I'm just looking for some advice. I just bought a nine year old 11' Zodiac Wave (foldable). It looks in great shape. The tubes are clean and show no cracking or wear. However, after a couple of days the tubes lose pressure. They don't completely deflate even after a couple of weeks. They just get soft and need to be pumped back up. One more than the other.
This is the first inflatable I've owned. For all I know this could be normal. But, I'm thinking the valves may be leaking. They seen to be easy to replace. Before I do, I thought I'd look to more experienced people for their input.
You shouldn't see it go soft that quickly. Valves are easy to check with a soap bubble solution. Are the outer valve caps sealing OK... they are the important final seal as the valves themselves often let by a little.
If not valves you are looking at soaping the whole boat then just bear in mind this could be a small leak so look hard at every area for small bubbles that take a while to form.
Thanks Fenlander, I hadn't done that yet, but it's good advice. The valve caps look good. But, I will take a careful look at how well the seat. I though they were just to protect the valves. I didn't realize they were a final seal. Thanks again.
Soap it down. Start simple with valves. You could have a pinhole leak on the underside of one tube that is leaking down. The other side will also get soft as the volume of the internal baffle is increased. (boyles law)
They’ll change pressure quite a bit with temperature fluctuation.
50F in the morning and 85F in the afternoon will produce a temperature swing of likkeee 1.5 psi, which is enough to deflate a boat.
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Richard
Gluing geek since 2007
Opinions and intepretations expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer
Great advice to a novice inflatable owner. We'll be going back to the boat next week and will check the valves with a soap solution. If we don't see any obvious leaks we'll soap the boat and see if we have any other leaks. I was pretty confident when we bought the boat because the tubes looked really good and the seams all seemed very solid. But, there obviously could be a pin hole somewhere. I just wasn't that familiar with inflatables to know what was normal. It's good to have a site like this. Thanks.
spy-sea-one
