Tubeless sealant to patch an exercise ball?

Equipment
1

I have a 75 cm exercise ball that I use as a desk chair. It’s developed a slow leak – noticeable sag after a couple of days. Reinflate and then good for a few more days.

All the discussions on tubeless sealant got me thinking: would tubeless sealant patch a slow leak on an exercise ball? Anyone tried this?

I certainly don’t want sealant spraying on the basement carpeting and I’m not even sure how much I’d use, given the volume is quite a bit more than a road or MTB tire.

I get annoyed enough I’ll try it, but I wanted to reach out to the wisdom of this wonderful audience first.

2

Tire sealant sounds like a poor solution for this problem. I’d first find the small leak and then patch it in some way.

Pump it up harder than normal and then put it over the bath tub. Run water over it to try and find the leak.

After you find it, maybe a drop of flexible glue on the pinhole? Or, even a piece of masking tape might be good enough to keep air inside the ball.

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3

Another trick that involves less hassle and water than the tub is mixing about soap and water (heavy on the soap), then wipe or spray that mixture on the surface. It sticks a bit more than pure water and can show where the leak is via the bubbles.

Depending on the material, I’ve had mixed luck sealing leaks with stuff like heavy duty duct tape or a regular patch kit form a bike tube.

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4

You probably want something like

instead; it’s made for PVC.

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5

I have some Lezyne self gluing/sticker patches in my kit. I find that they stick very well to anything (other than tubes with sealant residue on the outside).
I would have tried on of them.

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6

Thanks all. You’ve talked me out of my Rube Goldberg/mad scientist experiment with sealant.

7

I had same situation. Glued a small patch of thick plastic film over the leak using super glue. The patch has since fallen off, but the hole is still sealed.

8

I have a ball that leaks and soap hasn’t found the hole yet.

I am totally in favor of using sealant on it at this point. You aren’t the only one to think of this.

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9

Just to ask the question, how much does one of these balls cost?

Good to compare that against what might need to be a notable amount of sealant to properly coat the internal surface of the ball. I’d have to run some basic shape surface area numbers, but we are probably talking massive increase in areal (10x???). You may not need the total extra like a tire setup for longer term use vs what might seal and be set initially. But I could see this ending up with a decent spend of sealant vs a new ball.

10

$20 new.

For me, this was part thought experiment and part bored idea.

If the leak annoys me enough, I’ll just buy a new one

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11

I used sealant on my inflatable Stand Up Paddle board when it had a small leak around the valve that glue/epoxy couldn’t fix, worked like a charm. So… maybe it can work here too?