Inflatable water slides have become extremely popular, and if you are lucky enough to own one, you know why. You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking for information on how to repair an inflatable water slide. Banzai Falls is one of the most popular brands available and one of the best selling brands. Unfortunately, it also seems to be one of the most problematic chipsets as well.
There are some fixes that are easy to fix and some that are beyond hope. I’m going to cover the four most common problems and how you can take care of them yourself and save what is probably one of your kids’ favorite toys.
1. Mold: Well, summer is here again, and on that first hot day, your kids are begging to get the water slide and you take it out of storage and find it all moldy. Mold is unsightly and can be a potential health hazard, but sometimes if it’s not too infested you can get rid of it. Start by getting the smallest, safe poly-cloth, I recommend the Aurora Boat Clean Plus. You may want to consider washing your inflatable once a year to help keep it clean.
2. A tear or hole in the fabric: No matter how careful you are with inflatable water slide A perforation or perforation can occur. You may not notice it until you inflate the slide and notice that it is inflated or not inflated at all. If this happens, you should start looking for a tear in the fabric.
If your chip hasn’t swelled at all, the damage may be extensive enough that you can easily find it. If your slice is a little less enlarged, that probably means the tear is small and may be hard to find. The trick to make this easier is to blow the slide and spray it with a spray bottle filled with a mixture of dish soap and water. If you have a leak, the escaping air should cause bubbles in the mixture and you can pinpoint the source of your problem. Once you find the leak, you may want to check the rest of the chip to make sure there isn’t more than one.
To repair a rip or tear in the fabric, start by sewing the hole to prevent it from propagating. Once you have it sewn you will need some adhesive and a piece of material for the patch. You can buy a canvas repair kit from almost any place that sells must-have camping gear for tent repair.
Follow the instructions that came with the kit, just be sure to use a patch large enough to cover the entire tear. If your patch material is not large enough you can use more than one piece just make sure the seams overlap by about 1 inch.
3. division layers: Unfortunately, if your chip is coming apart at the seams, you have the hardest kind of repair. Most of the time, this type of damage would be too great to repair, but since these chips are so expensive, you’ll probably want to give it a shot. You will follow the same steps to fix the hole.
Start sewing the seam, making sure to go a little over where the split stops. After you’re done, you’re going to cover with the patching material. Then cross your fingers and turn on the blower if the slide is holding air then give yourself a pat on the back.
4. Defective or broken blower: If the blower unit is bad unless you have experience repairing electric motors, you really should replace it. You can purchase replacement bellows on eBay for anywhere from $50 to $200 depending on the type and condition. You will need to match the size and power of your blower to the one you have in order for it to work properly.
Banzai Falls is not the only manufacturer of inflatable water slides, there are other brands like Blast Zone and Bounceland that in my opinion offer a quality product. Banzai seems to have a lot of trouble with durability which leads a lot of people to look for directions on how to do it. I hope you will be able to fix your chip but if not, check out some of the other brands.