Ask anyone in our office which sealant they run and you'll get an answer, plus a mild argument about whether Orange Seal or Stan's is the "correct" one. Every tubeless setup we own has a bottle of something in it right now. So I want to make this clear, this isn't an anti-sealant post.
What this is, is a nudge to stop treating one bottle of sealant like it's your entire plan for flat protection. Because it never signed up for that job, at least not on its own. (wink wink)
Okay, So What Is Sealant Actually Doing In Your Tire?
Credit where it's due, the chemistry is fascinating (this might get a little nerdy). Sealant is a mix of liquid latex particles suspended in water. Puncture the tire, and the sudden pressure drop pulls that liquid toward the hole. The water starts evaporating right there in the wound, the latex particles clump together, and within seconds you've got a solid plug. Basically a scab, forming mid-ride, without you ever noticing.
For small holes, this works great, it's why we buy it. Most sealants on the market close punctures up to somewhere around 5 to 6mm almost instantly, with you none the wiser. That's the job it was engineered for, and in that lane, nothing beats it.
Now if small punctures were all you had to deal with, sealant would be all you would need. Sadly, reality can be brutal on a tire, which is where sealant's job ends and other products step in.
The Hole That's Too Big
Push past that 5-6mm range and sealant begins to lose its sealing factor. You'll see fluid weeping out instead of sealing, which is why plugs and bacon strips exist, they give the latex something solid to grab onto and bond with. Without one, a big enough gash just empties your tire onto the trail.
That's the dramatic version, one hole, one bad day. The slower version doesn't need a single big cut to wreck your sealant, it just needs about thirty small ones.
The Problem Goathead Country Teaches You the Hard Way
If you ride where puncturevine grows (aka Goathead Thorns), Utah, around Boise, most of the Southwest, you're rarely dealing with one dramatic puncture. You're dealing with countless punctures in a single ride.
Individually, every one of those tiny punctures can easily be covered by sealant. Collectively, they add up, causing sealant to cure faster in the tire, instead of being ready for the next hit. Riders in these areas talk about pulling a tire apart at the end of a season and finding more dried rubber in there than actual sealant.
Keep in mind, the sealant didn't fail, nor did the science. It's basically a real life scenario of a "death by a thousand cuts"…you get the idea.
We're not going to pretend a tubeless insert fixes punctures. Nothing inside your tire stops a thorn from reaching the casing. If you ride goathead country, the answer is that you check your sealant more often than the guy in Portland does, and you keep a plug kit in your pack.
And that's true even if you never see a single thorn. Every bottle of sealant is running out the clock the moment it goes in, goathead country just speeds up the timer.
Let's Not Forget About the Clock
Even you lucky souls who don't get a single puncture, sealant is still curing the whole time it sits in your tire. It's water-based, and water finds its way out through the sidewall when the tire flexes.
Most mechanics recommend checking your sealant every 2 to 4 months. Riding through a Southwest summer, move that closer to 6 to 8 weeks, heat and dry air pull the moisture out fast. Skip that window and you won't know your sealant's dead until a hole that should've closed in five seconds just...doesn't.
Worth saying: few actually do this on schedule. Most nod along thinking they will check, and then it's eight months later and you're standing on a shoulder somewhere finding out the hard way.
Quick version, if you're the type who skims read the next two sections.
How Often Do You Actually Need to Add Sealant to Tubeless Tires
Somewhere between 2 and 4 months for most riders. Tighten that to 6 to 8 weeks in hot, dry conditions, stretch it toward 5 to 6 months if you're somewhere cooler and wetter. Pull the valve core and look. Dry clumps instead of liquid, or a puncture that should've sealed and didn't, means it already tapped out on you.
And How Much Sealant Goes In There
Depends on the tire. Rough starting points most manufacturers land on:
- Road and narrow gravel: around 1 to 2 oz (30 to 60ml)
- Gravel and XC: around 2 to 3 oz (60 to 90ml)
- Trail, enduro, and plus-size: 3 to 4 oz (90 to 120ml)
Check the bottle you actually bought, because formulas vary and the manufacturer's number beats a blog's number every time.
All of that assumes sealant's actually going in the tire in the first place. Some riders skip it, so let's settle that one too.
Can You Ride Tubeless Without Sealant
Technically, yes, the tire will hold air without it. But you're giving up puncture sealing completely and leaning harder on a bead-to-rim seal that sealant usually helps maintain too. We wouldn't recommend it. The real argument is what sealant still can't do for you, even when you're checking it on schedule and running the right amount.
Two Different Jobs, Not One Job Done Twice
Here's the actual point. Sealant is a repair layer, a fail safe for when punctures do come. It handles what happens after something small already got through the tire. It doesn't change how often something gets through in the first place, and it has zero say in impacts that never puncture the tire at all.
That's a separate job, and it's the one a tubeless insert was built for.
Tannus Tubeless Inserts aren't trying to take sealant's job, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. Sealant still handles the puncture, same as it always did. What the insert covers is the stuff sealant was never built for.
- Rim strikes, so one bad hit doesn't end a rim and a ride at the same time.
- Pinch flats, because the insert absorbs the compression instead of your rim doing it.
- Confidence at low PSI, so you can actually run the low pressure that gives you grip without the tire going vague underneath you in a corner.
Run them together and you've got both failure modes covered instead of betting the whole ride on one. That's the setup basically everyone here rides, and it's the setup countless athletes have been running and winning with at races like Leadville and Unbound Gravel Grand Prix. Read their story here.
Which Insert, Though
Depends entirely on how hard you ride and what you're riding on.
- Lite (60g): gravel, XC, and road. Bead support and mild rim protection, light enough you forget it's there. Lets you drop meaningful PSI without the squirm.
- Gravel: built for washboard, chunk, and long days where the nearest bail-out is 40 miles behind you.
- Pro (140g): the trail and enduro standard. Dual air chambers and flex wings support the tire through high-G corners so you're not burping air out of the bead.
- Fusion: a Lite nested inside a Pro. This is for downhill and heavy e-MTB, where rim protection is the entire priority and you already know it.
We wrote a whole separate piece on this, including some honest words about how we stack up against the other inserts on the market. The No-B.S. Guide to Tire Inserts is the one to read before you buy.
One practical note: whichever insert you land on, bump your sealant by roughly 4 to 5ml on top of your normal amount. Now, let me make this abundantly clear, our foam does not absorb sealant. Aither 1.1 technology is hydrophobic and doesn't absorb sealant, period. That means your sealant stays liquid and your wheel weight stays the same. The extra few milliliters are just about keeping good coverage across the casing now that there's an insert sharing the space. Full setup walkthrough is on our tubeless support page. Check it out here:
So, Keep the Sealant
We're not asking anyone to dump it, we run it in and love it. We're asking you to stop expecting one bottle of latex to be the entire plan when it was only ever built to cover part of it.
Sealant fixes the puncture. The insert handles the hits. Run both and you've got a system. Run just one and you've got a bet.
Find the Tannus Tubeless Insert for your setup
If you are running tubes instead of tubeless? Well that's a different setup, different conversation. Start here:
FAQ
How often should you add sealant to tubeless tires?
Every 2 to 4 months for most riders and climates. Tighten that to every 6 to 8 weeks in hot, dry conditions, since heat accelerates evaporation. Cooler, more humid climates can stretch closer to 5 to 6 months.
How much sealant should you put in a tubeless tire?
- Roughly 1 to 2 oz for road and narrow gravel,
- 2 to 3 oz for gravel and XC, and
- 3 to 4 oz for trail, enduro, and plus-size tires.
Always check your specific sealant's instructions, since formulas vary. Add about 4 to 5ml extra when running a Tannus Tubeless Insert to maintain coverage across the tire cavity. (Tannus Tubeless Inserts do not soak up sealant, they stay the same weight on their last ride as they did on their first.)
Can you ride tubeless without sealant?
The tire will hold air, but you lose puncture sealing entirely and put more strain on the bead-to-rim seal. Not recommended for regular riding.
What size hole can tubeless sealant seal?
Most sealants handle small punctures up to roughly 5 to 6mm almost instantly. Larger cuts or gashes generally need a plug or mechanical repair in addition to sealant.
Do tubeless inserts replace sealant?
No. Sealant seals the puncture. Inserts protect against rim strikes, pinch flats, and tire collapse, failure modes sealant was never designed to address. They solve different problems and work best together.
Do tubeless inserts absorb sealant?
Tannus Tubeless Inserts use Aither 1.1, a hydrophobic closed-cell foam that does not absorb sealant. Your sealant stays liquid and the insert stays the same weight over its life. Open-cell and EVA foams used elsewhere can soak up sealant over time.
