Vacutech clear tube, cloudy or icy look to it.

Hi all,

I’ve had this tube for about 3 years now but I’ve probably used it for less than 100 hours under pressure.
Does anyone know what the marks are on the side of the tube?
They are both inside and out, has this hapenned to anyone elses?

They aren’t rough and it hasn’t been scratched, you can’t feel them at all with a finger on the inside or out.
I’ve washed the tube with soap and water but to no avail.
Is this normal? I really don’t want to buy another, they aren’t cheap.

I have had my tube about the same length of time but see no discoloration.

What type of lube are you using? It appears to be some oil based type (Vaseline maybe?).

That will be tough to wash out. Try closing the valve and inverting the tube and filling it with hot water and a few squirts of liquid soap and let it stand for a while.

When it cools down, insert a facecloth and a long handled brush and work on cleaning the sides.

Those tubes are very resistant to staining etc.

Let us know how it goes.

Run it through the dishwasher, top rack. Take it out before the dryer cycle. Might take two or three runs. I think Diverdown is correct, oil based lubes do this after a few uses.

Purely water based lube, only lube that’s been left in there, a few different brands but never oil based (that I recall)
Also have condom pumped but very few times, I will admit I haven’t always cleaned after using it though.

Is there something I’m meant to store it in after use? are you meant to wash it after each use?
I got hot soapy water and a wash cloth and put it inside - turning it around for about 5 minutes, none of it will budge, it’s like the plastic itself has oxidised or something weird.

If you are using a condom, then it may be lubricated with a synthetic oil base etc. Which may be causing the problem.

Try the dishwasher run and see if that helps.

Also, let the hot soapy water sit in the tube for a while and when it cools down, see if you can remove or smudge the stain around. If you can then it is not embedded in the plastic.

If not, another thing you can do is go to the paint store, dollar store or where ever and get one of those “paint test kit”. One swipe will tell you if it is oil based.

Another suggestion is to take some paper towel (or rag etc) and dab it with varsol and try to clean it. Do a very small area first and check if it works, rinse and repeat.

And if you do use any type of test strips or cleaner (ie. Varsol) make sure to thoroughly (and I do mean thoroughly) wash that cylinder out at least 4-5 times until the residue etc is completely gone.

Let us know how it goes.

I have a Vacutech cylinder as well, thick walled. It has had perhaps 3-4 years of use with no discoloration. I definitely stay away from “iffy” lubricants such as Vaseline and silicon based lubricants. I’ve seen Vaseline dissolve and deform plenty of other plastic/rubber products it came in touch with. Stay away from the stuff. If I use any lube it is natural skin lotion. Condoms sometimes use silicon based lubricants. I do not know how silicon based lubricants react with the Vacutech cylinder.

Better to use detergent as that dissolves oily substances. Rinse it well after as skin doesn’t like detergent. It removes the natural oil!

Damn it looks like I’m the only one, I was hoping someone else had encountered this.

I’m 99.99% sure this is not on the actual surface of the acrylic, no matter how much scrubbing I do it just doesn’t budge at all and doesn’t feel rough to the finger.

What’s Varsol? I might try some heavier duty chemicals, I can always rinse thoroughly.

EDIT: Paint thinner, I suppose I can try metholated spirits or acetone, I just don’t want to damage the surface anymore.

Varsol is paint thinner (it is a registered name).

Try wiping it with a cloth in a very small section first and see if it removes it.

Let us know.

I’d stay away from anything other than soap until I was positive that soap/detergent wasn’t going to do the job. I fucked my tube up, not as bad, and the dishwasher brought it back.

I don’t have a dishwasher! I don’t know if I should use the one at work! :)

What did you do to yours thunder?
I’m 99.9999% sure soap won’t do anything at this point.
EDIT: Does Vacutech offer a lifetime warranty? or am I kidding myself.
Also I noticed a few threads seemed to be trying to find where to make your own high quality parts or find them, I saw the pumps were just brake bleeders but anyone find the tubes cheap?

No, soap won’t hurt it. Try some dishwashing soap, like Palmolive or something. Get out as much as you can and then let it soak for awhile.

No I don’t mean it could hurt the tube, I mean I’ve already tried soap, quite thoroughly and a lot of it in warm water.

Can you let in soak overnight in soapy hot water?

Yeal I’ll try that tonight.