Jack's Plastic Welding, Inc.

Paco Pad FAQ

You may realize that some of the answers to the questions below are subjective based on our experience. Your experience may be very different, and we suggest you email us at the info address below if you have different opinions.

The foam in my pad is folding over and getting stuffed up into one end. Is there any way that I can fix this, and how can it be avoided?
If you have a pad that has D rings on the top, congradulations, that pad is probably about 10 years old. The reason why we took the D ring patches off is because they added to the problem. If the Pad can be rolled up half the time with the logo up and half the time with the logo down, then the foam has a difficult time folding over and getting all stuffed up in one end.

If the foam is folded into one end like this it may help to get a little air into the cover, Shake the unfloded end (opposite the valve) hard to the other end of the cover. Next try to work the corners of the folded end of the foam back into the corners of the cover. We use our thumbs to push the corner of the foam toward the corner inside the loose cover. This takes some patience, but is infinitely easier than packaging it up and shipping it to us. Give us a call if there are more questions or problems. 505-334-8748.

My Pad has soaked up a bunch of water. What can I do to fix it?
When a pad is full of water, it will not work very well. Try to avoid floating on a pad that has holes, a bad, or open valve. The easiest way to get the water out is to hang the pad upside down with the valve down for about 2 weeks. Every day you must take a minute to try and squeeze the water out through the valve. When you can not get any more water out, place the pad in a warm area. Place it on the the south side of the house, where the sun can heat up the remaining water, and turn it into vapor. Then suck the air out with a shop vacuum. If you do this for a couple of days when the pad is at its hottest, you will be able to get all of the water out. This does not take as long as you may think, just a couple of minutes a day.

One other way is to cut the bottom of the pad off, dry out the foam, and reseal the end. If you prefer this method, call us, and we will fax you instructions and a drawing of how to put the cover back together with our glue. Our phone is 505-334-8748, and our fax is 505-334-1901.

You may also get information on how to fix wet pads by clicking here.

My paco pad valve is broke, can it be replaced?
We have a patch that can be put over the hole when you cut the existing valve off. Or if it is just the blue and white part, cut that part off, dip the end of the white part in some of our glue, and twist it into the tube. In any case you will need some glue, and some parts. If the blue part is missing, then just call us, and we will send you a new blue part it snaps into place. See a drawing describing valve replacement with a valve patch. See a drawing describing the replacement of the valve assembly in the valve stem.

Have you considered using memory foam for your pads?

Yes we have considered this, but we have actually had some pad foam that was made as if it were memory foam, and we did not like the way it functioned. First off Memory foam is really just slow rebounding foam. In other words it comes back to the original shape, only much slower than standard foam. This does not seem to work well inside of a pad cover because of the time it takes to roll and unroll the pad. We have had some pads returned because they were made with “memory foam” and the customer did not like them. This was purely unintentional. Our foam supplier made a mistake, and we did not catch it.

Why is the corner reinforcement not welded all the way around the corner?

We call this type of corner reinforcement a corner condom. It protects the part of the pad that protrudes out and is harder than the surrounding pad cover. This point causes a wear spot. The corner condom design provides a more flexible point of wear both on that corner, and on the cover where the corner of the foam is. We have found that when we protect this welded corner from wear, the next place to wear is the cover where the actual foam corner is. This flexible patch protects the cover at the corner of the foam more effectively than just a straight patch. The picture below shows a pad rolled up that has a corner condom. note that only 1/2 of the grey patch is welded to the end flange of the pad.

Should I leave my pad unrolled for storage?

It would not hurt to do that. We have noticed that customers who do this have pads with foam that maintains its loft for a lot longer. The big question then becomes…. Is my pad less comfortable if the foam loft is less? My experience is that it is not significant on 2 inch and higher thicknesses, but can be significant on 1 ½ inch thickness. We have limited garage space, and we always roll our pads so they fit better on the shelf. Our 2 inch thick ads over the past 20 years have probably lost ½ inch of loft. However I do not roll them extremely tight. Once we made 1 inch thick pads, and I would caution customers against that. 1 inch does not seem to be enough protection for most customers.

Older pads are shiny, and newer pads are dull. What is the difference?

Our supplier has been trying to get us to turn the pad covers inside out for years. We finally decided he was right. The dull side has more coating, and will last longer in the sun because of it. On the other hand, some of those shiny pads are more than 20 years old.

Can I get corner reinforcements on my old pad?

Yes! If you have not glued the holes our used aqua seal or heaven forbid silicone, then we would like to charge 20.00 and shipping cost. Please call us and arrange for an RA number that you can put on the box when you ship them back.

If you have repaired the corners before, or you want to do it less expensively, you may want to glue a corner condom on yourself. Old raft glue that is about to expire for AIRE, Sotar, Star inflatable, Rocky Mtn, Maravia rafts will work. If you are using the multi-purpose staybond adheasive for hypalon pvc urethane and neopreme, that will work too. We recommend that you make a new corner my sqirting some glue into the hole with a syringe. You do not need to use much. Smush it around, and then glue the flange to only !/2 of the corner patch.

We will send you corner patches free of charge if you want to do this yourself. Please send us an email to either eamil adresses at the bottom of this page, with your Mailing address so we can send them cheaply with a postage stamp.

Paco Pad corner Condoms a do it yourself guide

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