Mushroom plugs: Worth the premium over the regular puncture strips?

While on paper I understand how a “mushroom patch” could be better, are these a scam in them making?

BHPian airguitar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Lately, I have seen local puncture shops insisting on mushroom patches for fixing punctures rather than the regular puncture strips saying that they last longer and provide a better fix.

These patches cost 4 -5 times more than regular plugs that are done without removing the tires from the rim. Last heard, each mushroom plug + labour costs around Rs. 500 while it costs Rs.100 or thereabouts for a regular one.

While on paper I understand how a “mushroom patch” could be better, are these a scam in them making? We all have survived decades of driving with regular patches, so why this new mechanism now?

Here’s what BHPian deep_bang had to say on the matter:

I actually feel it’s worth the cost, but this is just speaking from my experience. Let me elaborate.

Generally, what I see is that, once a tyre starts having a puncture, it keeps having more of those in the next few months till I either change the tyre or fix a mushroom patch. So I see that mushroom patches are usually more reliable and so it’s fine.

However, on my current ride, I have had only 2 punctures – same location (and fixed via a mushroom patch) in the last 30k kms, so perhaps I am lucky in this aspect.

Here’s what BHPian sagarpadaki had to say on the matter:

In my experience, mushroom patch is the right way to fix a puncture. The regular brown plugs will start leaking air from the periphery of the hole which they plugged after a few thousand kms. It is more likely to occur if driven on broken roads. Unless the puncture is near the shoulder where even the smaller diameter of the mushroom patch does not fit, in which case the brown strips are the only option, I would always recommend the mushroom patch.

The remaining life the tyre also matters. If the tyre is at end of life or has 5k-7k left then the brown plugs should be good enough till the tyre wears out.

Here’s what BHPian windrider had to say on the matter:

Just saw a video regarding this a few days back from FortNine on YouTube. This should help in deciding.

Here’s what BHPian PaddelShifter had to say on the matter:

Mushroom plugs must be more profitable for a tyre shop. Contrary to the posts above, I have driven with tyres having one or more punctures fixed using the tried and tested plugs.

Infact, have been fixing punctures using the conventional plugs from all kind of shops (branded tyre shops, road side puncture guy or a small shop).

Only once, a puncture started leaking from the previously fixed puncture site and the small shop owner refixed it using another puncture plug despite my polite insistence to not do this (I have now learnt that if you live in Rajasthan, you have to be firm and even a bit rude if a person giving you service is not listening to you and is trying to damage your stuff out of ignorance and lack of competence). One month later, the twice repaired puncture gave up which was later fixed using an internal patch. The tyre worked fine for the next two years.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

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