AirTite - Preserves Open Caulking Tubes (2 Pack)

I love these! They keep caulking tubes fresh. If they weren't so expensive I would order more but the cost is an issue.

These really work long term (months for me) and keep the caulk soft at the tip the next time I need to use it; just as if I had just cut the tip open minutes beforehand. I am just a DIY homeowner and don't use my caulk frequently. I have struggled with putting screws and wire nuts on the tips with no success. These tubes seal at the "rim" of the caulk tube, at both ends, as well as a loose pin that enters the tip. Its like magic. Some pro's say the "pin" is is too large in diameter for some of their smaller diameter tip cutoffs. That may be true however, I would work around that because this "methodology," sealing at the "rim" is far far superior to trying to seal the "tip."

The AirTite caulking preserver tubes are nicely designed except for one major flaw, which I found out two days ago after using the product for the first time. I have attached two photos to illustrate.Referring first to the photo showing 3 pieces, that plastic “nail” in the center is part of the AirTite device. It comes attached to the top of the AirTite nozzle. It is on there very tightly and I suspect is not intended to be removed. It is designed to push down into your caulk tube nozzle when you store it in the AirTite. The problem is that the plastic nail is quite wide. If you clipped off the top of your caulk tube to produce a large bead of caulk, then there should not be a problem. With that large bead size, the plastic nail should insert properly into the caulk nozzle for storage, and I can imagine that the caulk will be good for years of use.However, if you clipped off the top of your caulk nozzle to get a small bead, as I did, then that plastic nail is just too big to fit. When I finished the caulking job, I put my caulk tube into the AirTite, and noticed that the plastic nail had popped off the top of the AirTite. The problem was immediately obvious that the plastic nail was too big to fit into the caulk nozzle. Today I tried clipping the top of the caulk nozzle off to what I would consider a medium (rather than small) bead, and the plastic nail still did not fit into that size caulk tube nozzle.Referring to the second photo, you can see how my tube of caulk looks in the top of the AirTite, as currently stored. The plastic nail is in there, but it is pushed off to the side of the caulk nozzle rather than being inside that nozzle. That causes the head of the plastic nail to be ajar at the top of the AirTite rather than being on there tightly, thus there is air infiltration into the top of the AirTite. You may not see it, but I did insert a regular nail in the caulk nozzle to help preserve it, and only the head of that nail shows in the photo.I suspect many people already using the AirTite have theirs stored with the nozzle off to the side, as with mine, maybe not knowing of the problem because their plastic nail had not become dislodged.Other than this problem with the plastic nail, I think the AirTite is superbly designed with its sturdy heavyweight plastic tube and strong gaskets.I did contact AirTite regarding this, describing my problem and also asking them to consider making an additional smaller plastic nail available with their AirTite Caulk Preserver product. They didn’t address offering the additional plastic nail, but did leave the following message:Hi David,You are correct, the pin is critical for many types of caulking products. However, putting a nail in there instead of the pin may do the trick. If not let me know and I'll send out a refund.ThanksCraigAirTite

I've had a tube of caulking in this container for over a year and

Everything was get

Caulk is ready to use as soon as you pull it out of the caulk saver

Great for their purpose. Close tightly and I hope will prevent my caulk tubes from drying up .

I can't say that it performs poorly, I just got it. But if I saw one, I may not have bought two. The tube is not airtight, as implied by calling it "airtite". The threaded middle joint doesn't appear to be intended to be so- no nice flat or tapered contact surfaces to make it so. Screw it together tightly, remove the plastic "nail" and blow or suck on the nail hole.....it clearly leaks. So the purpose of the nice threads (buttress threads, appropriate and nice) is to force the top & bottom foam rubber gaskets into contact with the caulk tube...that it where it is supposed to be airtight, I guess. So the large open end of the caulk tube is sealed off. That is a rough cardboard/foil tube end which is often a little damaged, so may or may not seal. Better than being open, though. Thst edge is often somewhat sharp, so may "cookie cutter" the soft foam after a few uses. The other end seems largely to be sealed by the nail..the nail is a press fit into the tip of the container, but not a very tight or deep press fit, enough so that I don't think the press fit is, or was intended to be airtight. The upper foam rubber gasket contacts the metal shoulder on the tube. Maybe just to provide an opposing force to the other (bottom) gasket. The upper metal/foam gasket has air on one side from the non airtight threads, and sort of has air on the other (upper?) side due to the minimal press fit of the nail into the container body. With sort of free air on either side, it is not really sealing anything. That leaves the tube sealed by A)- the nail and B)- the bottom gasket, hopefully sealing against the cardboard tube edge. Those two things may improve storage life, but really aren't what I was expecting, which was an airtight tube, which it ain't, not with the quite leaky threaded joint. I had thought it would be that, and was even going to flush it with argon before closing, to really help save the expensive caulk I intended to use it on, but the argon would be pointless and diffuse out through the leaks in minutes.