C-Forum

Who sells the valves for these bags? The tips on two of mine just disintegrated, probably from long UV exposure, and I would rather not cannibalize valves from spare bags if I can get new valves.


By the way, if you have a valve fail while on a road trip, you can bend the red vinyl tube back and tie it shut to seal the bag. Keep in mind in case you face that problem.

These? http://www.nrs.com/product/3875/nrs-float-bag-valve" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I try to keep a few "in stock"...

Those NRS valves are for a larger diameter feed tube, I think. I've got a bunch of NRS bags, so I have some of those replacement NRS valves. I also have one set of the blue vinyl Harmony kayak bags with the red feed tubes. The NRS valves are too big to fit into the ends of those red feed tubes.

I.V. tube clamps work great for such a condition. Available at any surgical supply place or online.-M-

What about the dump valves? You can just tie or clamp off the tube valve, but the dump valves seem to be the first component to fail and are no easily repairable. If there was a source for them I could get another couple of years out of my bags.

Aqua seal them closed. If it's a "catastrophic failure", use the "sequester" method.

You can also whittle a stick to use as a bung....

Shawn at Fall line canoes has apparently been retrofitting raft valves to existing bags (presumably removing the inflation tube?), would that be of any use to you?

Improvising effective bungs or plugs sounds like something to try. But it occurs to me that I have a couple of Voyageur/Harmony "rodeo" float bags I bought for my slalom boat and am no longer using, so I may take the valves from those.

Rather than cutting off entire valves, I merely pulled the outer collars off two valves, and will use them to replace the disintegrating outer collars on the bags in my primary boat. I'll probably pass from old age before UV disintegrates the replacement collars.

Thanks to all for interest and suggestions.

ohioboater wrote:Those NRS valves are for a larger diameter feed tube, I think. I've got a bunch of NRS bags, so I have some of those replacement NRS valves. I also have one set of the blue vinyl Harmony kayak bags with the red feed tubes. The NRS valves are too big to fit into the ends of those red feed tubes.

Have you tried putting the cut end of the vinyl filler tube into the end of the Roberts valve?

All of the Roberts valves I have seen are designed to go inside the larger diameter filler tubes but fit around the outside of the smaller diameter tubes such as those used by Voyager and Harmony.

I don't have any of the larger NRS Roberts valves to try.

ezwater wrote:I don't have any of the larger NRS Roberts valves to try.

NOC keeps a jar of those Roberts replacement valves (or at least they used to) and they are not expensive, around $1.50 if I remember correctly.

I have a bunch of old Voyager bags with the old style valves that closed by pushing the cap in against friction, rather than screwing the valve cap in. I used the NOC valves to refit a number of those old Voyager bags on which the cap was either lost, deformed, or did not fit securely anymore. They worked fine as long as you put the cut end of the filler tube into the open end of the valve, rather than putting the valve inside the filler tube.

I have a number of newer Harmony bags as well and as far as I can tell, the diameter of the filler tube is the same as those on the Voyager bags.

OK, thanks, will check the next time I am at NOC.

ohioboater wrote:Those NRS valves are for a larger diameter feed tube, I think. I've got a bunch of NRS bags, so I have some of those replacement NRS valves. I also have one set of the blue vinyl Harmony kayak bags with the red feed tubes. The NRS valves are too big to fit into the ends of those red feed tubes.

I've worked with the valves before and they could fit both the larger and smaller tubes by either gluing the smaller tube inside and the larger tube outside of the connections.

Yep, looking at my spares, the ID would match up just fine with the OD of the blue bags.

Just as a note, glue (or at least AquaSeal) is counter productive if you're putting a valve inside a larger tube. The glue acts as a lubricant, and the squeezing of the tube invariably pushes the valve out like a watermelon seed before the glue can cure. The folks at NRS told me not to use any glue, which I found hard to believe; however, it worked perfectly: no leaks, and no slipping. I guess they would know .

With a narrow tube that has the valve going on over the outer diameter of the tube, I would guess you'd have to use glue to keep it on.