A Few Common Problems and Solutions

Perhaps the most common problem at one time was the end cap popping off. In those days there was the hideous red bands. Not hideous looking, but terrible to install, remove, and a real pain when it came time to change liner material. The idea was that the caps and these red plastic bands held things together.

I rapidly found that I could live without the red bands. I just started using 1-inch to 1.5-inch wide bands of  smallish liner material instead, as replacements for the function of the red bands. These liner bands proved much easier to remove and replace. They were quite effective in securing the installed liner at the entrance end.

Still the problem of the caps coming off at the wrong time remained. What was happening was the lubrication could work its way under the caps and into the area where they slip over the liner material on the outside of the housing. Once so lubricated there was no way to keep the caps on.

Receiver Caps Popping Off in Use

The solution for caps popping off is simple. First, you must clean up the cap and get all the lubricant off the inside. Second, you must clean up the liner, especially the part folded over the outside of the cap end and get all the lubricant off this. This could include any cornstarch as it is also a good dry lubricant.

The solution turned out to be another band of liner material. First cut a band of liner material. I might recommend 188 material for this, especially for the 2-inch housings and caps. Cut it at least 1-inch wide, maybe a bit more. Apply this new wide latex band over the cap with half of this band on the cap and half overlapping onto the housing, straddling the bottom edge of the cap. This extra pressure on the cap and the friction of the overlap should solve the cap popping off problem effectively.

Lubrication Clogging Cap Air Vent Valves

A second problem is lubrication clogging the cap air valve. One of course has to wash this out and clean it with a brush after each use. You probably also have to keep something like a jeweler's screwdriver, or  large partially straightened out paperclip, handy to worry it loose just before use. They seem to find a way to stick even if properly cleaned and need a nudge after storage to free up the little ball.

In use the lubrication seems to be magnetically drawn to the cap valve. I can in no way claim credit for this solution, but I can attest that it does seem to help a lot.  You can create a barrier for the lubrication and try to prevent it from reaching the cap valve. What is most effective for this is a modified baby bottle nipple. You need to find one that is two inches wide at the flange edges so it will just be as wide as the 2 inch tubular receiver housing.  I do not know of any baby bottle nipples that will fit the larger tubular housings like the 2.5 inch size.

Next you carefully cut off the protruding small diameter part of the nipple, leaving a funnel like creation with about a 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch hole in the center. Turn this upside down into the end of the liner on the cap end so its flange rests on the end of the tubular housing. Now just install the cap right over it. With this flexible plastic "funnel" stuck down into the center of the liner at the cap end, you create a mechanical barrier that is reasonable effective in preventing migration of the lubrication up into the cap valve.

In use the valves will usually clear themselves of reasonable amounts of lubricant. They can spit it about however. If this is a problem, depending upon exactly where and how you are using the Venus unit, you can cut the end of an old sock off. Cut it right past the turn at the heal. Now slip this sock end over the receiver as a cover and secure it with a rubber band. After use it can be easily rinsed out. It will effectively catch any lubricant trying to spit out of the cap valve.

Pinholes in Liners under the Caps

A second benefit of the nipple trick is padding the liner end where it is pulled up and over the tubular housing on the cap end. The end cap has several raised reinforcing ridges formed into it. These can attack the liner at a few pressure points and create a favorite place for the liner to fail after extended use. A place where small holes are ground into the liner material right at the end of the housing. Without something like the nipple flange to pad the top, you can try to avoid pushing the cap all the way down, thus attempting to seat it with a tiny gap between its reinforcing ridges and the top edge of the tubular housing. This can keep these cap ridge pressure points from pushing into the latex liner material. But the flange on the modified nipple does a stellar job of protecting the liner from the cap's pressure ridges as a bonus.

You can often salvage such a pinhole damaged liner by just pulling a bit more tension on it from the cap end. This can migrate the area with the holes up and over the outside of the housing so that good liner material is available to restore the seal on the end. The holes in the material outside the housing do not matter much. This is a nice quick fix for this favorite liner failure mode. Even if the modified nipple was not effective in reducing cap vent clogging with lubricant, it would be nice just as padding to help reduce this common failure mode of liner material.

A hole in the rubber causes things to quickly go wrong. You can test a receiver by carefully sucking a strong vacuum on it to inflate the liner into the tubular housing quite dramatically. Now seal things off and wait. It should stay expanded if everything is well sealed and not leaking. If it relaxes back down, you know you have a leak somewhere that needs fixing.

Loose Receiver Hoses

With use the hoses can become loose. Like all rubber products they can stretch with long use. The internal diameter of the hose gets larger where it is constantly forced over the tubulations on the receiver and power unit. A simple solution is just to cut about 3/4 inch off the end of the hose when it gets so loose it slips off at the wrong time. That should remove the stretched section at the end. Still you may have a problem tugging the receiver hose off the power unit.  A heavy duty solution is to apply a tiny hose clamp gently over the receiver hose where it attaches to the power unit. You need very little tension on the hose clamp to keep the hose from ever slipping off at the wrong time again, even if it gets a bit of a tug during enthusiastic use.

If you find that tugging on the hose is a recurrent problem, you probably need more hose in your favorite setup. You can order more from Abco in a longer length just right for your usage conditions.

A similar problem is the stroke control hose not opening up when the clamp is released. It seals or sticks shut. This is just old age catching up with the rubber of the stroke control hose. You can try forcing some cornstarch down into the hose to powder it inside, or just cut off the end of the hose where the clamp has been at work on it. Also you can purchase a replacement from Abco. The stroke control hose is something I found could be nearly twice as long as originally supplied. It is small diameter and even if made several feet longer to match the remote control head's cord length and leave lots left over, it will not add significantly to the trapped air volume.

All latex rubber will degrade over time and with use. So replacing the hoses at rare intervals may be required, though they should last easily a year or more depending upon use. You want to avoid getting lubricant into the receiver end of the larger hose. Once lubricated it will never stay put. You can wash out that end carefully with soap and water to fix the problem. Usually the lubricant is only in the last inch or so of the contaminated hose.

08/04