Inner tubes - learn from my error

[Eyebrox]

I bought five inner tubes from Halfords for £10. This is a bulk buy deal that's running long term. The first tube kept losing air. I would pump it up to 75 psi and go for a ride. Next day it would be sitting at 40 psi. I checked for slow punctures but found nothing. Time after time. Every cycle would begin with the same procedure - check tyre, pump it up and pedal on in frustration. One by one I changed the cheap inner tubes and all of them did the same. I reckoned that I had been sold a faulty batch and there may be a weakness around the join. That's what happens when you buy cheap, I ventured. I binned all the bargain buy tubes and bought expensive tubes from my local bike shop - never, of course, to own up about my experience with the Halfords purchase. Alas, the same problem arose with the "quality" Schwalbe tubes I had just bought. I was determined to work out how they were losing air. I spent more time squeezing tyres and pumping them up than I did actually cycling. Immersing the tube in water produced no hissing, even when I blew it up to super size. Eventually ... I discovered why my tyres were going down. I filled a kiddies' paddling pool and submerged the whole wheel in water. Okay, the hub bearings might suffer but I managed to detect a few bubbles from the valve. All along the leaking air had been seeping out the valve. It wasn't broken. Just that my arthritic hands had never quite screwed down the locking nut properly (Presta type valve). I've now cleaned it and sprayed it with WD40. Shuts fine if I set my mind to it. Could have done without the head scratching and extra expense though. Apologies to Halfords about doubting their merchandise and saying so to all my cycling pals. Back on the road now, tyres and ego pumped up after a month of bafflement. I share this to save others from similar experiences!

[TrekMad]

I bought 20 inner tubes from Decathlon for £25 and I have to say they are absolutely excellent. Hold air very well indeed, long valves and touch wood no.punctures on three bikes in 6 months. At this kind of price I doubt I would bother to ride a repaired tube again anyway. This is an ongoing offer, and not a 'special offer'. Has been going for at least a year now.

They sell like hotcakes too, even bike shop owners have been seen sneaking in early hours to buy a few dozen!!

[TrekMad]

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/C-755612-bik ... collection

2x tubes: £2.50

[thirdcrank]

A tip for anybody wanting to test for the same problem without dunking the whole wheel is to fill an egg-cup with water to immerse only the valve.

[531colin]

A tip for anybody wanting to test for the same problem without dunking the whole wheel is to fill an egg-cup with water to immerse only the valve.

TC, you brightened up my breakfast!!

[iandriver]

There seem to be hundreds of brands of inner tube out there. I'd like to know how many factories are out there making them, I suspect it's just a few.

I've always got on OK with cheap tubes and suspect they come out of the same factory and are the same as some "premium brand" tubes.

[Brucey]

BTW if you don't have an egg-cup handy, a little spittle will soon tell you if a valve is leaking.

cheers

[thirdcrank]

I'm afraid I was unintentionally too clever sounding by half. It's easy to come up with the answer when somebody like the OP has already worked it out.

The egg-cup thing was something I'm pretty sure I read in the comic 50+ years ago. "Older readers" - about 95% of the forum membership (?) - will remember that latex tubes of that era deflated pretty quickly anyway because they were more porous than butyl.

Discovering the source of something like this can be on a par with tracing a mysterious noise. On a bike used for commuting, experience tells me to check if it's some colleague with a well-developed sense of humour. Inflating a tube and putting it under water is a well-known way of tracing a puncture, but that doesn't allow the higher pressures sometimes needed to identify a slight leak from a valve.

BTW, top marks to the OP for publishing this.

[Eyebrox]

The last time I heard a hissing noise from the bike I was surprised the wheels kept turning and there was no sudden halt with a flat. It was coming from the mouth valve of my water bottle.

[cycleruk]

Last week one of the group had a puncture. Not unusual of course and no problem with that.
I pumped up the punctured tube to discover it was a patch that had lifted so not something in the tyre carcass.
What mystified me was why a load of water came out of the tube when I opened the valve.
(and no not from my pump. )

[drossall]

I believe that Richard's Bicycle Book mentioned the egg-cup trick.

[mig]

Last week one of the group had a puncture. Not unusual of course and no problem with that.
I pumped up the punctured tube to discover it was a patch that had lifted so not something in the tyre carcass.
What mystified me was why a load of water came out of the tube when I opened the valve.
(and no not from my pump. )

from the paddling pool?!

[73Chaz]

I recently had a slow deflation issue with a brand new Schwalbe inner tube. I went for the compromise solution between an egg cup and swimming pool, utilising a half full bathroom sink. Revealed that air was seeping out of a seem in the metal of the valve stem. Never experienced that before. Tube went in the bin.

[MikeF]

BTW if you don't have an egg-cup handy, a little spittle will soon tell you if a valve is leaking.

cheers

Ah Yes. The old ways are the best. Easy to do and detect on a Schrader valve, but not quite so good on other types. Always used to test car tyre valves like that and it would check the smallest leak.

[Fex54]

I have been using cheap inner tubes and suffer slow deflation. I have been putting up with it but will now get an eggcup.

I do however have another, minor, problem. When pumping up I find that, initially, I can pump to 120+ psi and the valve will not let in air. Pumping even further will suddenly produce a little click as the valve opens, the pressure in the pump drops to 40 or 50 and the tyre fills. After that all is well.

I always open the valve manually after unscrewing and let a little air out before attaching the pump. Sometimes I have to remove the pump head and let more air out before the pump will admit air. I only pump up to 80 - 90psi and am unsure why this occurs. I have not tried WD40, or anything else, on the valve but will try, probably with GT85.

Has anyone else had and solved this problem?

Fex54