Hi I’m a DIY jet board builder that got suckered into buying a wavejet SUP package after the company came back from its first financial fail.
It was heavily discounted ( reason given was old stock being sold below cost to give them some operating capital for relaunch. So $2800 instead of $4200. It took 6 months to get the board.it looked great and everything worked fine ( noisy, jerky and slow) but as advertised. It for a lot of use 2/3 times a week for 9 months then it quit working. I called them up and they were helpful (I thought) because they said they would send me a new pod to replace the broken one and a shipping label to send the old one back . I got the new pod it ran for approx 5 hours so 8 to 10 outings and it became slow. Checked it and one of the jets was not working rattle inside said broken coupler to me.
Called wavejet and was told that I was past the one year warranty so I’d have to ship the pod $200 each way and pay ??? To fix. He also mentioned that a million dollars worth of drive trains so wither the complete pods or some parts were made of sub standard material and were causing failures like mine all over. Basically he had bigger problems than mine so good luck was the gist of it.
So I have opened up the old pod ( never sent me a shipping label)
And discovered it had a broken coupler and several of the plastic anchor points had broken allowi g a battery pack to move and I imagine causing the motor to move or vibrate which may have cause d the coupler failure. So I repaired the broken anchor points and replaced the coupler for the pod running again .
Attempted to join the two halves of the pod together. Tested it it ran great for 20 minutes then quit due to water getting into the pod.
So I opened it up a d cannabilized it for parts but I still have a pod that most likely has a broken coupler and I’d like to fix it and want to know if anyone has had success joining the two halves of the pod back together without leaks
Long shot but had to ask. I was considering using lots of 3M 5200 marine caulk in a continuous bead around the edges of the pod then use 30/40 very small clamps and clamp the entire perimeter till it cures. But 5200 is a moisture cure caulk so I’m concerned that it would not actually cure and after 15 min of running it would fill up with water too and I’d fry pod #2 .
So if you just know that 5200 won’t work I’d like to hear that because I can’t think of a diy fix besides that to bring some life back to this board. And any other suggestions are welcome
Thanks frank
Hi Frank…I have the same basic problem. One of the batteries in my pod will not charge and no response from WaveJet. I’m thinking about opening up the pod and had two questions for you:
How did you open the pod? and
Did you find a good solution to sealing it watertight?
Thanks for and help,
Steve
Hey Steve
To ooen the Pod you need several flat screwdrivers and a handful of wedges, I used shims you buy at home depot. You just wedge a screwdriver in between the two halves of tge case and as you open it stick wedges in to hold it open . Then work your way around till its Separated there is one plug to To disconnect and you have it open. To reassemble you first have to fet all the glue and 2 sided tape off both pieces i used patience and goof off. Then to put it back together get yourself about 12 $1.00 clamps at harbor freight and some short strips of wood or metal and a tube of 3M 5200 marine sealant
When youateready to assemble out a fatbead Of 5200 along one surface of the pod halves, no gaps then spritz it with water and pust the two halves together clamp it evenly all around and let ot drt ip for ay least 24 hrs longer is better take off the clamps when done and then take the plastic screw out of the case and blow air into the pod dont let it escape and listen or feel for anY spot that has a leak If you have a leak pry that area open a little and squeeze a bit more 5200 and reclamp
5200 is self curing so you have to use it within 5/7 days
Hope that helps cheers frankie
Hi Frankie - not sure if you will get this message - I am in a similar situation in Sydney Australia , I have three PODs and are using two for spares. How did your sealing go - did it work for very long?
I am taking a pod to a yacht repair place and they say they can seal anything , so fingers crossed.
Stew Sydney Oz
Hey there.
So the pod is still water tight and is working. I don’t use it a lot but it has been in the water at least a dozen times since I repaired it. I was lucky on this one as it was a slipping motor shaft so I just had to replace the coupler to fix the issue. Then to seal it I used a tube of 3M 5200 to bond the two halves of the shell together. I had a dozen small clamps spaced evenly around the perimeter to keep it clamped tightly together. I also found that removing the plastic bolt at one end allowed me to blow air into the pod and feel around the perimeter for any air escaping.
I also spritz the bead of 5200 with water before I put the two halves togetheri as it speeds up the cure. That has worked well for me. I hope that helps you. If you have any more questions let me know
Thanks Frankie
Hi again Frankie - I have had my pod sealed up professionally at a yacht repair business ( figured they knew how to keep water out hey ) I have used it twice in a week and it went like a dream again.
Thanks for your previous reply it gave me the courage to get the work done properly.
Cheers Stew Sydney Ozstralia
Hi again - sorry forgot to mention they built a wooden jig out of plywood that went all the way around the pod base and screwed the wood together to get a hard pressure seal with even pressure distribution around the edge - it worked like a dream as there were no spots that did not have sealing pressure on the join material. Cheers Stew
Glad to hear that it went well. If ypu dont mind me asking what did you pay to have the pod opened and closed up again?
I was originally gonna send it to Florida to get fixed but it was gonna cost $150 one way just to ship it and that was not mentioning the batteries. A lot more i imagine if i had said it had lipo’s
Thats when I decided to have a go myself. But I figured id be lucky to get any chsnge out of $600 with shipping and even a basic repair.
I hope it keeps working well fir you .
Cheers Frankie
Hi Gents. I found this forum looking for information on how to fix my wavejet SUP and surfboard motors. Like you I got suckered by a good offer. I was wondering if you had photos to share ?
I am on the fence about doing the repairs. I feel like I should sell them for what ever they worth a buy new faster type board. Or double down and upgrade the jet thrusters, motor, and battery. The battery life was not much of an issue, but the overall thrust is underwhelming. I guess what I am saying: is anyone interested in a SUP or surfboard? Or do you gents recommend any good value high thrust jets?
Hey Kev. I responded to you through my email then discovered it does not go through unless I’m on the forum .
So I had posted that my pod was still working and waterproof. All still true…. I did notice something rattling around inside the pod so I opened it again to see what was up.it ended up being a screw that holds one of the batteries in place. This seems to be a common issue with the wavejet pods the metal receiver that the screw goes into is built into the plastic body of the pod and they seem to fail fairly frequently as I have had 2/3/4 fail on each of the pods I have repaired. The fix is 2 part epoxy into the hole and push the receiver into the hole if you don’t want to deal with this again I would suggest mixing up enough epoxy to pour a little onto each screw that anchors the batteries and motors to the pod. That should stop additional ones breaking loose. The good news on the sealing of the pod is that there was no evidence of any water intrusion after sealing it with 3M 5200 and when I opened it it came apart very easily after the initial breaking of the bond . The old 5200 cleans off very quickly and unlike the original double sided tape they used there is no tedious hours of cleaning the tape off then cleaning the residue off it was ready to reseal i after 15 minutes of cleaning.
I had taken some pictures of it open and how the inside looked but I attached them to the original response that never went and they are not in my picture files so I don’t have any visuals to show you… but if you use a continuous bead of 5200 then spritz it with water and close up the pod , clamp it together evenly all around and leave to set for 7 days your wave jet pod should be good to go
Hi Kev and Frankie - Stew here from Australia - Like you I have tried numerous times to get a reply from wavelet but no go at all, However I have reconditioned two pods now with really good sealing done by a yacht repair place and onto my third pod with batteries failing to charge ( i bought two old pods here from a guy who couldn’t get them going ) , the no charge issue is related to some sensors inside which can be disabled - I am having two old batteries reconditioned with new lithium repacking and will reconnect these soon and see how it goes- will let you guys know how this goes, I have added some photos of the insides for you to view. Hopefully you can see them.
Cheers
Stew
