Torellian

I was thinking of buying a bunch of inner tubes before they go way up in price. I've seen them go from $3 to $5 at my LBS. But since I wouldn't be using them right away, I'd hate to take each one out of the box to test since I can't get them stuffed back into the box the way it was again. If I don't get to use it for a few years, I couldn't take a defective one back to the store.

But how often are they defective? Has anyone here ever bought an inner tube, installed it, and then found it to have a hole in it when you tried to inflate it?

Retro Grouch 

1. Everything has a failure rate so I suppose that applies to bicycle innertubes too.
2. Defective bicycle inner tubes aren't nearly as common as the horror stories you hear on the internet would have you believe.

Torellian

I actually haven't heard of any myself. It's just that an inner tube isn't something that can be tested unless it's taken out of the box and inflated, which is hard to reverse. But something that important really should be tested.

reptilezs

too late the prices of tubes and tires have gone up already

Torellian

I know, but I don't expect them to stop rising. I want to get "locked in" before it gets to the point where gasoline is cheaper than inner tubes. LOL

gyozadude

I stock some tubes. But just for the family. I keep about 4 for each type of tire, and we have 5 bikes in the household. 20", 24" and 26" presta and schrader and 700c mid/narrow. That's 5 x 4 each or around 20. I keep them in the box, taped up with clear tape and inside ziploc bags to reduce oxidizing which will crack or cause embrittlement of the sidewall especially where it's folded. I have tubes from 10 years ago that hold pressure just fine. My record for longest tube? One of them in a MTB tire has withstood 8 yrs no flats and still works great.

timg7

On the few occasions I have had a newly-installed tube fail, it's always been one that's lived in the garage for a few years before being used. The join around the valve stem seems to the place they go. So IMHO, it's not worthwhile stockpiling tubes.

Sci-Fi

Are you buying boxed or bulk tubes? In any case I would zip bag, talc powder, and date the bag. Failure rates may vary as mentioned by others.

LarDasse74

I have changed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tubes over the years (for myself and for friends, family, and customers). I cannot recall ever finding a tube that would not hold air because of a problem with the tube. There have been many instances of the tire going flat imediately after, but as far as I can recall, it was always due to installation error (pinched, damaged valve stem during inflation, overinflated and blew out, tire not properly seated and blew out) or caused by some other faulty equipment (poor/missing/moved rim tape, damaged tire, sharp edge on rim).

Tubes are pretty simple items and their manufacture has been pretty much perfected over the past hundred or so years.

BTW, patches are now and always will be cheaper than buying a new tube to repair every puncture.

Al1943

I have definitely bought defective tubes with holes in them right out of the box. But all of these were purchased more than 5 years ago.
I've also experienced patched tubes deteriorating when stored in my garage. The same tubes when stored in my house have had no problems for years.

mrrabbit 

If buying a dozen tubes with a worry about defective tubes is keeping you up late at night...

...perhaps you should just take up walking. A lot cheaper, and you only need one pair of shoes - which will last a couple years.

Seriously, there are more important things to worry about bicycle related:

1. Square taper bottom brackets.
2. Polished 27 x 1 1/4 rims. (Which I import.)
3. 7,8,9 speed cassettes
4. 5 speed freewheels
5. Getting a ticket for not exercising "the priviliege" of using a bicycle lane because you chose to exercise your "right" to share the road with ALL vehicles.
6. True 1" threadless stems...
7. random++;

=8-)

wroomwroomoops

I don't think oxidation is an issue with butyl tubes.

EDIT: and if it were, zip bags would do nothing to prevent it.

wroomwroomoops

Wait - what's the worry about square taper BBs? Are they becoming hard to get?

LesterOfPuppets

I hope not. I still see a lot.

Reasonably priced Italian thread Campagnolo 102mm square tapers are hard to find now. I saw some $50 clones a couple years ago. But now all I'm seeing are $90-130 units.

Al1943

What about a combination of higher than normal ozone levels and 90+ F temperature in my garage? I had several folded tubes in the gagage develop big irregular holes in the folds. The same tubes mounted in tires on bikes in the garage were fine, no holes. The stored tubes were stacked on a shelf. Nothing was spilled on them. The holes looked like chemical burns.

wroomwroomoops

The oxidation rate of butyl rubber is extremely low. So low that the oxygen from air leaking into the tires (through the beads/rim interface and the spokeholes) has a many orders of magnitude higher rate.That means, there is no practical difference whether the tubes were in the open air or inside the tires.

Part of my research is vacuum technology (and PVD, CVD, ALD etc.), which helps me put these "flows" into some perspective.

I'll get back to the holes you mentioned, later. UFC's starting.


EDIT: wait, you said ozone? Where'd that come?

qmsdc15

Get a case of Torelli tubes and store them in the fridge.

Al1943

I don't know what caused the holes, but the tubes were not exposed to anything other than the air in my garage. We normally have 2 or 3 cars in the garage with all doors closed. There is also an A/C - gas fired furnace. It's my understanding that gasoline at elevated temperatures emits ozone, as do electric motors.

Flying Merkel

I have had one defective tube. Bought for $3.00 at the swapmeet. Valve stem ripped out. Other tube failures have been due to installation issues, a rim with a flat spot, and sidewall failure of the tire.

gyozadude

Oxidation is perhaps an overloaded term. The meaning I try to impart is not that it's -O2- oxygen only. But perhaps other factors. And as one scientist to another, I can assure you, if you keep tubes in the dark and in a zip loc that is water tight and relatively air tight, the RATE of ion-exchange interactions that lower Helmholtz free energy will DECREASE and thus make your tubes last LONGER. But that's just me, because I like to take advantage of sales and I have had many tubes come out cracked from the box or out of the seat bag already cracked after a few months on the road. Putting them in both the dark and in a sealed bag enables me to go a year or two even on the road without issues. YMMV.

Edited: The post was mostly in response to wroomwroomoops.

Al1943

And I was not trying to argue, I'm really interested in trying to figure out what happened to my inner tubes that were stored in my garage.

timg7

Certainly the rubber seems to last a long time. The valve stems can corrode though, and weaken the metal-to-rubber seal.

How much money are you saving by stockpiling tubes?

Sixty Fiver

We had to send back a lot of tubes a few years ago... they were continuously bursting at their seams and it did not matter who or how carefully they were installed.

SoonerBent

A batch of bad tubes can happen. A few years ago I bought two new Continental Gran Prix tires and three new Continental tubes. I put the tires and tubes on and took the third tube as a spare. Also had a patch kit. Went out on a often ridden 60 mile loop. Had to call my wife and have her come get me 20 miles out. All three tubes failed right at the circle shaped joint where the stem reinforcement meets the tube.

wroomwroomoops

Just for the record: I don't argue with any of it. I guess I just underrate zip bag seals. I think keeping the tubes in dark is a good idea. I also think stockpiling them is a good idea, also, so we agree on that point, too. Only shades of grey separate our views