Any one have quality control issues with Impex kayaks?
FishHawk
None here
I have had no issues with my Assateague
Here either
I love my Montauk.
is this a poll?
Yes, there are a number of small quality problems that affect certain boats. It’s not wide spread and it isn’t nearly as epic as NDK, but I would put your chances at 1 in 10 for getting an Impex boat that needs a little work.
Are you experiencing issues or just trolling for info before a purchase?
My Assateague is fine
No issues of any sort.
once
had a light gelcoat discoloration and a small bubble underneath, other than that we’ve had quite a few of their composite boats pass through the shop with no issues.
no issues on my boat
My Force 4 has held up great over 4 years of hard use. When I was shopping, I looked at different Impex models at two different dealers. There was one boat with a small area with missing gelcoat that never should have left the factory and should have been rejected by the dealer. Otherwise, 8-9 other boats all looked great. I’d say Nermal’s estimate of 1 in 10 with problems sounds about right based on what I saw. This was 4-5 years ago.
No issues with my Force 3
During 3 years of regular use.
force
Force 5 going strong on year number 5. After some abuse i have had to do one repair, and that was to shore up the coaming that had come a little loose. Not a qc issue though, just wear and tear.
The only issues i know of with others are with the k-lite hulls getting soft in hot weather. There was a thread about that here a few weeks ago, and a buddy of mine recently mentioned to me that his is doing the same. His force 4 is going on 3 years old and he just noticed it.
All in all i’d say they make a bomber glass boat. Although the k-lite is amazingly light and cool looking, i’d wait untill they work the bugs out a little.
Had a tree crush two…
but it wasn’t the kayaks’ fault.
Gel coat cracks
My Outer Island is getting lots of spider cracks in the gel coat but otherwise it’s very sound. I did crack a thigh brace but not sure if it was any kind of defect. Anyway, Impex sent me a huge care package to repair it. Good as new now.
Gary
Looking to buy
Meta yakker with an Impex and he had bubbles in his gelcoat. He had to exchange the yak. I was wondering if this is a common problem. FishHawk
I had
I had a bit of an issue with Impex but they stood behind their product and made good.
I saw one come off a car on I-5 at 60
All that was left of it was a piece of fiberglass cloth, but I don’t think that’s Impex’s fault. I saw another with a skeg control that hit me at the knee. Uncomfortable, but I think it was designed that way.
We have an ongoing issue with them
They started off being quite communicative but it is getting more dificult to get a response from them…
Geoff
No issues here
My Assateague has survived all the beatings I’ve thrown at it including being dropped from the top of a car without significant damage.
I’ve had a couple of self induced skeg problems and needed to replace the grab handles etc. It’s an older boat and they no longer had the parts in stock so they had them made for me. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another Impex boat. Mine is solidly built and the service has been great.
Impex
have come through and stood behind their product. The situation is being fully resolved.
Might be hydrolysis, which can occur
with polyester resin and gelcoat, but is much less likely with vinylester resin and gelcoat. You can read about hydrolyis blisters on the West epoxy website. It’s pretty easy to fix a few blisters, but I had a canoe that blistered so extensively that I gave up on it.
I strongly suspect that Impex used vinylester resin for the cloth layers, but I can’t say about the gelcoat.
None here either
Had an Assateauge, now a Currituck. Both great. Put a kink in the skeg cable but haven’t found a way to blame Impex for that.
Jordan