How do I not ruin the bladder on my bags?

[jfernandez]

Hey everyone, I recently built out a home setup and have been loving getting a bunch of practice in. Every couple days I have to add a bit of air to the cleto bag. I always use spit on the needle before inflating but I've already had 2 bladders stop holding air at all.

I feel like I must be doing something wrong here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!

[Tim]

All bladders fail eventually. Some of my bags will hold air for days or weeks, others I have to pump up every time I use them. I don't know there is much you can do here...

[Dutchman]

This is actually pretty common, especially with latex bladders. Latex is a natural rubber, and is known to be porous. Same can be said about the pinch valves, the length of their life varies. Butyl rubber bladders usually stay inflated much longer, the trade off is that they tend to be less responsive, less "bouncy" if you will.

[jfernandez]

This is really helpful. Thank you everyone!

[paranday]

I use a mixture of paraffin wax and mineral oil. Vaseline is good, too. Beeswax might work.

[dad]

For what it's worth I keep a small container of LIP BALM by my bag.