"Slime" filled inner tubes - do they go off?

[mikeymustard]

Got a puncture in one of these on Saturday. Thanks to being an idiot and leaving my pump sitting on the bottom of the stairs I had to ride the wife's bike home, collect the car and pick them up (luckily we were stopped at a pub only about 6 miles away from home). When I took the tyre off, there was a small pin-sized hole, I'm sure it shouldn't have let the air out of such a little hole. The tube is maybe 3 yrs old so could that be why it didn't work? Otherwise what is the point?

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Mine lasted for years and clotted nicely to the end. In fact the valve blew off and sprayed the gunk out like a Catherine wheel when it finally expired.
It's always possible you'd had that many holes there was no gunk left I suppose.

 

[Nigel182]

in my opinion i find these work better on my MTB's rather than road bikes as Off Road most are caused by thorns and i once took out a slime tube when replacing a tyre and found 12 holes sealed by the slime.....

 

[mikeymustard]

that was the only hole I could see. I might email slime if I can be arsed but I'm pretty sure they're not gonna replace a 3 yr old tube!

 

[Nigel182]

sorry mine have never lasted that long but reckon the Gook inside would probably go off never really thought of it that way.
Go on email them ya never know customer service can vary and emails ain't expensive it's only a few mins with the possibility of many a replacement or vouchers..... "He Who Dares" and all that.

 

[AlanW]

Before I went over to tubeless on the MTB I used Slime Lite tubes with a great deal of success. My only complaint was that the valves used to corrode and generally bung up.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Mine stopped working after about 2 years, there was just no more slime left, there were that many punctures in the tube. But far better than the new bike when I only got 15 miles before I got the first one which went completely flat, managed to pump it up 4 times to get the 2 miles home, it was replaced with a slime one & the spare I'm carrying is slime so that when the rear eventually gets a puncture it will be swapped out at the roadside.

 

[Donger]

Mine have always lasted at least as long as the tread on the Marathon Plus tyres I put them in. Hard to know whether it's the tyres or the tubes that work so well.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I think it's the combination of both, the Marathons keeping those little intrusions from happening in the first place, and the slime tubes stopping only the worst case scenarios. Kind of a mutual assistance, being greater than the sum of its' parts.

 

[mikeymustard]

Well I emailed and asked them yesterday evening, awaiting a response.

 

[palinurus]

I fitted a slime tube in the rear of my fixed commute bike, mainly because I'd rather not have to take the wheel off and if I get a (rare) flat. Since Dec 2014 I've had no punctures that have required more than a top-up.

Today, 20 months since fitting, it failed to seal a fairly small hole. It seems reluctant to cure.

I'm getting another one though, it's saved me a few times (I can tell by the number of green blobs on the inside of the tyre)