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How To Repair An Inflatable Hot Tub Puncture
18 Aug 2022
The reasons that inflatables usually puncture.
How to repair quickly with what you have at home.
The puncture is the bane of any inflatable product, learn how to repair these hot tub mishaps in a few simple and effective ways.
Why inflatables suffer from punctures
There are a few common reasons that your hot tub may have gained a puncture. Punctures are small holes that can appear anywhere on the product and can be quite hard to find at first. This means that a lot of punctures go unrepaired for some time – at least, until the inflatable has deflated.
Here are the most typical reasons that your inflatable hot tub has a puncture:
Age.
Frequency of use.
Lack of maintenance or poor maintenance.
Product has come into contact with something sharp.
Other times, the reason for puncture could have been completely out of your control. An animal could have walked across the inflatable hot tub while it was outside or perhaps you have a new hot tub that came with a fault.
When it comes to age and frequent use, there isn’t much you can do. It’s likely that a puncture that occurs because of these two reasons is going to puncture again in the future. If your product continues to deteriorate, it might be best to replace it.
Bad maintenance can also cause your inflatable hot tub to fall into disrepair. A hot tub that isn’t cared for could end up with several untreated punctures or tears around the seams.
Hot tub puncture
An inflatable hot tub set up outside under a blue sky.
How to find a puncture
Let’s move on to finding those pesky punctures.
For inflatable hot tubs, the seal for the pump and the heating assembly are the two places where the most air can escape from without an actual puncture being the culprit. In these cases, you may need assistance.
An air leak around the pump seal can be repaired and replaced at home, but a faulty valve may need some professional repair advice before you move forward. If, at any point, you feel you are unsure about the repair, it’s always best to seek out advice from the manufacturer.
As for finding a small puncture, well, there’s a trick: While the hot tub is up and inflated, spray the tub with a mixture of soap and water. The mixture will allow bubbles to be created where air is escaping the hot tub. Mark this area before continuing.
Some people also keep the airflow on while multiple individuals feel around the tub for the escaped air. This can work if you do it for an extremely short time, but you don’t want to overfill the tub with air or damage it. Try to avoid this method where possible.
Products to fix punctures
Puncture repair kits are the most well-known product on the market for fixing punctures in inflatable products.
These kits will include glue and repair patches at the very least. The mistake a lot of inflatable tub owners make is they forget to clean the area around the puncture before applying the patch. The patch won’t stick for long if the surface of the tub isn’t degreased first.
Using a degreaser of some kind, lightly scrub around the punctured area and then wipe the product off with a paper towel. Once dry, take one of the repair patches and cover it with the provided glue. Stick the patch down over the puncture, press, and leave it for a couple of hours so that it dries.
Alternatively, you can use clear silicone to seal the puncture. This fix isn’t as good because some inflatable hot tubs are made of material that won’t allow the silicone to adhere to the surface properly.
Repair hot tub puncture
Fixing a puncture at home
If you don’t have any silicone or a puncture repair kit at home, there are a couple make-shift ways to seal a puncture.
Gorilla glue or superglue may hold your inflatable tub together long enough for a short use (or until your repair kit comes). You can use these in a similar way to the silicone suggestion from the last section.
Alternatively, tape has been the go-to fix for punctures by parents for decades! Duct tape, waterproof tape, Gorilla tape – any of these on a cleaned hot tub surface should stick for a couple hours, at least.
These solutions won’t last for long. We would recommend getting a puncture repair kit as soon as possible.
