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Sticky Product…Stickier Problems
Copyright (c) 2010,
Robert Bean, All rights reserved, originally published in HPAC Canada
We cannot use the brand name but it is known
as ‘the handyman's secret weapon,’ also known as
“fabric-based tape with rubber adhesive” ala Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (see below), or “a
polyethylene, reinforced, multi-purpose pressure sensitive
tape with a soft and semi-flexible shell and pressure
sensitive adhesive.” It made guys such as Red Green famous,
earning the right to add ‘master taper’ to their sparkling
resume. But as some learn, certain tape is not all it's
quacked up to be and the last thing you want to
use on ducts is in fact the handyman's secret weapon. This was
validated a few years ago by studies conducted at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Environmental Energy
Technologies Division where researchers discovered that the
stuff becomes brittle and fails. You did not need a Ph.D. to
figure this out. Any competent sheet metal contractor would
tell you the same thing. In fact, if “Do Not Use This Tape
On Ducts” was printed on every roll sold at do-it-yourself (DIY)
stores we would prevent a significant number of duct leakage
problems created by part-time tinsmiths. It would also have
prevented an IAQ call that started this way, “Why does our
entire house smell like Dipalmitoylethyl Hydroxyethylmonium
Methosulfate?” Ok, they did not say “Dipalmitoylethyl
Hydroxyethylmonium Methosulfate” but they did use the name
of a well-known brand of laundry conditioning product. The
odorous aroma found a way to spread its bouquet into every
nook and cranny of the house. The owners could not figure
out how it was happening.
After a few questions such as: “Did your kids
play hide and seek with the stuff at their last sleep over?”
to “Have you checked your clothes in the closets because the
product is supposed to stop static cling but it sticks to
your clothes (go figure)?” to “Have you checked to see if
there is any air coming out your dryer exhaust hood?” The
owner had a eureka moment at this point and came to the same
conclusion I had arrived at earlier. Somewhere between the
dryer and hood there was a broken dryer venting connection.
It was leaking into an equally leaky return air plenum,
where it was subsequently distributed through the heating
ducts. We needed a video probe for this one. After a call to
my buddy Doug Muncaster, who has all the toys, we set out to
locate the cracked culprit (see Figure 1). Like all
failures, it was in the worst possible location and was
accessible only by ripping down portions of a finished
ceiling (see Figure 2). The repairs have since been done
(braced and clamped) and the video cam is off doing what it
does best on some other trouble shooting call but the
headaches this once sticky product creates for IAQ and
energy efficiency are long term. They often cannot be
resolved without major destruction and then restoration
work. To this I say, the handyman's secret weapon is cool
stuff but it is in need of a name change and should not be
sold to DIY’r tinsmiths, unless of course the DIY’r is a
master taper with a hit television program.
Bibliography
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Sherman, M., Walker, I.,
Can Duct-Tape take the heat?, Energy Performance of
Buildings Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
University of California, LBNL-41434 <accessed Dec. 22,
2010>
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