Sorry, I only just got back to this thread.
Another case in point. Yesterday I got a rubber snorkel out of the shed that I had bought for about $40 inc. postage from some eBay seller a few months ago. It was advertized as "brand new". I could tell it wasn't full length when it arrived, but I was prepared to live with that. Finally got around to fitting it. As soon as I tried to gently push it on the carby end, guess what? It split in two. Then I fit the breather end. Same thing happened. I tried to cut the ends off neatly and it just crumbled.
I had my suspicions when the seller said he had "professionally cleaned it with rubber conditioner" prior to sending. My guess is he used something like Armor-All to make it look bright and shiny again. He had probably shortened it due to a previous failed attempt at fitting it, so he cut if off as neatly as he could and resold it. A few months sitting in the shed and the Armour-All has completely demolished the rubber. Seems you win some and lose some.
I purchased another one from a mower shop recently for around the same price. It is in near mint condition and at least hasn't been saturated with Armour-All. LOL!
Armour-All is deadly to rubber. About the only thing you can safely condition rubber with is pure Lanoline, and then you have the problem of making the dust stick to it. Also if you have mice in the shed they may find a Lanoline-soaked snorkel very tasty to chew on.
