Under aerobic hot aging conditions, hydrogenated nitrile rubber compounds undergo crosslinking reactions that lead to embrittlement and ultimately to failure. Often the useful lifetime of an article, at a given service temperature, is assessed by determining the time required for a particular property of interest to degrade to a critical value. A novel heat stabilizer system, that delays the onset of the aging mechanism, is discussed. Several parameters of interest, which include retention of modulus and elongation at break, are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the novel heat stabilizer. The result of the studies indicate that the effective service temperature range for hydrogenated nitrile rubber can be extended by about 10 degreesC or alternatively, the predicted service life, at the current service temperature, can be expected to increase by a factor of about two.