TUBELESS SEALANT IN TUBES - DOES IT WORK? 

I can tell you from experience that it does work. I was running sealant in my inner tubes on my Journeyman. Never even knew that I had punctured my tires until it came time to switch to my winter tires. I took the tire off the rims and the inner tubes on both tires were completely shredded. It was a headache trying to peel the inner tube from the inside of the tire because they had become stuck to each other. However, I rode 2,000 miles on them with no flats. Zero loss of tire pressure.

Too much stretch and flex outside of the tire, put it back in and it will be fine.

I live in Las Vegas and thorns are a real problem. I averaged at least one flat tire per week. Then, I got five in one week. I had enough and decided to try two Slime tubes pre-filled with Slime. I didn't get a flat for 11 weeks! That was a record. When I finally did catch a thorn I could see I had lost some air, found a thorn sticking in the tire, pulled it out, heard a hissing noise and then it got a little wet as the Slime did it's thing. It was low but still had enough air to get me home. I filled it up and that was five days ago and I'm still riding. I guess you could say I'm sold.

Russ, I love these kind of experiments you're doing there, even if something like that doesn't work out. Always inspiring seeing you breaking the rules.

Been doing this for years after a massive thorn experience on a tour. I never seem to get flats anymore! Sometimes they get low but i just pump'em back up. When changing my tires for winter, i notice all the places the tube is stuck to the tire which would have needed flat repair otherwise.

When you removed the tube and added air and added air again later, the hole was stretched and it needed to be sealed again, that is why the sealant leaked each time. The tire carcass keeps the tube from stretching more. Also, inner tubes are made from butyl rubber which has no rebound like natural rubber or SBR, so running tubeless will give better riding. (Make a slingshot with an inner tube and with a piece of surgical tubing to see the difference. Each flex of the tube going around the wheel is like pulling on a slingshot, the other rubbers bounce back while the butyl rubber is like a shock absorber.)

Some years ago I decided to give this a try on my skinny tire commuter bike. I took the tubes out and disassembled the valves then poured in about an ounce of sealant in each tire then reassembled the valves and put the tires back together again. I then rode that bike for two or three years until I eventually got a large gash that allowed the tube to poke out from the tire and it rubbed through. I couldn't see the gash because of my full length fenders so I was not able to replace the worn tire in time to save the tube. I replaced both the tire and tube without the sealant and since have gotten about three flats so far. The last time I got a flat I replaced the tube and put an ounce of sealant in it and have not had any issues nor flats since. One thing to note is that my tires seem to hold the air better with the sealant in them where without the sealant I would need to pump air into the tires once every two or three weeks to not needing to pump more than a few PSI every few months. Tubeless works best for fat mountain bike tires running low pressures for better traction since low pressures on a tubed tire can lead to pinch flats.

I have been running sealant in innertubes for a while. In my experience it doesn't help me if I get a pinch flat. But it takes care of all the other little punctures that I seem to get (thorns, glass, thumbtack, staples, little shards of wire from car tires). By the times I get something big enough that I have to pull the tube and swap a new one in on a ride, I usually find that I have to pull out several thing from the tire so I won't puncture the new tube.

After my last flat, I put sealant in all my tubes and then carry a patch kit just for back up or large holes. So far hundreds of miles with no issues/ flats.

Half my bikes are tubeless. The other half I've wondered about this. I knew if I waited long enough someone would do it. Hahaha Thanks atb, Tony

I've been running sealant in tubes for a while because my OCD won't allow the chance of mess that can go along with tubeless setups. Plus, if you've ever seen what can come out of an old tubeless tyre, putting that stuff into a tube just makes sense.

Thanks for thinking about and doing this test! Especially with a real live almost flat.... Good work!!

I've had good success with sealant in tubes plugging all the little pin-pricks you get here in S. Arizona. But when you get a big thorn or other large puncture, I've found you can't really use bacon strips to pug the hole, and so you still have to pull the tube & patch it. Decent trade-off, for the usual little punctures, though, especially when you're running older rims that take a lot more work to make tubeless-ready.

I used to do this on my road bike, and it totally does work, but with some caveats of course. The sealant does seize up the valve cores after a while, and eventually you will get a hole it can't seal, and then find yourself riding home with a horrible sticky mess of sealant-covered inner tube in your jersey pocket. My ghetto setup failed finally when it punctured in the rain and couldn't seal. These days for road riding, I went from Conti GP 4000's with the inner tube sealant hack to slightly heavier duty Conti Grandprix GT's with puncture protection strips added between the tube and tyre, and 1,500Km later still haven't had a flat. Feels much the same, but won't have to faff around with sealant when it inevitably does puncture. So for me, I'd either go tubes without sealant for road, or fully tubeless for MTB/gravel, but the inner tube sealant hack totally does work and is worth a try. Assuming you have tubes with removable valve cores of course :)

I have used orange endurance in three bikes with tubes, and it works quite well. I wore out a gravel king tire, and when I changed it, found a wire in the tire but never lost air in the tube.

I've been running Muc-Off sealant in my two bikes with knobbies. I just yesterday hit a decently large chunk of glass in the front tire of one of my bikes, resulting in a hissing puncture. I popped out the glass with a guy and it kind of settled out, and then went home to patch it. While checking my tire for anything else I found a thorn and a piece of wire, both of which has already punched through and not resulted in a flat. I think of the glass had been smaller and less of a small slash in the tube I wouldn't have found myself patching it. I ran an inflated and patched tube through a bucket of water and couldn't find the other punctures, so I am concluding they sealed so well I don't need to patch them. I'm impressed.

I’ve been doing this for years and it has always worked great.

By far the sealant I've had the best luck with is Bontrager. I use it in TLR and inner tube set-ups and it works great.

I live in thorn and cactus world . Doping my tubes with Stans has been a help with the endless needle pricks. Thanks for the real world test. I can see going tubeless soon with my gravel/rough track bike, the townie not so quick.

I use Schwalbes Doc Blue in my Roadbike with tubes for a couple of years now and it was very reliable since that. That does not change it to a magic do it all bike but often i use shortcuts through the wood and on gravel I just go slower to be safe from snakebites. With sealant, the smaller things that just puncture do not bring me into serious trouble. Every year one or two new valves, thats it, cause they are sealed as well after a filling up a little bit every half year and pumping up every six weeks or so... here in northern Germany the temperature is not often very hot, so the sealant does not seem to be dried out so quick, so its a good option to use the old parts.

I’m from Arizona and I either run with sealant or I walk.

keep in mind. like you said, the tube will be inside the tire. you have the pressure against tire and the fact the tube isnt expanding... the holes when inflated outside of the tire are SIGNIFICANTLY more free to open up and allow air out without resistance. I put STANS in ALL my tubes now. NEVER have flats

I put sealant on the tubes and just finished touring from Tijuana to Can Cun. 6000 kilómetros with CERO flats. It works believe me.

I just completed a 326km ride on a mix of off-road and sharp rail trail ballast. As my Alex D19 rims don’t go tubeless easily I put sealant in my tubes in WTB 700x50 Ventures. It worked brilliantly although I ran 30-35 psi to ensure I didn’t get snakebites.

Was doing this with slime tubes 20 yrs ago, works great! Slime had high fiber content, and the green slime made punctures visible on the tread, no guess-work. When I run.out of my stans I'm going to try slime again.

Great real-world test. Like you, and other viewers, I do think it could seal in combination with the tire and the pressure. A long term test would be interesting, too. Personally, I'm building a gravel bike, however, coming from the road cycling scene, I'm "studying" a lot of youtube and other sources about gravel-builds. And this here is really one of the interesting vids on the topic of using sealant. Thank you for bringing this to us.

I use it in the tube on tours. It has worked for me when I hit many goatheads thorns, for miles and no amount of patches would. However it doesn't mix with patches, because it eats the patch and leaks again, in a short time.

My brief experiment with pre-filled slime tube came to an end when I got a snake-bite puncture on the ...er..inner part of the tube i.e. where the tube meets the rim. centrifugal force means the sealant only covers the outer part of the inside surface. When I took out the tube and tried to manipulate it I ended up with a messy tube that patches wouldn't stick to .. and then I walked home because I forgot a spare tube...

I just tried this today. It worked well. It was only a temporary fix since I have a tubeless tire I plan on switching to eventually

Nice work. mr. wizard! Cool experiment.

Interesting to know! Thanks Russ!

Looking forward to the update video. I was interested in the Muc-off inner tube sealant but if this works it's probably a cheaper alternative.

I've used sealant inside inner tubes for years and I can confirm it definitely works. But the inner needs to be in the tyre to stop the hole stretching. But it's sealed loads of punctures on my bikes and is easier to use if taking your bike on a plane.

I've been thinking about sealant in a tube, been having to buy tubes and change often, think I'm gonna try, thanks for the help

It's a fun look into your life behind the camera when you include the thumbnail capture and go, "ohh youtube" ha

I've done this for years and it work perfectly

Nice video Russ!

I had some luck with this technique too but I found it didn't really hold up to regular snake bites and road debris punctures. One thing I realized is that the sealant made it so a patch wouldn't stick to the tube, so that is one thing to keep in mind of you're heading out with this setup.

I started putting Stan sealant into my tubes and installed the tube into the tire, which still has a lot of life when I could seat my tubeless tire anymore.

I thought about going tubeless mainly because I have arthritis in my hands and can't always get the tire back on the rim. However, my lbs suggested I try sealant in tubes and so far so good. I had flat on my hardtail that sealed fine after I pumped it up and haven't yet had a puncture on the gravel bike as far as I can tell.

I've used sealant (Tufo) for fixing tubulars (which obviously have a tube inside) after a flat. It does work quite well at least for a while.

I ride a seven day 500+ mile bike event (RAGBRAI) and used latex tubes. Every year I would always get at least one flat. I started using sealant, both Stans and Orange Seal and haven’t gotten another flat. I have had a slow leak that never completely sealed but have never been stranded!

Great video man

Use stans in the tubes for two years. Works great. Normal pump and patch if needed. But i have not had a flat yet.

I used orange seal in a literal combat zone, between shrapnel in the sand and goat heads I was flatting out twice a week. Got some Orange seal in the mail and added it to the tubes, got several orange streamers (sealant coming out) but no flats over the next 9 months.

i used to put sealant in the inner tube of my tubeless ready mtb. i had a pinch flat in spite of the sealant. more importantly, i could not patch the tube. the sealant leaking in the area did not let the glue and patch stick. i converted it to tubeless after that. no problems with cactus spines and had to put in bacon strips once 2 years ago for a larger sidewall laceration that wasnt sealing on it's own and that fixed that. I'm still using that tire 2 yrs kater with the bacon strip still in place.

Guy at my LBS just recently was telling me he had sealant in his tubes and I was skeptical. This is poifect.

I bought a tube that came pre-filled with a green sealant (Slime?). It seemed to hold up to mountain biking in Sedona and all those cactus thorns. But these days, I would just go tubeless. Especially now that we have tire plugs.

I’ve run sealant in my tubes a couple of times, and they worked pretty well when I picked up small holes. Biggest issue was gumming up the presta valve.

Yep, kinda works for tiny pin pricks while the tube is supported by the tyre. It will significantly slow thorn punctures. Fundamentally though, the tube is too stretchy. Air pressure can force the sealant grit through even a tiny hole in a tube. With a tyre, the webbing that stops the rubber from ballooning under pressure also stops pinholes expanding much beyond the size of the thread pitch. If you slash the tyre, the sealant can't work because it just gets pushed through. Even repair noodles are only good up to a certain size of hole. You can patch a slashed tubeless tyre but if the parches are rubber only (no webbing) you also need to stitch the gash together first. Otherwise, the patch with prolapse out of the cut.

Useful info! I run Slime tubes and think I wlll keep on doing so. Take care and keep the great info going! :-)

I use slime car stuff when I have very little time to patch up my commuter. It works for a few days, then it unseals if the tires aren't rolling. This solution is pretty great if you were gonna change the tube anyway, because it's thicker than bike tubeless sealant, so it seals up quicker and doesn't spray everywhere (+you can get it in hardware stores or even big supermarkets). Doesn't work well with patches though

Sealant in inner tubes works, the tube just needs to be in the tire to get it to seal effectively. I've used this on my old non TLR 26" MTB and it sealed very reliably, thorns that protruded into the inside of the tire by the length of a finger nail have been sealed successfully. There was a area of dried sealant left around where the thorn had punctured, cleaning the inner tube to apply a vulcanizing patch was also a bit more difficult and I wasted a patch finding that out. Once the patch sticks though it doesn't require as much of a good fit since the sealant will close any small holes left eventually. So after about 6 months sealant in inner tubes I am very much satisfied and also have to note that inner tubes with sealant even seem to hold air better than before.

Had to smile when, after talking about the accuracy of the "Rolex" of tyre gauges, you measured the pressure and said "the reading was just under 30 psi".

Yes indeed. I use orange sealant in 3 bikes in tubes. Works as well as tubeless and the sealant doesnt dry up near as quick in a tube...Ive actually never had a flat running sealant in a tube. Centrifugal force plays a roll in sealant doing it's job. And yeah tubes are inside a tire usually.

I use Kenda tubes with sealant at 100 psi on my road bike. It got me out of a jam. Returned home after a 50 km ride and discovered I punctured. It never flatted and I was none the wiser. In the end, I had to replace the tube because sealant kept oozing out. It will get you home.

If nothing else, a little sealant is insurance and may give you just enough of a boost to get back home/ to the car so you can change the tube out in comfort and not on the side of the road/trail. Nice!

it definitely works. ive run something over on the trail. it sealed up in a few seconds. i limped it to the closest bike shop and they aired it up and i rode a thousand miles without changing that tube.

I don't know about the kind of sealant you're suing here, but I have found on the tubes where I've used Slime or Fix-a-Flat sealant, the valve eventually fails to hold air. A little bit of the sealant ends up fouling the seal at the valve, and I end up replacing the tube. However, the sealant has gotten me out of a few jams, and I would have replaced the patched tubes eventually if I had patched them instead. No real loss.

May want to mention that not all Presta valves have removable inner cores. It’s good to check this when buying tubes if sealant is to be used. Cheers

I do this on my city bike. No punctures since I set it up 2.5 years ago. City. Glass, debris, curbs, everything. Zero flats. Used Stan’s in a butyl CX tube.

I used to run the original "Slime" in all my tubes before tubeless came around, worked like a charm but that stuff is so thick and heavy for the first 5 mins of a ride on a cold day you could really feel an imbalance in the wheels until the thick goop had spread itself around the tube. Getting it into a presta valve tube was always a hassle too.

If you angle the stem downward while releasing air you will have way less valve sealant clogging issues. I also do this while filling w/ air & avoid angling straight downward as to prevent splashage.

I have had Stan's in tubes, but it dries up. I use either Flat Attack or White Lightning Tube Armor. Neither of them will dry up as they are based on propylene glycol. The only flat I've had to fix on the road in about 5 years was a double snakebite cut from hitting a curb at 15 mph. I did have one that wouldn't hold air after a while and discovered that it had more than 50 thorn holes in it. It had USED UP all the Flat Attack.

In my experience stans Sealant in tubes works sometimes and othertimes not so much. Good to have options in case it fails. Ie still carry a spare tube and patch kit.

I tried this experiment sort of by accident and poured a full 2oz bottle of Stans-NoTubes into a hybrid tire tube (without removing the tube from the tire) and filled it to 60psi. prior to adding the sealant, the tube was completely flat even after a Bike Tech had inspected it the day before and said it was good to go, but went flat overnight. did not spend much time spinning the tire around to spread the sealant and it has been sitting idle for a few days now and it’s still rock hard…

I'm interested in this not because I'm necessarily opposed to tubeless, but because I ride on some vintage bikes whose rims just aren't made for it, and getting replacements for them now is no trivial task

I use sealant (after the first flat) on cyclocross tubulars, and while it takes a while to seal, and isn't 100%, it's enough to keep me going for half-day rides, and has let me use tires for their full life.

i daily commute in portland oregon about 15 miles each way. the roads are full of glass from smashed bottles and broken car windows. i was getting flats on a daily basis, then i bought a salsa marrakesh, put some 100 dollar rene herse tires on it set up tubeless. no flats for about a week until a large piece of glass destroyed my rear tire. im now riding a old rockhopper with similar rene herse tires but the endurance variant. running tubes with a few ounces of orange seal. i have put about 1000 miles on this setup and only today had my first flat, which was repaired by re inflating and spinning my wheel. im sure i have had dozens of punctures but i dont notice anymore. i think todays puncture didnt seal because i was riding in a very heavy downpour and the orange seal undoubtedly was getting washed away by the water.

You coincidentally did it the same way the instructions on pre-filled tubes state. Before using valve; position at 12 oclock, and allow several minutes for sealant to settle away from valve area. When puncture occurs; position puncture at 6 o'clock. If puncture does not immediately seal rotate slowly 90 degrees in both directions until sealed.

After a few goathead thorn flats, I tried sealant in the tube on some of our bikes a few years ago. (I was using Orange sealant also.) A few months later, I had multiple failures where the tube blew out at the valve stem. The tube blew open so far it could not be patched. There is some internet chatter that the sealant "eats" away at the glued joints at the tube's valve stem. Not sure if that is true, but I gave up on sealant in tubes after several nasty failures. I now run tubes or conventional tubeless.

I've been running 'Slime' sealant tubes for about 20 yrs on both road & MTB bikes. It maybe a bit heavier than tubeless or normal tubes, but I very rarely have punctures. I once did a tire thorn check on an MTB tire. I stopped counting after 90......

Recently found your channel and enjoy the content!! Although, I would appreciate a video about drop bar shifters and comparability. I am working on converting my old Trek 8700 Pro Composit into a drop bar gravel bike. Cheers!!

interesting. I don’t know if there is mtb or road or gravel bike specific tubless kits and sealant but I know with mountain biking tubeless setup you can put your tyre pressure like all the way down to about 20 psi. 👍 cool video.

I’ve been using “Slime” since I was a kid in my mountain bikes! I’ve heard the rhetoric many times about Slime attacking valves etc. because it’s a petroleum product but I’ve a problem!!! I’ve had great results with *Southwest Sealant” but it’s been discontinued! If you wanna run tubeless run tubeless with your favorite sealant but DON’T put tubeless sealants in your tubes! Run Slime

I have three bikes. A Specialized Rock Hopper hard tail, a Salsa Mukluk, and a Specialized 2018 AWOL. The Rock Hopper is tubeless. It's great. But at too low of pressure I burped it once and lost a lot of sealant. (I learned not go too low!) But the Mukluk I've never done away with the tube. (Lazy maybe?) I've had probably thousands of tiny punctures, but so far nothing horrible. It does make for a heavier ride though. And currently I'm still running tubes in my AWOL (with Orange Seal). So far, even on chunky gravel, I haven't had a problem with pinch flats (yet). But, I'm soon going to upgrade to 42 mm, instead of the 38's I'm running now, so I may go tubeless then. Not sure. I was glad that you had luck with the inner tube sealing up. I will say that if you get too many tiny punctures with sealant in the tubes, that it will eventually migrate between the tube and the tire casing, and it can be a mess when you do take the tube out. But it's not been a huge issue for me. Thanks for this look at the tubes and sealant issue. I've been doing that for a long time.

Sealant I tunes is great. I use it all the time

i experimented with sealant in tubes in a pair of gravel tyres. ran them for half a year and totally forgot about the sealant. when i swopped them back to commuter tyres, i was surprised to find the rear tube covered with dried sealant, so it did seal a puncture that i had hitherto been unaware of. because the sealant had smear and dried all around the tube, i'm not even sure where the puncture is!

I've heard that the sealant works best as you ride or spin the tire because the centrifugal force forces the sealant outward into the puncture.

In the past I used Slime. But in the Summer time in Phoenix AZ the slime forms into marbles or balls about the size of a penny. The do not melt down and make a lot of noise. And do nothing to stop leaks. Its 111 f here today.

Given the opportunity, replace the tube when you get a leak. Even old fashioned patching isn't a sure thing. And the 'new' self-adhesive patches? Every one I've ever tried has failed, albeit not immediately. If you do patch a tube, use the 'old' style of doing it, but take time to do it right. If you're caught in a rain storm or losing light, then the sealant can be used as an emergency back-up. Otherwise, replace the tube with a new spare, or one that has been patched prior under the best of circumstances, and left inflated for weeks to prove the viability of the patch. Something I've learned by cycling for over half a century is to buy quality adhesive and patches, and the smaller and thinner quality patches are almost always best, as they stretch with the tube, not leaving thumping flat spots.

Using sealant in my tube since 2013. The stuff is different than the one I'm using in my MTB tubeless setup! You need tube specific sealant in this case.

i wonder how much you need. This is good to know. In DK I expect to run tubeless, but if a problem exists insert a tube. So if another problem exists, you could put sealant in the tube too, if you have enough. I would be willing to try this out if nothing else is working, in order to keep pedalling. thx.

I developed tyre sealants 30 years ago before the tubeless systems was there.I have 17 brands over the world ,same s!t different labels. I push the nozzle directly through the tube a drop of superglue and a small piece of tissue paper on the glue...works perfectly.

I ride my MTB in the desert by a creek. LOTS of thorns. I always had to take 2 tubes. It got old fast. Tannus liners and tubes. Haven't had a flat since. I just pull the thorns out of the tire rubber when I get home.

during the late 90s I put a "car sealant" in my inner tubes, the car sealant was so thick that I did not have a puncture for many months , so by the time my John Tomac tires was so worn out the inner tube holes glue itself to the tire wall, I did the same using bike and motor cycle sealant but it did not work at all.

I've always ran sealant in my tubes. Maybe that's why I never understood why people hate inner tubes so much!

I might have to try this out. I could never get ghetto tubeless to work, thanks!

The benefit of sealant in a tube is to buy you time. Usually you'll get a slow leak that could be repaired or replaced at a more convenient or safer time and place.

I've been putting Orange Seal Endurance sealant in the tubes of my 6 bikes for the last 7 years - I haven't had a single puncture since.

While a tubeless set up may avoid snakebite punctures, when running low pressure you still run the risk of burping air and flatting.

I use to use Slime in my Mtn bike tubes back in the 90's, worked most of the time. Nowadays my new Trek Roscoe 8 is setup tubeless and it has already proven to work. One of my local trail networks has alot of thorns and I have found several stuck in my tires upon cleaning my bike.

Thanks for doing this experiment. My guess is that when you shake to tube, it flexes enough to break the seal.

Hasn't sealant been used in road cycling long before road tubeless became a thing? I use Vittoria tubulars with latex tubes and always put a couple ounces of Orange seal in each one. Works quite well. I think sealant works better on latex than butyl.

hi can you use inner tube sealant on a tubeless wheels? i bought a muc off inner tube sealant instead of a tubeless sealant, i wonder i can still use them for my tubeless wheelset

I look at this method as having run flats on a car. It’s not the end all be all solution but will get you home where you can then replace the tube with a new one if you don’t carry one on you.

I did the opposite and went from Orange Seal back to Stan's because Orange seal evaporates way too quickly at least down here in the Florida heat.

Hey Russ, Love the channel, been doing this hack for years now. I live in a city with tons of Debris and glass to the point of which I would get 1-2 flats a week at least and now I only get flats maybe once every 3-9 months from a razor blade or obnoxiously large piece of glass. Also for people wanting to try this themselves you will usually need more than recommended due to the powder inside the tube and since the tube is more stretchy than tubeless compatible tires, it takes a good bit longer to seal larger punctures.

It's basically the same idea as Pannenschutzspray. People will have a canister of this stuff in case they get a flat on their Holland style bike. It's basically compressed gas and sealant in one "shot."

I’ve been doing this for a couple years, first on my fatbike before I went tubeless, and still doing it on my commuter/gravel bike. I use orange seal and on my commute pick up about 4 goat heads each day. Every now and then I’ll have to fill it up a bit, but can usually goes days before I need to add air.