Review: Stan's Sealant Injector & Universal Valves

 Note: Stan's Sent over several bicycle products for test/review to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge. Guitar Ted is not being paid, nor bribed, for these reviews. All opinions are Guitar Ted's. 

I used the Stan's products sent to review to set up these tires tubeless.

A couple of weeks ago I introduced a bunch of Stan's products. A couple of those were tubeless specific things like the Universal Valve Stems, the Sealant Injector, and the sealant, of course. 

I had decided to set up some different tires on my Fargo Gen I. Since I was going to do that it provided the perfect opportunity to use a few of the new Stan's products I have in. The wheels needed to be prepped first, so I cleaned up the inner rim well and laid down some new tubeless tape. Then I used the new Stan's Universal Valves. 

It should be noted that these wheels are not tubeless rated wheels. This did not seem to complicate things, but it could in certain cases. Unless you have extensive tubeless set up experience, I would not recommend doing what I have done. Best to stick to known tubeless ready certified items.  And of course, if you are not well versed in tubeless set up there are a lot of online tutorials and your local bike shop mechanic where you could possibly gain some wisdom. 

These Universal Valves have a base which sits proud of the inner rim well a fair amount, but there is a good reason for this. Instead of a single, outward facing bore, the base of the valve stem has two holes facing horizontally in alignment with rim well and two which are 90° to the rim well and face the rim's side on each side. There is also a fifth hole facing outward as a traditional tubeless valve would have. Ostensibly this should provide more air flow and an easier tubeless set up. 

The base also has an oval, and conical shaped rubber piece which sits above the very base of the stem.  This should seal off the valve stem hole. It's supposedly a one-size fits all solution, and I guess it is okay. As long as it seals up, (right?), it can be whatever shape they want to make it. 

The rest looks like standard fare, but there is one hidden feature in the valve stem nut. It has a 'o' ring installed in it which provides a bit of friction you can feel when installing it. This is there to prevent unintentional loosening of the nut. I cannot say I've ever had a valve nut loosen, but perhaps I am a lucky guy in this respect.  

The valve installed. The arrows are indicating two of the four air outlet holes in the valve base. 

 Alright, now let's talk about the Stan's Sealant Injector. I've tried various hacks and purpose built sealant injectors over the course of my nearly 20 years of setting up tires tubeless. The Stan's injector follows the form of a few of the other older injectors I have used but with a couple of notable differences. 

Lube bottles for size context.

First off, everything about the Stan's injector is bigger. The body, the bore of the nozzle, and the capacity are all much larger than any other purpose built injector I have seen or have used. 

The Stan's Injector also has this funky rubber end which is angled and fits over a standard tubeless valve stem. This is handy for times when you are adding sealant through a valve bore with the core removed. I was going to add my sealant before I finished mounting the tire, so I didn't think I'd need the funky black rubber end. (Stay tuned on this point)

The injector can hold up to 150ml of sealant. This reflects the trend for bigger tires on almost every tubeless set up these days. I think it is smart. The gradations are very clear and easy to read. They also are a separate applied film/sticker which I also like. Gradations printed directly onto the body of most injectors tend to fade away over time leaving you guessing. 

We'll see how the Stan;'s gradations hold up over time, but this is a feature which has been missing from products like this for a long time. A small thing maybe, but a detail I appreciate.  

Okay, back to that black nipple thing-a-majig I decided not to use. Big mistake. Generally speaking one can draw up sealant into an injector and it stays inside the injector until one depresses the plunger. Not so with this Stan's injector! The sealant practically runs right out as if you were pouring it from a pitcher. 

You'll want to use this. Trust me....

Back on with the rubber nipple! Ha! Seriously though, it stopped the free-running of sealant from the injector and everything went a lot better afterward. 

One more thing about the injector. Clean-up is a breeze. You can pull everything apart easily. Since the bore of the nipple, injector body, and tubes is larger over all, it makes for easier clean up. This will make the injector last longer. I appreciated this as well. 

A Word About How Inflation Went: 

The tires aired up pretty easily with my SILCA pump. I have to believe the air flow from the valve stem was a high enough volume that it made this set up go a lot better than it would have with a standard tubeless valve stem. 

Of course, tire/rim interface has a lot to do with this, but I do really feel the valve stems were a difference maker here as the tires I used were a bit looser on these rims than I typically find these days while setting up stuff tubeless. 

Overall Impressions: 

The valve stems are good. Those extra ports are good for some more push outward on the tires from the inside, making a tubeless set up a bit easier. The valves have press-on aluminum caps which are fine. They are functionally unnecessary, but they complete the look here and that is worth something, I guess. 

I'm most impressed with the sealant injector. Overall it is an improvement even if the black nipple is a bit weird, at least it keeps sealant where it should be while you are setting up a set of tires. The ease of clean-up is perhaps my best liked part of using this tool though. It means it should last in great shape for a longer period of time then the other dead injectors I have in a drawer in the shop.  

I'd give the nod to all three products used in this test. The sealant, injector, and the valve stems. So far so good. I may come back with a longer term look at these items if I find anything else notable to share.