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Broken vertical O-ring


kwmf

Question

Does anyone know what would cause regular failure of the O-ring that holds the bungee cord for the top vertical?

My flying buddy has broken 3 and today I had one of mine go. This has been over probably the past 8 months.

I have spares and I know how to field repair this but it seems too frequent to me and I'm wondering what the cause may be.

When mine went I saw it immediately and landed the kite (full sail, almost no wind) to check it. I found half the piece still on the rev so I've attached a photo. It looks like one side is a clean flat break and the other side is rough. I couldn't find the other half in the sand and we've never recovered any of Johnny's pieces so I'm not sure if his broke the same.

The kite I was flying is a pro that's 18 months old and well looked after. Anyone know if this is normal and what might be causing it?

post-3221-0-42275700-1370197362_thumb.jpg

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I see two things that may be an issue.

I only have one new era kite (Bazzer S&S), the rest of mine are early 2000-01 REV 1.5 SUL, Vented, re-roded SLE.

That will change soon.

1. The O-ring material in my early Rev's appears to be high pressure air hose sliced in to rings. It has a braided core between outer and inner layer (survives tension load better).

The current ring (water valve seal? - prefers compression) doesn't have the braided support. Mine is elongated in the stored state too. I do fly this kite daily, if not multiple times. I am going to cut up some hose and replace.
I street fly this kite in close quarters a lot. A failure could be bad news for me.

2. Bungee is under continuous tension.

The first thing I noticed when I handled a new kite, the rods didn't fall out of the leading edge pocket.

Bungees are tighter right out of the box. This could be an old change and I didn't notice.

I haven't had my hands on any other Revs over those ten years. (They don't let me out much)

Excuse the crap cell phone pics, but you can make out the difference in the material.

http://www.revkites.com/forum/gallery/album/634-o-ring-pics-bungee-leading-edge/

Just my two cents,

Mark

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The current O-rings are screw bezels -- fastener aisle at your local hardware store. Made of nylon usually, but they all hold up very well. I never had one break, even on hard impact.

The ones that have broken may have had manufacturing defects. Carefully inspect replacements for molding issues.

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The material of this washer is semi soft. (Crap cell picture - I'll reshoot later)

(Kite - Master Series Stars and Stripes) New 11/2012

It's not plastic, it has a the consistency of kitchen sink faucet seal. It has elongated

I think heat cycling even in a stored state under tension may be an issue.

Nice sunny, and black parts (hot soft parts)

I may unload the bungee until I replace it with slice high pressure hose.

http://www.revkites.com/forum/gallery/image/5331-new-rev-with-rubber-washer-kitchen-sink-water-valve/

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@Watty

The kites are spread enough over time that I doubt it was a batch issue

@Mario

You are a hardcore madman :P

@RevWizard

Not a bad idea ... I used that exact knot this weekend to do a temp bridle repair for my buddy when he was playing on a concrete structure and burned right thru a bridle loop.

I guess the other question that needs to be asked is "what is the purpose of these o-rings?"

It seems to me that they exist just to make adjusting tension a bit easier, otherwise they would just be tied together like the leading edge cords. If that is the case, then the knot mentioned by RevWizard would seem to be a good replacement that still allows for adjustment if need be.

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Using the original bungee, it is kind of difficult to tie the Fisherman's knot because of the shortness of the bungee. A longer piece would be easier for tying the knot, then cutting the ends.

For production time/costs, I would say the ring is easier to install and get the length correct.

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