Different tire sealants

I used to suspect that all of the tire sealants were pretty much the same… I bought muck off as my local shop had it and it was cheap. I’ve been struggling with punctures recently, to the point where I now have three tires and I rotate through them as one tire is being repaired. The other day I bought some stans sealant and whilst I’ve only been out on two or three rides I haven’t had a single puncture that I’ve had to stop for.

Whil higher than perhaps the mock-off sealant would like (60. On my gravel bike ) – stans seems to be handling this perfectly

This is a very unscientific test but so far the stans seems to be winning

I’ve only ever used Stans. It just seems to work. Tyres go up fine, stay inflated and when I’ve replaced them I’ve always found a number of thorns or other items in them that the Stans has sealed.

It’s so effective now that I’ll go on a 30 mile circular ride without taking a spare tube or repair kit. TBF at the furthest point I’m only a 30 minute car journey away from home, so can always call for a pickup.

Agreed… I started with Muc Off and found it to be total junk. Stans is definitely the best for my current set up.

Interesting. I have always used ‘orange’ sealant without any issues. But recently tried Peaties. It comes with a silicone tube that fits nicely over the valve to aid filling and it just seems better. It has lots of little bits in it. Time will tell.

The off.road.cc site did a semi scientific test of quite a lot of them a year or two back, they’re definitely not all the same. Vittoria and WTB did best.

I ran Joe’s which I understood to be essentially the same as Stans, i.e. latex based. I didn’t have a problem with it but based on that group test, Benji on here praising it and giving it 2023 editor’s choice runner up, and lack of Joe’s availability, I switched to Vittoria.

Still no punctures but it does seem to be a bit more eager to turn from liquid into sticky mass, which is presumably a good sign for puncture performance. Left my syringe for 5mins before washing it and it blocked it, also blocked a valve after I didn’t blow the stem clean before refitting the core.

I found Peaties to be useless, the awful sparkly bits didn’t endear it to me either.   I tried the orange one and it was reasonably good. But I’ve resorted to using Stan’s again because it’s consistently the one that works best.

Stans is very good imo, the main downside is that it does dry up and become ineffective. On the plus side pretty much every bike shop in teh world sells it, albeit often for stupid prices.

I’ve switched over to OKO Hi Fibre (same as Halo sealant)- it seals up and seems to handle flats about as well as anything I’ve ever had * but also it’s cheap, and it’s water soluble and dilutable. So if you think it’s drying up you can just add some water to thin it down again. The downside is, it’s not that common to find in shops so if you’re away somewhere and have a problem you’re not as likely to find some, and it’s incompatible with stans and others because of the water base. I just put a little bottle in my tool kit but it could still catch me out some time.

* (who really knows? Every flat and tyre is different, and the better a sealant is the less flats you actually get, but it’s definitely not noticably worse than Stans, and it might be better…)

Still no punctures but it does seem to be a bit more eager to turn from liquid into sticky mass,

I had a litre bottle of that once. It seemed to need topping up a lot more than Stans, etc. Also very hard to clean out compared to other brands.

Edit: No, that was Effetto Maripuso Caffelatex

I’ve switched over to OKO Hi Fibre (same as Halo sealant)- it seals up and seems to handle flats about as well as anything I’ve ever had * but also it’s cheap, and it’s water soluble and dilutable.

Sounds good. Looked it up and where I am it’s basically the same price as Stans 🙁

Interesting you say Stans dries up quickly, I’m in a warm climate and don’t seem to need to top up very often.

I thought that all tyre sealants were water soluble?

Quite right, good catch, I should have said water based. The difference is it can be diluted, rehydrated etc as long as it hasn’t totally dried solid. With stans and most others that’s a one way process, you can’t revitalise it just with water, you can thin it/bulk it up again but it’s still lost its effectiveness.

I’ve only ever used Stan’s and never thought to change. The only times I’ve had problems have been when I’ve had rim tape issues.

I’ve found Stans and Joes to always work faultlessly.

Some cheap stuff from Planet X, that was latex based, worked very well.

Currently using some Halfords stuff (as it was on offer silky cheap) that looks and smells like rebranded Stans.

Oko was a mixed bag – worked well on one set up, but never sealed another 🤷‍♂️

Shock news, another sub par Muc Off product with a lot of marketing behind it.

I mostly use Stan’s. I was an early adopter and it just works.

Did try some orange stuff once. The only real difference was that it stained everything it got near. Not really a useful USP for me so that went in the bin.

Stan’s long term user as well. Only thing it hasn’t sealed in 12 years was a 5mm long thin staple cut on a road tyre.
Last bike I bought, the shop set it up with Peaty’s and when I fitted inserts at home it was a disgusting mess and really hard to clean up. Tyre tread still stained in places with that awful glitter.
Have one set of wheels with Orange as I got a free bottle from the shop. No punctures so far but will still swap to Stan’s when it the Orange needs replaced. It’s just easier to keep one big bottle for all the top ups. Like others have said, you can buy it in virtually any LBS or Halfords. Maybe not the absolute best but good enough in most situations and convenient.

Another Stan’s user. Although I have used both Peaty’s and ore recently Muc-Off as that’s what my local bike shop had. Muc-off seems the worst of them really, doesn’t seem to prevent leaks from punctures at all. I’d rather deal with the dried up ball of Stan’s than the pink slime of Muc-Off every single time.

Used Squirt for a long while as that’s what my mate had in his shop and he swears by it.

Another OKO Hi Fibre user here – I buy direct from OKO (but you can also find it on Ebay). I’ve been very happy with it – easy to use (they sell a syringe for injecting through the valve) and has been trouble free in all the tyres I’ve used it in except a Conti Race King, where it did dry out over a couple of months and needed a top up. I don’t think that’s unusual for that tyre though and it’s now sealed that tyre fine. I swap tyres winter/summer and have found it quite easy to clean up the tyre I’ve swapped out because they wash out easily with water.

I’ve mainly only used Stan’s but did use Orange Seal for a bit and thought it was pretty good. Mate is about to go tubeless for the first time with Conti Revo so we’ll see how he gets on with that…

Always used Stan’s. Seems to work, and mixing seems a bad idea, so stuck with it. Maybe others are better 🤷 Lasts long enough IME.

Side note: was Joe’s a Chiggle home brand? Got several sets of their valves which were excellent for the money.

Pulled massive thorn this weekend, Orange sealed it with minimal fluid loss. Very impressed.

Side note: was Joe’s a Chiggle home brand?

Nope, independent company. Just seen where they are from too.

FWIW in my early days of tubeless over here (had to import Stans rims myself as no one stocked them in Sweden at the time!) the local shop owner decided to ride the wave and bought a shed load of Joes sealant and conversion strips.

Ended up chucking about 500 quids worth of stock as no-one could get any of it to work.

I even spent a couple of evenings round there trying. My stans stuff (usually) went up first go and stayed up. Couldn’t get the Joes to work, at all.

I’m just about to swap my rear NobbyNic for a summer FastTrak. I’ll find out if the Stan’s has balled up on this occassion, but in my experience have never had any issues with it balling up.

As others have said Stans just seems to work really well. Don’t really top it up that often either, and [so far] no issues with punctures, despite lots of thorns sticking out inside when i change.

I am using it in MTB tyres and road tyres, and zero issues in both use cases. Road tyres not topped up in over a year.

Having said all that I will now puncture next outing, and the NobbyNic will have a huge ball of latex in it!

I tend to stick to Stans but have used Joes, Peatys and a few others over the years. All work fine, the only one I’ve had an issue with is Muc Off, it wouldn’t seal even the smallest of holes.

Stans just works. Tried the rest but always end up going back to it. The only (potential) issue is that it’s ammonia-based but the jury’s out on whether it shortens tyre lifespan or not.

Quite a few of them use ammonia. It’s in there to raise the pH and keep the latex emulsion stable.  My guess is the others use a buffer or other alkali to keep the pH correct. I think this is why some you can use CO2 with – normally it neutralises the alkali and it becomes unstable.

It’s very similar technology to water based paints. Not sure if Dulux would work as a sealant but it would be pretty if it didn’t.

IME what Stans isn’t so good at is sealing porous sidewalls. Challenge or Orange are better at this.

Scrub the inside of the tyre first, helps the sealant to wet the inside of the tyre.

Oko hi fibre for me too. The water soluble bit is great for cleaning it off the drive, garage floor, walls and ceiling after a tyre went pop.

It seems to work well for me. £10 a litre last time I bought it.

Mostly stans- mostly great. Problems have been caused by rims not sealing.

Orange- didn’t work. Coates the inside of one tire and left a rubbery layer that needed picked of bit by bit.

Something from on one- didn’t work.

And have used stans happily ever since

I’ve tried a few (Muc Off, Bontrager, Juice Lubes, Peaty’s) and always ended up going back to Stan’s. So now that’s all I use.