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All Tire Sealants Are Not Created Equal

ALL TIRE SEALANTS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. Part 1= Adhesives/Latex

All tire sealants are not created equal. Never were truer words spoken! A tire sealant/additive is supposed to make life better by reducing or repairing tire problems. Unfortunately, make a bad choice in brand or type and just the opposite happens.

Let’s break down the differences and figure out what makes a good sealant and what to avoid. Today we are going to shed some light on tire additives or tire sealants and their use of adhesives/latex.

Tire sealants typically fall into one of two categories: 1) Those that use adhesive components such as latex and 2) Those, like FlatOut by MULTI SEAL, that do the job without any latex or other adhesive agent. Here, at MULTI SEAL, we strongly believe that in the majority of applications an adhesive/latex-based sealer in your tires is not the wise choice. Why are we so steadfast in our position? Well, let’s take a deeper dive into the issues:

Issue #1 – Effective life of the sealant

Let’s use the adhesive Latex as our example as it happens to be used in most tire sealants. Have you ever painted with latex paint? The paint starts as a liquid and is easily applied to the surface. What happens next is the basis for why we don’t use latex or other adhesive agents in FlatOut tire sealants. Once your paint is applied and exposed to air, the latex emulsion starts to break and it begins to dry or cure. The result can be a hard solid, like the painted surface, or something solid but flexible such as caulk. This also happens with the latex-based tire sealants. Once the latex starts to cure in the tire, it does not have the ability to seal punctures or slow leaks rendering it ineffective. Depending on conditions, this curing can begin within days to a couple months. Because FlatOut does not contain latex or adhesives, we truly last the life of the tire.

Issue #2 – Sticky hard to clean mess

Simply put, if you use a tire sealant that contains adhesive agents (such as latex) in your tires, it is going to change inside that tire and become something other than a liquid. Sometimes it turns into a sticky goo, or maybe a substance that looks and feels like dried caulk; either way it becomes water insoluble and is very difficult to clean out of the tire without the use of a solvent (which is not good for tires). This is one of the main reasons tire guys hate latex sealants! Because FlatOut does not contain latex or adhesives, we remain water washable for the life of the sealant.

Issue #3 – Balance

In many cases, when the adhesive or latex dries/cures, it can do so unevenly and cause balance issues in tires. We have also seen cases where the latex forms balls inside tire also causing balance issues. Think about that…do you want a ball of goo bouncing around inside your tire? Because FlatOut does not dry or cure, we do not have these balance issues.

For Part 2 of our “All Tire Sealants are not Created Equal” series, we will be investigating Puncture Size. Go all out with FlatOut Tire Sealant by MULTI SEAL!