We've just come back from camping this past weekend, and due to the rainy weather, we had to put our Airgo Solus Horizon 6 up in the garden to air out. Last night, when I went to take it down, I discovered a huge air bubble had formed on one of the beams near the bottom. The result is that the inner tube has been damaged as it's malformed now due to the bubble, but the biggest issue is that the outer casing that houses the inflatable tube has completely come apart. It's a zip from one side to the other. The zip is still secured to the closed side by a cable tie to a nylon strap, covered by another velcro strap, but the whole zip has split apart at the seam. This is now completely damaged and cannot be used to house the inner tube now.
I rang our local Go Outdoors store where we bought it from, and spent about 8 minutes speaking with a manager about the issue. He told me initially that he couldn't help as their systems have just been updated and he has no access to my purchase history, but I explained that this shouldn't prevent him from answering my questions and assisting me with the issue initially. I wanted to know if it was a common issue and how it might have happened. He suggested a few things, one of which was over-inflation, to which I replied was impossible because we were told that the pump supplied with the tent has an outlet valve that won't allow the pressure to be higher than 7psi when pumping up the air beam. I was then told that he didn't know and couldn't think of any other reason for the huge balloon that was inside my tent. He then went on to say that as it's out of warranty, he'd be unable to help and that I should call their customer service team in Sheffield. I explained that I purchased it from the store and that I shouldn't have to be ringing a call centre for assistance, but the response was that as the systems had been changed and he had no information for me, that I'd need to talk to them about the issue. So I ended up spending 18 minutes on hold trying to get through to their customer service team in Sheffield. When I eventually got through, it took them over 10 minutes to find my purchase details on the system (they couldn't find anything for me at all until I had to reconfirm all my details), and then they advised me that they can't check what spare parts they have for the tent because they're in the middle of moving stock between warehouses. This seems a little silly to me given it's the British summer and most people would be out camping. Surely moving stuff in the winter would make more sense? Anyway, I digress. She suggested that I go to tent-spares.co.uk to find the part, to which I said that this wasn't a suitable response, having to use a 3rd-party company to source a replacement part for a fault. She finally said that I can go back to the store and speak with a manager, as they'd have access to my purchase history and they'd be able to assist. I told her that I'd already spoken with a store manager and was informed that their systems didn't have access to purchase history and was advised to ring customer service. I said that receiving conflicting advice wasn't helpful. Eventually I managed to get her to email me a copy of my purchase history (we've got the receipt somewhere but trying to find it with only a few days left might not happen in time).
All I'm trying to do is figure out what can be done to resolve my issue as we're off again camping this weekend and right now, have a tent that we paid £700 for in July 2017 that can't be used to due a fault that has not been caused by ourselves. It's clearly a design flaw with the product. It's worth noting that this tent was a replacement for a leaking Outwell Palm Coast 6 that was purchased in August 2015. My local Go Outdoors store were amazing and replaced it for me despite it being out of warranty because it had only been used three times, two of which it suffered the leaking due to rain. This Airgo has been used four times, been erected six times (twice in our garden at home to air out after a rainy camp) and I don't feel that it's right that it should have failed the way it has after such a small amount of use. Well, to be honest, usage doesn't matter. It shouldn't fail the way it has at all. And with no option to replace the item that's failed, it's essentially a useless tent.
I'll be visiting my local store today during my lunch hour to see if I can find a more amenable manager to discuss the issue with. I've spoken with Citizens Advice / Trading Standards about the issue as well. We'll have to see what the outcome is this afternoon.
There should be a cable tie holding the bladder sleeve together. If that cable tie has broken then the bladder can open the zip apart. If the bladder sleeve has not ripped and the zip works then just put the bladder back in and cable tie it shut, it will be fine but I would see if you can buy a new inner bladder. If the sleeve is ripped or the inner bladder is split then you will nerd both. Most brands such as Vango, Kampa, Outdoor Revolution etc supply spare beams or have a good stock of spares etc, im unsure about your tent as it's a Go Outdoors own brand.
------------- Gary Cross - The masked camping guru.
That's the problem. The bladder sleeve has come apart at the zip and doesn't look like it'll hold together now as it's been forced open. The third picture I posted shows the cable tie in place on the zip at the end of the zip line. Some parts of the zip across the sleeve are slightly misshapen now so even if I unclip the cable tie, it doesn't look like the zip will pull it back together neatly or properly now.
We've got a replacement inner tube for the beam, but you can't get the bladder sleeve replaced.
As above, good call from Gary, if it won't hold, get out the gaffer tape as a quick fix so as not to spoil your next trip?
For future reference I recently ordered 2 spare beams for my vango inspire 600xl and they came complete with the outer, ie, to zip straight in, no faffing putting bladders in ect, £30 each and they are a big beam
Made my deciosn to not go air beam route next year when replace our outwell much easier. Put me off all that hassale I’ll stick with steel poles and pollycotton.
------------- May 2020 - tbc
7tth August -15th August 2020 trevornick Cornwall
I would just like to say if campers go for a mainstream brand such as Vango, Outwell, Kampa, Outdoor rev in the rare occasion anything goes wrong now with an air tent at least those brands will have spares. As for shop own brands you'll need to draw your own conclusions
------------- Gary Cross - The masked camping guru.
I would compare your poor service to the service we received from Winfields. On our first trip with our new Kampa Kielder one of the air beams kept deflating slightly, very slowly so not really a problem. I emailed Winfields who asked for description of beam and photo to identify which beam it was. Within a couple of days we received a replacement beam in the post - great service.
------------- May/June - Spring Valley
Aug/Sept - Leekworth
I can safely say if you were to go with a great retailer then any issues you have will be swiftly dealt with.
We had an issue with our old Outdoor Rev 6.0xt.
New tube expressed overnight and a little sweetener for the experience.
All sorted very quickly.
Thanks to Gary.
------------- April Peak District Beech Croft Farm
May Peak District Duke of York
May Holland Delfse Hout
June Cotton Arms Nantwich
july/aug Cornwall Pentewan Sands
And quite a few local weekenders
Just to update, Go Outdoors cannot provide spares for the outer sleeve, and also are unable to offer repairs to the outer sleeve so if this issue re-occurs on other beams, you're essentially out of a tent. The zip pulling apart across the entire beam sleeve has made the zip weaker and this is what caused my reluctance to just zip it back together and deal with it. If I was to tape it back together, I'd have to tape up all the way along the entire beam from one side to the other as well (about 3 metres length), because the entire length of the zip had come apart, it wasn't just a small part of it. I'm not really happy with that sort of solution for something that cost almost £700 and has only been used for camping four times in total.
Anyway, after speaking with customer services at Go Outdoors, and another manager at the local store that we purchased it from, they agreed to replace it for us given the lack of repair options and replacement parts. Given the lack of backup and support on the Airgo tents, we've gone with a Zempire TXL Lite. Upon reading around, they don't seem to be prone to issues with the airbeams like the other tents have experienced (Outwells seem to explode), and their service options seem better, although only time will tell. I've read here about an issue about a year ago, but it was ex-demonstration tents and it wasn't the beam that broke, it was faulty guy lines. Zempire's service was described as amazing throughout, so I'm happy with that. We picked up our tent the other night and are looking forward to using it this weekend :)
Airgo is go outdoors own brand and spares are not available so be cautious buying them.
You’re lucky to get another replacement as you’re well out of warranty if this airgo tent was a replacement. Your warranty starts from the initial purchase, it doesn’t start again if this product is replaced under warranty.
Good outcome for you and hope this lasts longer than the previous 2
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Airgo Solus Horizon 6 - Air Beam Fault
via mobile 23/7/2019 at 12:41pm
