Power Kite Forum

KiteLife

bigkid - 20-11-2012 at 08:12 AM

After a bit of digging and asking the right answers, I am still amazed at what comes up.

I found out a bit of history with a company that showed all kinds of good stuff and was a bit to eager to help out with business. Sometimes we need to dig a bit more than we think, and in this case, more than I wanted to. So what am I talking about?:puzzled:

I found a product that cleans kites, and seals the material. Sound familiar? Well this stuff is called KiteLife. It does NOT come in a spray can, but a plastic bottle with a hand spray attachment.
The company also makes GearWash, again comes in a plastic bottle with a hand spray attachment.
And a new item called LineLife, that comes in a plastic spray bottle for treating your kite lines.

Now you are probably thinking, whats this stuff? Some kind of knock off or copy-cat product of another product called Kite-Refit? :yes::no: Well, this is where it gets interesting.
Seems that the Refit's stole the product. It is the same product, just in a different container and with a different name on the label.

So now what?
Well that's got to be the simplest answer to come up with in the last month. I will get rid of the can stuff, and begin a new business with the the local boys. Not like the new stuff is different from the old stuff, just better.

IMAG0942 (500x462).jpg - 171kB

cheezycheese - 20-11-2012 at 09:06 AM

Well I wouldn't mind "testing" this stuff out for ya.... You know just to be sure it's the same and all... ;-)

B-Roc - 20-11-2012 at 10:08 AM

aerosol has got to be WAY better than a hand pump if treating a kite. You'd have to pump the thing like a 1000 times or more for a moderate sized kite.

indigo_wolf - 20-11-2012 at 11:11 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by B-Roc
aerosol has got to be WAY better than a hand pump if treating a kite. You'd have to pump the thing like a 1000 times or more for a moderate sized kite.


EDIT:

Apparently the pump works fine as you are supposed to apply it with a sponge.



Probably ways around it.....




Would prefer to pay for sealant rather than propellant.

Gallon size garden pressure sprayer is about $12-13, so depending on pricing of Kitelife vs. Kite Refit, total cost could be a wash.

Chances of container recycling is much higher for liquid-only containers too.

It would make Kermit happy. :frog:

ATB,
Sam

MDK - 20-11-2012 at 12:03 PM

Jeff, this sounds good... Something I have noticed is my lines are drying out and fraying in the first 3 feet or so from the handles:puzzled: could you send me some of each? thanks

bigkid - 20-11-2012 at 04:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by MDK
Jeff, this sounds good... Something I have noticed is my lines are drying out and fraying in the first 3 feet or so from the handles:puzzled: could you send me some of each? thanks

Why I would be happy to.:thumbup:

RedSky - 20-11-2012 at 07:13 PM

What does the LineLife do? Does it reduce friction?

indigo_wolf - 20-11-2012 at 08:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RedSky
What does the LineLife do? Does it reduce friction?


Don't believe that is the primary benefit, although it might be an ancillary one.

Product Info:

http://www.kgbswag.com/products/featured-kitelife/linelife-p...

FWIW: Some dual line fliers use food grade silicone to reduce line friction. The food grade variant hand less additional ingredients that might damage lines.

ATB,
Sam

bigkid - 20-11-2012 at 08:07 PM

what Sam said^^^^^^^

Snake - 20-11-2012 at 08:21 PM

hmmm... I wonder if the linelife can stiffen up my floppy pansh lines so they don't tangle every I use the kite. Sign me up for some linelife and the gear wash. The pansh is pretty dirty from flying in the rain. I wonder if the kitelife would stop the mud from sticking when I decide that it's worth getting soaking wet to fly a kite.

indigo_wolf - 20-11-2012 at 08:27 PM

According to the video, yes....

ATB,
Sam

Pieter - 26-11-2012 at 01:22 AM

Hi Jeff,

I have seen your message on the forum about KiteLife.
In this message you say that we have stolen the product. This is not true! This is how it went.

About 3 years ago, one of our dealers ( a nr1 sail maker in the world) asked us if we can make a coating for spinnakers. The products he was using were not good or Nano based. He used SailKote and SealnGlide.

We are the biggest sail- and tent cleaning company here in the Netherlands. We clean for North Sails, Quantum, etc. All products we use in our company are developed and tested by us. Of course, together with an expert/partner.

At first we hoped, we could buy a coating that already exist. This would make it much easier, since we only wanted a coating for our service. Not for selling it to consumers. So we ordered KiteLife for testing and maybe using it here.
We tested it on kites and spinnakers. For us the results were not good. It just makes it a little water repellent. We wanted extreme waterproof, airtight, crispy and the fabric should be more stabile after coating. We have talked about it with Royce. He did not wanted to improve the KiteLife.

So we started developing our own coating. After some time we had the first test coating. If you test, you want to compare with other products. We have tested for example KiteLife, SailKote and SealnGlide.

We noticed that our coating was much more effective and much stronger. It took another long time to test our coating on the water, in more extreme weather. After these tests we finished the product and started working on a website etc.

Of course we have asked our partner to check KiteLife’s ingredients and to see what it is made of. It is a totally different product. It is like comparing oil and gas.
The only thing we have in common, is that we both say it is for kites 

By the way, why don’t you test both products? I mean, take one old kite. Spray half KiteLife and half Kite-Refit. Use the kite for a few weeks and see the difference. Spray water on them for some time.


Best regards,

Pieter Visser
www.kite-refit.com/en

bigkid - 26-11-2012 at 07:03 AM

Like I told Pieter last week,

"I have been testing the 3 you talked about and 2 more. I am testing all 5 on 3 different material kites. I will be posting the outcome in about 2 weeks(I hope).
Taking the kites to the beach for the next 4 days to beat them up, will be in touch."

arkay - 26-11-2012 at 05:39 PM

Can't wait to see the results! My water (not land) kites get wet even though they rarely hit the water and with the humidity, it take forever to dry. would love a solution to this.

SpecialK - 9-8-2014 at 05:40 PM

Bigkid: So how did the tests turn out?