PVC vs Hypalon

[Misiu]

My Zodiac lasted 15 yrs. I can't complain. It was stored down below most of the time and well cleaned after each use. This year the floor separated from tubes. I was told it is a common problem with pvc. The fix was expensive and questionable.
I decided to buy hypalon this time and finally got Achilles. I am moving my boat to Panama and will use dinghy much more than before. I didn't want to deal with the similar issue in Central America.

[Pete7]

Mark, our previous boats have all been rigid hull inflatables which are normally hypalon in the UK. We have seen Hypalon last over 20 years if looked after, however this is NW Europe so the colour is not critical apart from a couple of sunny days a year when it gets hot. However if I was going south then I would be choosing light grey hypalon. Any dark colour will be too hot to sit on, yellow fades as does red and white shows every mark. We do cover when not in use and again light colour covers keeps the temperature down.

I don't quite understand the earlier comment about repairs. Hypalon repairs are bicycle tire repair techniques except the internal pressure is only a couple of PSI even when a tube is hard.

In the UK PVC dinks are the cheaper end of the market and Hypalon will cost quite a bit more.

Some prices to give you something to compare against:

Tenders - Tenders/Engines | Marine Super Store

Pete

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Hi folks.

I wondered if anyone had any updated thoughts on this old question?


Talbot covered his Zodiac in 2006 - but thats not PVC its a special fabric.


Thanks.

Gotta go pump the dink...


Mark

G'Day Mark,

Actually, the Zodiac "special fabric" IS PVC, and suffers UV degradation. They don't have a very good track record in the hands of cruisers who use them every day, leaving them in the sun, bouncing off oyster covered rocks and coral and so on. Covering any PVC dink will extend its life for sure but may reduce the price advantage.

Patching Hypalon is easy, and if you use the infamous "SC2000" conveyor belt glue, very strong. That glue also has a very long shelf life which makes it good for us lifers.

Anyhow, I hope that you can solve your problem quickly. Life with a dying dink is not nice!

Cheers,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Cairns, Qld, Oz

[Steve Pope]

Walkerbay gave(gives, not sure if they still do) a 1 year warranty on PVC tubes and a 5 year warranty on Hypalon. My experience with PVC tubes on a Walkerbay 275 RID was disastrous. Had I known what to look for I would have recognized that the tubes were suffering from sunburn (degradation) inside the 1st year it was only after finding them getting even stickier in the 2nd year that I spoke to a repair shop who said what was happening was caused by UV rays & was normal for PVC. I emailed Walkerbay, who initially were responsive but soon got quite nasty and started basically calling me a liar. Eventually the local importer sold me a pair of Hypalon tubes at the supposedly discounted price of $1990.00 NZD. That gave me a dinghy that was considerably dearer than an equivalent sized alloy based RIB with hypalon tubes I could have bought if I hadn't gone for the Walkerbay. So Hypalon is the best way to go from the start, and if you make a Sunbrella cover their life will be extended several times over.

[Ashleykentc]

hi, wondering if there is much of a weight or hoisting difference? I need to be able to haul the dinghy aboard my 56 foot sailboat, cheers, ashley

[Canibul]

I could be wrong, but I think I recall my old Zodiac being the one that had a pvc coated fabric material. That's different than the cheap PVC used in pool toys and some inflatable kayaks. PVC alone doesn't last well at all down here. You can prolong it by keeping it out of the UV and keeping it inflated to something full but not tight. Folding it up is the kiss of death.

But even PVC stored out of the sun seems to die here. Elastic bands stored inside closed drawers inside a house will not last six months here. And I don't understand it. No UV at all, yet the rubber rots. Shoes in closets rot. The plastic regulator housings on our Brownie Third Lung hookup setup rotted.

Buy the Hypalon if you're going to be in the tropics. The PVC will let you down.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Canibul

I could be wrong, but I think I recall my old Zodiac being the one that had a pvc coated fabric material. That's different than the cheap PVC used in pool toys and some inflatable kayaks. PVC alone doesn't last well at all down here. You can prolong it by keeping it out of the UV and keeping it inflated to something full but not tight. Folding it up is the kiss of death.

But even PVC stored out of the sun seems to die here. Elastic bands stored inside closed drawers inside a house will not last six months here. And I don't understand it. No UV at all, yet the rubber rots. Shoes in closets rot. The plastic regulator housings on our Brownie Third Lung hookup setup rotted.

Buy the Hypalon if you're going to be in the tropics. The PVC will let you down.

It's funny, this is a 2006 thread, but gets revived from time to time.

The part in bold type describes how I feel about this.

However, about a year ago, we were faced with the need to put new tubes on our RIB, and we had thought to get hypalon ones. The cost for it was more than double.

Eventually, we decided to trial the PVC. This is an ongoing experiment. We did make a WeatherMax cover for the tops of the tubes. The PVC is of German manufacture, and the tubes were made in China, installed in Queensland.

So far, it holds air well, and the PVC is flexible. However, it is way too soon to evaluate it for longevity. Generally, the plasticizers are volatile, and the PVC stiffens and becomes brittle as it ages; in addition, UV seems to accelerate the process.

Ann

[Canibul]

My last experience with PVC, I must have run over a floating can with a sharp edge or something on it, and the brittle PVC not only holed, it split all the way down with an instantaneous loss of air. you want to talk about a sudden halt. Go from 10 knots to instant zero. Kinda like the sudden change in velocity when you jump off a diving board into the water. And there's really no saving it at that point.

I never had hypalon do anything like that. It gets worn, you put a round patch on it. Good for another few years.

[Wrong]

Mine is the third post in this thread where the tubing on a PVC Zodiac separated from the floor. Actually inflated and used the inflatable four or five times before this occurred. Most of the time it was stored in the aft cabin over a period of four + years south of the equator. Heat and ambient moisture are the most likely culprits...

Gave it away in Trinidad.