Could be a few things:

1. Garage floor has traces of oil that degraded the vinyl/polyurethane .

2. Bad batch of wheels.

3. Garage floor has heavy pitting or checking.

4. Pinball machine exceeds the weight limit of the wheels.

5. Crappy wheels.

As long as you are not using the skates on light colored carpet, I'd hit HF and get a replacement set with sold black rubber wheels that won't degrade from oil.

Yes, this appears to be a common problem. I have seen this on at least 3 pairs of skates. Home Depot sells caster wheels very close to these with hard rubber which should last a long time. I bought them and put them on my skates and it is like new again. Easy solution, takes about 10 minutes to change out the wheels with the Home Depot ones.

Ahhhh, I love the smell of Chinese rubber in the morning.

I'm sure they have the same caster wheels at HD for 3x the price.

The other day I somehow blew a tire on my handtruck which has handled every single game in my collection for two and a half years over and over (and other things for like 15+ years), another thing you'd think would never happen!

Got a convenient replacement wheel/tire combo from Home Depot and also smells like rubber but I think it's going away reasonably quick. $20 later and I'm good to go!

In your situation, I'm pretty sure one wouldn't smell much less than the other but maybe I am wrong.

I think Seeburg means that the entire HF store smells like Chinese rubber.

The same smell like when you walk into a bike shop.

The casters are all made in the same Chinese factory, no matter where you buy them.

My coffin lifter i got at HF came with some rubber mat that stunk up the basement. I think i ended up throwing it out it reeked like petro chemicals so bad.

Definitely, that was my point as well.

And ahh, okay.

I know exactly what you mean.

I've had my handtruck tire blow out after holding air for years.

A new innertube is $6.99

A whole new wheel, tire and innertube is $3.99 at HF.

Cheaper than the just the tube!!!

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The wheels on my Snap-On creeper are starting to do that too. But 30 years old and made in America.

Eh, there's something about the wheels HF uses... I got one of their big black tool carts a couple years ago, and I had to leave the wheels sitting outside for a week before the fumes dissipated enough for me to attach them to the cart in the basement. These were solid rubber casters and boy did they have a chemical/rubber smell about them. FWIW the cart works well for the price, so no complaints, just be prepared to quarantine HF wheels upon purchase.

Two of my wheels have started to have similar problems, but my skates are 13 years old and have been used heavily.

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The exact same thing happened to mine as well!! HD had the better ones! Not bad price either!!

One of my wheels has cracked. I've had the pinskates for around 5 years.