Necessity of the Top-Up-Valve?

[Clemens]

Hey guys!

A question for those of you who packraft frequently:

I was wondering: is the Top-Up-Valve really necessary? I see a lot of comercially available packrafts not having one – others do though.

Is it something you use regurlarly and would you recommend to install them?
Are there any known problems with them “sticking out” so heavily?
Do me they just seem to be a bit of a weak point.

Thanks for any inputs!
Cheers, Clemens

Topic

[eswets]

I often have difficulties openin only the outer cap of the Boston valve, ending up with screwing out the middle one-way valve too. Not something you vant to do on the water…

[Matt (Admin)]

I second Mark’s opinion. It’s safe to open the top cover of the Boston valve on the water because of the one-way valve inside, and you can top up through that. Bruce from Fairbanks carries a ~1 meter length of 7/8″ OD silicone tubing to plug into the Boston valve so he doesn’t have to twist around to get his mouth on it, which is a good idea. I can do it without the tube, but it takes a fair amount of flexibility. If you’re paddling with a partner, it’s a bit easier if you raft up and top up each other’s boats, and in many cases it’s just as quick to go ashore for a minute and top up there.

[Bruce]

The Boston Valve’s one-way middle partition is excellent. I use 1/2″ ID x 5/8″ OD tubing with a couple -three layers of duck tape around it to get a seal inside the middle valve. (7/8″ is for the larger opening when using my inflation bag.) I don’t want to snag the longer top-up tube attached to a top-up valve and have it pop apart. Especially if paddling in whitewater and attempting to assist someone who is swimming with their hard-shell kayal. If they grab the tubing instead of the webbing I have for them to grab onto? Oops! I could join them in the swim!

Bruce,

Fairbanks

[Mark]

I can’t speak from much experience since I just finished my raft, but I’d say that it’s not necessary. If I was building a second raft, I’d probably leave it off for now and decide later.

That said, I did mount mine already and I extended it with some silicone hose so it can be used from the normal seating position. But if you aren’t going to extend it like that, then you’re going to have to twist your body around to get to it (seeing how most people mount them beside the boston valve on the back of the raft)… and in that scenario you might as well just use the boston valve.

The boston valve has a one way valve in it so it won’t let air out between breaths, whereas the topup valve doesn’t have this feature.

[Author]

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