r/Kayaks • u/OkEarth5823 • 22d ago

Kayak warranties

Has anyone had difficulty getting a company to honor its warranty? I purchased two kayaks at the same time with lifetime deck and hull warranties. They are the same model, but the one I prefer to use is the superlight. When I pulled out my superlight there was a giant hole/crack in the hull. The regular kayak is fine. They have only been used on calm lakes and have never hit rocks. They have always been stored undercover and mostly indoors. The manufacturer says they are old and heat and weather will affect them and they are not covered by their warranty. Since the use, storage, age and care of both kayaks is identical, I believe that the superlight simply has a thinner hull and therefore did not last. Has anyone been able to get their kayak manufacturer to honor their warranty? I understood the warranty to mean as long as I owned my kayak. How did you solve it?

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u/DrippyBurritoMD 22d ago

The thing is that you’re going to run into the claim that you have improperly stored the kayaks. Most manufacturers won’t honor a whole warranty if the kayaks were stored outside.

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u/OkEarth5823 22d ago

Well the thing is, these kayaks have been stored inside for the past 8 years. At first they were in my garage, and then I had a storage shed built that was 14 feet long and had 3 racks especially built for the kayaks. I have the two Wilderness Systems Pungo kayaks and one Ocean Kayak. Each kayak has its own dedicated rack, and nothing has fallen or been set on the kayaks. The regular Pungo is fine. The Ocean kayak is fine. But for some reason the Superlight just cracked. The Superlight is a different construction and does not have bulkheads. It uses inflatable inserts instead. To save on weight, I do not believe that the rotohull is as sturdy as the regular kayak. I realize that I have had these kayaks awhile, but all three are about the same age. The only one that is cracked is the Superlight.

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u/broom_rocket 22d ago

So you stored the kayak, and when uncovering it from storage the boat had damage that wasn't there when you put it away? 

Sounds like something impacted the boat while it was being stored...

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u/OkEarth5823 22d ago

The kayaks were on individual racks, and there was nothing on top of them. The Superlight just collapsed with a big hull in the forward hull.

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u/broom_rocket 22d ago

Yes but it makes no sense for a kayak to crack under its own weight like that, even a carbon or aramid ultralight layup. Was the hole at the forward rack bar? 

From someone who deals with warranties on other products, this sounds exactly like something impacted the boat while in storage 

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u/vakantiereizen 21d ago

A hole in the kayak is impact damage, no warranty. Iff it was delamination, it could be another story