staehpj1

Reading an article about the latest Onza sealant I noticed some interesting claims. The article made me wonder about the claims and whether they were actually true or even anything new. Just marketing hype? More reason to use tubeless? Enough reason to switch brands next tubeless tire install? At the moment my MTB is the only tubeless setup in the fleet, but I'd go tubeless without hesitation if buying a new setup for touring.

One claim was that it had micro fibers that allowed it to permanently close a 6mm hole. That sounds like a pretty good thing and maybe possible.

The other big claim was that it never dries up. That was it seems based on an expected 8 month life of a tire. If it does dry up, presumably because your tires last longer than 8 months, they claim "you can simply top it up with water to re-suspend its hole-plugging synthetic latex and microfibers".

I have to wonder about adding plain water. Does that really work? If so is that really unique to this particular brand or can you do it with other water based sealants? I know that many (most? all?) brands are water based.

This is the link that I was looking at:
https://bikerumor.com/onza-tubeless-...-never-dry-up/

MarcusT

Never dries out, makes me wonder how it plugs punctures. It could be true about long lasting, but topping my current sealant once a year is not that bothersome
I'll give it some time and let a good number of user reviews come out before considering it

staehpj1

I think that they based the "never" on the notion that a tire will have a life of 8 months. My assumption is that it isn't all that different from other sealants in that regard.

Their 8 month life thing is pretty stupid. Some folks ride a lot and some not much. Some have a bunch of bikes (some with more than one wheelset). Anyway it wouldn't be unusual for even a very high mileage rider who wears out multiple sets of tires per year to have tires on one or more wheelset around for years. I know that way back in the days when I was running insanely high mileage I had a couple bikes that were hardly ridden and two that got almost all the mileage (my road and mtb race bikes).

Probably the most important apparent difference (other than maybe the claim of filling bigger holes) is that they claim you can add plain water if it does dry out. If that is true it would mean that you could replenish the sealant without adding weight each time since you just be replacing lost water.

FWIW I have my doubts about all the claims except maybe the fibers helping close larger holes. I also wonder if adding plain water might be okay to a point, but doubt this is any different than other water based sealants. I'd bet that it would only work while there is still liquid in the tire and only to a point where it got too diluted. I don't see how the latex is going to "resuspend" once it is out of solution.

sloppy12

sounds like all marketing BS. I have a hard time even reading when I see stuff like "life span"...

staehpj1

The "never dries up" claim almost certainly is BS. There could be a tiny nugget of (almost) truth if you can add water to replenish the sealant rather than adding weight of more latex and microfibers each time you replenish. As I said I have my doubt that even if true that it would be unique to their product as opposed to working with basically any waterbased latex.

I could see where their micro fiber claims could possibly be true or at least have some advantage.

That said, I am in no rush to switch from Stans since I have had good luck with it. I'll have to see some good results in some independent testing before I switch to something else. Otoh, I have been known to stay with a system so if I were to buy wheels and tires I might buy sealant from the same compant. That is how I wound up with Stans. Wheels, tires, and sealant were all ordered from them as a system.

I am a bit of a weight weenie, but it is a super pita to take the tires off and clean out all the latex gunk from the inside of the tire if you want to get it all the way back to clean inside. Rinsing out the loose gunk isn't bad, but rubbing off all of the stuck on latex is a bit much. So it is unlikely to happen much if ever on my bikes. I'd do it if I were seriously racing on the tires, but I don't race these days.

PedalingWalrus

the sealing of the hole is also affected by tire pressure and the width of the tire . too high of a tire pressure will just make the sealant burst through the hole. In my experience anything larger than about 3mm is going to leak and sometimes event one plug is not enough. You need to double up the plugs.

I would never add water to replenish. I mean cmon. Just pour more sealant in if You are low on sealant and let the sealant work as designed.

staehpj1

Well yeah, but Onza says that is what you are supposed to do, so adding water is arguably "letting the sealant work as designed". I am not saying I completely buy it, but that seems to be their claim. My question was one of trying to sort out whether there is actually any merit to the claim and if so it is actually something unique about their product or if the same would apply to other water based sealants.

I am curious enough to ask, but not enough to try it at this point. If I were to try it, I guess it would be easy enough to back out of a failed experiment, just rinse out the Onza sealant and put in the Stans again.

BikeLite

The claims seem marketing hype. Some even use Berryman's Tire Seal-R, another water based sealant. Most sealants to me are latex based. The Onza MSDS is on their site. Bronopol seems the main ingredient, whatever that is ; ).