How long does rubber last unopened?

says what [IMG]
says what [IMG]
🏆 Top 1% Commenter
Well-Known Member
Feb 2016
2,722
1,703
5,572
Read 2 reviews
They don't sold boosted
? There's plenty of factory boosted Chinese rubbers. They even talk about it in their official materials.


I'd be wary of stocking up on rubbers, especially during sales. Often sales are made when rubbers are nearing their shelf life. They might sit in a warehouse for half a year, a year, maybe even two. Of course with new models you might also get one that was made less than a month ago. :)

Butterfly reckons an unopened rubber kept away from UV, heat, airflow etc. is good for a year to two years before the performance degrades. This includes the storage time in the warehouse! You might not have any clue how long they've been sitting there. By the time it's in your hands you might not have a lot of time left.

So I don't know. It's probably best to buy fresh sheets and glue them on immediately, but I usually keep one or two replacements on hand and just pray. I also seal the package additionally behind another layer of zip bag, just to add some insurance. You just need to watch out that there's not moisture inside when you seal it. The best should be a bag with a black matte outer coating and a foil coating on the inside, but I'm sure a transparent plastic is probably fine. If you're really serious you'd induce a vacuum in that bag as well. I'm not sure it matters really.

Bear in mind rubbers will age from internal mechanisms even if stored reasonably. The bonds will rearrange themselves constantly even if not subjected to air or light. Table tennis rubbers are very dynamic and often under tension so it's probably more dramatic for those than for like a washer or something. For simple rubber products the estimated shelf life is about 5-10 years, but I'd expect less for TT rubbers, but I could be wrong.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
🏆 Top 1% Commenter
Well-Known Member
Jan 2024
2,513
3,374
8,019
Read 7 reviews
Most rubbers are packed in a state pretty close to equilibrium. The amount of booster that "gases out" is negligible in the sense that a couple of playing sessions have the same effect or more.
I would advise strongly against actively creating a vacuum for rubbers that aren't shipped in a vacuum seal. Air pressure can be used to "boost" as air will permeate the rubber when under pressure, and it's safe to assume the inverse effects can happen to a rubber sitting under negative pressure.

Having said that, I think sealed rubbers can get shelved for multiple years easily. Rubbers that are packed with air holes in the foil will do best under stable conditions, so room temperature and no big changes in humidity. A year under those conditions is safe, multiple years could be possible but I would not put money on it.

The more tensioned, boosted, and open-pored a rubber is, the quicker it will degrade. Basically mechanical stress, and large surface areas are the biggest points.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Mar 2022
138
78
259
Some Chinese tuned rubbers in 6 months are all curled up. Sometimes they come that way.

Thats why I try hard to avoid them
 
Top