Weldtite Tubeless Sealant

Weldtite Tubeless Sealant offers reasonable protection for punctures up to a claimed 6mm wide. The large 1L bottle offers good value and does not appear to dry out as quickly as some, but then it isn't the fastest at sealing when a tyre does suffer a puncture

When testing the Weldtite sealant I used it on a full range of bikes, including a road bike, a gravel bike and a mountain bike. The quantity recommended ranges from 40ml in narrow (18-23mm) tyres to 60ml in a 28-35mm road-plus or smaller gravel tyres, and up to 120ml for 29in mountain bike tyres.

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This quantity for some sizes is more than some other brands suggest, with Hutchinson Protect'Air Max being 30ml for road and 60ml for 29ers, for example. Stan's No Tubes suggests 60ml for road and 120ml for mountain bike, as does Panaracer with its Seal Smart. The 1L Weldtite bottle provides enough for eight tyres, even at the maximum recommended 120ml per tyre.

Recommendations for installation are for it to be poured directly into the tyre, which suits tyres that seal easily, and this was the option I used most frequently.

Weldtite doesn't say anything about installing this through a coreless valve. For some hard-to-inflate tyre/rim combinations this method can be preferable, as it reduces wasted sealant, and in practice I found it worked absolutely fine. It does not have any large particles within it, as some do, such as Stan's No Tubes Race. Those cannot be installed through a valve as the particles will likely block the valve.

Performance

After installation, every test tyre held air in every instance. The sealant was left in for over a month and during this time it didn't dry out within the tyres, or show any sign of drying out quickly, which some sealant can.

I had no punctures that I noticed, which either means it sealed them without me knowing or I was lucky not to have any.

To fully test the sealant I used it at the quantity recommended and purposefully punctured a worn tubeless road tyre inflated to 80psi with pins and nails of different thicknesses.

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When the tyre was punctured with a small pin roughly the size of a thorn it sealed instantly, but when punctured with an oval wire nail it bubbled for several minutes, not sealing perfectly straight away – as a result, it lost a little air pressure.

Compared to others I have tested in the same way it's middling, although some of the more effective sealants – Stan's No Tubes Race Sealant in particular – dry out much quicker too.

Value

The 1L bottle offers quite good value against those only sold in smaller bottles. Against similar sizes it's competitive: Muc-Off Tubeless Sealant is £29.99 for a litre, for instance, while Hutchinson Protect'Air Max is a little cheaper at £25.99 per litre.

Overall

For value and puncture resistance, Weldtite Tubeless Sealant is reasonably good. For riders looking for long-lasting protection in an area where thorns are the biggest risk – rather than flint or glass cuts – it's certainly worth considering.

Verdict

Reasonably effective sealant that lasts well before drying out