skymeat
Junior Member
Posts: 18
Registered: 23-11-2006
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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Mood: Awed
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Kite Cleaning
I just bought my first kite, used...It's a beamer 3.6 and it flies very nicely, but the chambers at the ends have a good quantity of sand in them,
very heavy when wet. I've tried shaking it out with little or no success. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Skymeat
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Bladerunner
Posting Freak
Posts: 9679
Registered: 17-10-2006
Location: Vancouver
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Probably the cells have openings to each chamber at opposite ends ( my JoJo is that way) . It's wierd how crap will get in so easy but won't come out
without patients. Try working it back and forth until it gets to the open cells.
Kites: 2.5m Profoil , Quadrifoil XL kitesurfer, NPW 5 Danger.
Flexifoil: 1.7m Sting, 4.9m Blade 3, 9m Blade 2.
Flysurfer : 19m Speed 2 SA, 7m Pulse
Peter Lynn :18m Phantom, 15m Synergy, 10m Synergy, 1200 Farc, 460 Sarc, 130 Tarc, 5m Peel, 4.2m , 6.4, 8.5 C-Quads, 3.5 LS2 single skin.
Rides: Flexi / P.L. Frankin'Buggy , Shaped + straight skiis, sand skis, Coyote blades. Core 95 ATB. RKB R2 ATB .
Ken (K2)
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acampbell
Posting Freak
Posts: 3879
Registered: 26-7-2006
Location: Las Cruces, NM. Sometimes
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Mood: Digging Deserts and Mts.
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I fly on the beach all the time and the sand here is very fine; it blows into the kite when just sitting flat on the ground. It's insideous.
I have found water to be the most effective. I lay the kite flat on my back deck; any area with good drainage will do. I rinse it with a garden hose
with no spray attachment and the faucet turned on less than full. The point is no high pressure blasting. I flood the interior, letting water flow
through the vents to the tips. I then pick up the kite by the trailing edge gently and let water flow out the cell vents. I grab the tips too, since
they have no vents, and let the water flow to the center sections.
I dry the kite draped over the railing. Do this in the shade or dry it inside, away from the UV light which is not good for the fabric. (Yeah, we
fly in the sunshine all the time, but the point is to avoid it when you can.)
When I am done and the water has dried on the deck, there is sand everywhere. Very satisfying.
If I have to use any cleaners I use plain soap, not detergents, and I do so sparingly and by hand with a sponge. Never use a brush as it will tear
fibers.
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