My inflatable and pumps I tried - advise required.

[111KAB]

Thanks to Andy on YBW I managed to buy a nice second hand inflatable (Narwhal) which I'm really pleased with (thanks again Andy!).......

Having read some recent posts on here I decided I needed both an electric pump and a foot pump but first (I thought) I needed a Narwhal connecting/locking piece to link to the valve.

So I ordered the promised 'fit everything' set.....

Only to find no Narwhal connector! Now discovered I don't really need one but if anyone knows where to obtain please let me know.

Next job was to pump it up ...... well the foot pump

was useless as the pressure wouldn't force the valves open so again I need help with this please.

Now to the electrics!!!!! Firstly the Coleman which someone recommended on here ......

Again useless so thinking maybe the pump was faulty off to Halfords for their Urban Special....

Useless as well. Learn by my mistakes but can you please let me know what (reasonably priced) electric (12v) and foot pump I should buy. Apologies for going over old ground but thought my experiences may help others!

 

[photodog]

That looks exactly like the valves fitted to my Seago.... (Which is now fecked as one of the surrounds has shattered and its leakign like a seive... /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif... so if anyone has a tip on replaceing the valve includeing the whole fitting.... )

I suspect that any Seago pump or fitting would fit....

 

[awol]

My answer to similar problems is to pop the valve open and use the electric pump - you only lose a little pressure when you pull the hose off and close the valve. Then finish with the footpump. If that won't move the valves, Lidl are selling their double-action £4.99 pump from tomorrow - it needs a bit of self amalgamating tape round its biggest nozzle to do the job.

 

[111KAB]

[ QUOTE ]
My answer to similar problems is to pop the valve open and use the electric pump - you only lose a little pressure when you pull the hose off and close the valve. Then finish with the footpump. If that won't move the valves, Lidl are selling their double-action £4.99 pump from tomorrow - it needs a bit of self amalgamating tape round its biggest nozzle to do the job.

[/ QUOTE ]

Many thanks ..... I did go this route but the footpump I had wouldn't 'work' the valves after the electric so I was left with a 90% inflated dinghy. I will nip to Lidl and see if their pump does the trick but any recommendations re a Rolls Royce footpump at Mini price much appreciated.

 

[Skyva_2]

I'm still managing with a footpump, but having looked at electric, the only one that gets consistent favourable reviews is the LVM, but at £70 or so, not cheap.

 

[nyx]

i bought a 240v inflater for large blow up paddling pools and used on an inverter .it will blow past the closed valves ok.
it was around 30 pounds but add the cost of an inverter and its just as much to buy the lvm

 

[ditchcrawler]

I have the LVM pump & rate it highly,however the other day I helped a friend inflate his dinghy which by coincidence was a Narwhal 2.60.He used a yellow 240v pump which he got from Aldi for £4.99.It did the job a treat.It could have done with a final burst from the footpump but it was hard enough to navigate safely.This was a surprise to us both.

 

[Refueler]

I've had Narwhal and Avons .... and NEVER had trouble with pumps manual and cheap electric getting past the valves.

Do the valves operate easily when pressed ? Or are they seriously stiff ?

Oh ... and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't upload pic's that are greater than 640 x 480 !! I do hate having to scroll the screen ..... if you use Photobucket and other similar sites - they can be set to save at 640 x 480 automatically.

 

[mikejames]

I think that the footpump you have pictured is a chinese copy of a real inflatable dinghy pump OK for airbeds while camping.
I have two of the £20-£30 Bravo pumps - one I found floating in a river which needed repair.
Both of these are a world apart from the camping shop airbed pump with the thin nozzles and pipes.

A good footpump can lift the valves. The fabric on the bellows of a good footpump will be fabric reinforced like the tubes of the inflatable to take the pressure.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I have a narwhal dinghy with near identical valves.

I can't read your questions very well as the graphics attached are so large, but it seems you are having
problems getting the dinghy up to pressure..

Ok, I will write out longhand and apologise if some repeats and some seems as though I am teaching the
fine art of sucking eggs..

The valve is a push twist affair, 'In and twist', until it locks is open, this is a cw twist (I hope I recall
correctly). To close the valve a ccw 'out and twist' is required.

To inflate the dinghy the valves should be in the closed position. Also, mine seep a little and you must
close the caps tight to keep the dinghy up for longer periods, I don't know if this is just age, but I see it
as good practice to keep sand and water out anyhow.

I have the same (or at least very similar) foot pump which works without problem, it happily pushes air
passed the closed valve.. though we only use this to top up after the electric...

now, onto the electric pump. Oh I had problems to begin with, there was not enough pressure to push the
valve open to inflate the tubes. At first I inflated the dinghy with the valves open, but this was not
convenient as you found as air is lost when you fart about trying to twist the valve out.

I have a different type of electric pump, but it should not matter. I had to modify the adapter tube, rather
simple in the event. Luckily, across my adapter pipe, about an inch down was a plastic bar, I don't know
if this was for some other kind of dinghy valve, but on the narwhal it did not come into contact at all.

Mark 1 mod, I cut a short piece (10mm say) of 8mm copper pipe, I cut a slot into the copper pipe and
closed it over the bar in the adapter pipe, this created a pin if you like, which just opened the narwhal
valve when the adapter was pushed home.

Mark 2 mod which was a temporary mod, I lost the copper pin.. is a fashioned split pin with the loop now
creating the valve opening pin and the legs wrapped around the adapter tube bar. This has worked for 4
years and still going strong.

The pin arrangement is also extremely useful for sucking the air out for stowage, suck it flat and the
pulling away of the electric pump immediately closes the valve.

On a second look at your images, we have a different foot pump, ours has the hose from the top attached
to one of two screw in fittings, one suck one blow.. ours is grey and maybe a little bigger.. I don't know
the brand, I just picked it up in the chandlers.

It looks identical to this one

If you would like my to take some photos of the adapter tube give me a shout..

 

[111KAB]

Thanks all (particularly DogWatch) for your replies and apologies for the image sizes (new to the forum!) - I think I am now there! Intend to nip to Lidl today and get one of their manual pumps which I will convert to suit the Narwhal valves. In hindsight the Coleman electric inflator was better than the Halfords one so the Halfords one is going back! It would be great if these electric pumps advised what pressure they were putting out then you could determine their ability to open the valves.

 

[charles_reed]

My LVM, now 23 years old and on it's 6th dinghy, has always pumped up every dinghy I've had (Avon x2, forgotten Korean, Plastimo - a "dog" -, Zodiac and now a German Bayside). More importantly it's deflated them (especially Avons)

However to finish off I've always had to use the footpump. The plastimo came with a double pump, the inner pump putting out about 3 bar for its high-pressure keel.

As most of my dinghies have either been lost (Guadiana bar) or stolen (Dart, Siracusa and Malta), I've still got several spare pumps - you're welcome to one if anywhere near Kalamata in the next couple of days.

 

[Refueler]

The footpump is a chinese job - but I have one identical as well as the Avon job. The chinese one does the job fine, only problem is the hose is smaller diameter and also is only a push fit into the pump socket. This means once you get to reasonable pressure it blows out. The Avon pump has a twist locking hose item with the push fit at dinghy end.

 

[Kelpie]

It was I who had the Coleman pump.
I use it with an Avon Redcrest, the valves don't look dissimilar to yours although I had trouble seeing from one side of the photo to the other
Yesterday I realised that, like the idiot I am, I'd left my Gelert double-action hand pump on my larger boat. I still had the Coleman in the car, though, so I used it to quickly blow up the Avon to partial pressure with the valves set to 'open', and then I set them to 'non return' and the Coleman tried its best to squeeze some more air in. The end result was usable, but nowhere near as solid as I get it with the hand pump.
For me the two pumps are a great compromise, the electric one doing 90% of the work whilst I change into oilies, and the hand pump just topping it up to full pressure.

 

[maxi77]

Certainly the double acting pumps are good if hard work, but I am surprised the foot pump doesnt work and sounds as if either there is a problem with the piunp or the valves. Yes cheap electric punps you need an open valve but they are OK for getting bulk air into the tube. The LVM ones are costly but excellent, though I have seen some one flatten their car battery inflating several race marks with one.