. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Before you can decide what needs repairing you first need to positively locate the source of the leak. Inflate that air chamber to full pressure and then spray soapy water around the valve or immerse it in water. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If the bubbles come from the valve/bladder connection, you may be able to seal it with Aquaseal, without having to remove and replace the valve. On the other hand, it sounds like a problem with assembly at the manufacturing end. If your tube is still under warranty, get a new air chamber...or a new tube.[/#0000ff]
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I have found a very good fix for the seating problems associated with the Boston Valves and the Shrader Valves that are most common on many of the tubes.
You will need to remove the big part of the valve (which allows quick deflation). Take that part with you to your local plumbing or DIY warehouse.
In the plumbing section, they will sell Silicone Washers. They are white in color and don't tend to crack when they dry out. I have had 2 of them fail over the last 4 years with my Fish Cat. I found the solution for the first failure about 4 months ago. When the second one went out, about 1 month ago, the replacement part was ready to go in my glove box.
My initial find was that the black washers were meant to be kept moist at all times or they crack and prohibit a positive seal.
My total fix was under 1$ per valve.[cool]
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