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I'm considering changing from Mucoff sealant, to Stans. Is it correct that Stans contains Ammonia and is midly corrosive ? there are a few claims of it destorying Aluminium rims by corroding the spoke insert points.. any truth in this ? Any better sealant suggestions instead ?
https://www.imtbtrails.com/forum/threads/stans-sealant-corrosive.2905/
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stans-tubeless-do-i-ever-bother-again/
Seems unlikely given how widely used it is. I have bee using it for 15 years, or about 7 on my current oldest bike in use. No issues to be seen.
If you're worried (I wouldn't be) I've recently switched to Effeto Caffelatex. Which doesn't have either latex or ammonia in it.
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Stans been fine for me for many years. Plenty of alternatives though. The Geax one is pretty good, and I just bought a bottle of Peatys to try... but whos to say they ain't corrosive too...
I've had (literally all) nipples on spokes corrode away, LBS reckoned sealant played a part in it
Age and negligence definitely didn't help. Now the wheels are re built with new spokes etc, I'm going to take some effort to actually look after / clean / retape etc once or twice a year
Surely it doesn’t get to the nipples / spokes anyway due to the tubeless tape sealing the hole?
Can’t say I’ve had any issues and been using stans since 2017.
I’ve had (literally all) nipples on spokes corrode away
Alloy nipples corrode anyway due to road salt or just dissolved minerals in mud allowing electrochemical corrosion. This is probably far more of an issue than sealant. I've had to re-nipple (second hand!) wheels because the bit that sticks out of the rim crumbled away, and that was nowhere near any sealant.
Alloy nipples corrode anyway due to road salt or just dissolved minerals in mud allowing electrochemical corrosion. This is probably far more of an issue than sealant. I’ve had to re-nipple (second hand!) wheels because the bit that sticks out of the rim crumbled away, and that was nowhere near any sealant.
Aye that probably is it!
Alloy nipples corrode anyway due to road salt or just dissolved minerals in mud allowing electrochemical corrosion.
Yup. I always specify brass for this reason.
Never had a nipple or rim corrode from Stans.
Stans makes my skin itch badly. The ammonia definitely isn't great for my skin. So would avoid my nipples. Wheels don't seem to mind
Joe's seems less aggressive but I'd still avoid getting it on my nipples.
So my understanding is as follows. Most tyre sealant are a latex suspensions. Some are natural some are synthetic (caffelatex).
In order to keep the solids in suspension and prevent them coagulating some use ammonia (Ammonium hydroxide) to keep them alkaline. I'm assuming this is the same as water based paints.
There are other ways to keep things alkaline and, indeed, keep things in suspension but these are more expensive. I think from the fact it claims to be CO2 compatible that finish line uses a different approach.
In any case you are looking at very dilute ammonium hydroxide which isn't particularly corrosive. I imagine if you left an aluminium nipple in stan's sealant it would still be useable long after you are gone.
More likely a latex allergy?
Not sure what's going on with that quote?
Stans makes my skin itch, I assume due to the Ammonia. In the same way I need to wear gloves, latex or other to remove all the flesh from a cooked chicken. In the case of the chicken I assume it's down to the fatty acids?
Certainly when dealing with an alkaline solution at work, which others can deal with fine without gloves, I'll itch like hell. Although it is strong enough to sting in any small cut and will corrode alluminium eventually.
Don't know where this is all coming from.
But I've been using it for ten years and never had any problems whatsoever.
Probably a rumour started by other brands tbpfh.
Safety data sheets are here;
https://www.notubes.com/support-center/tech-docs
Alkaline solutions are good at removing fats - they turn them into soap. If I remember correctly soap was originally made using fire ash (slightly alkaline) and animal fat.
Stripping the oils put of skin would cause itchiness.
Nipples are anodised and even normal aluminium would have a protective oxide layer. Should be enough.
If you want to dissolve an aluminium seatpost out of a steel frame you need to use saturated sodium hydroxide. That's orders of magnitude stronger than ammonia. Again my experience is that only a tiny amount is needed to make it not neutral/acidic. From distant memory it was a pH between 7 and 8.
Phil's SDS shows that whatever corrosive ingredients are in there, are not in sufficient quantities to warrant labelling.