Lost a whole day's pay on a 'fast set' underwater epoxy that wasn't

Had a job last month patching a small hull plate on a workboat in Seattle. The supplier talked up this new 'rapid cure' epoxy, said it would set in 30 minutes even in 50-degree water. I was on a tight schedule, so I paid the extra $85 for the kit. Got down there, mixed it, applied it, and waited. An hour later, the stuff was still like soup. The tide started to shift and I had to abort the whole dive. Not only did I waste the material cost, but I lost the full day's pay for that job, about $1200. The client wasn't happy about the delay either. Turns out the 'fast' claim was for lab conditions, not real cold saltwater. Has anyone else been burned by a product that just didn't perform like the specs said it would underwater?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace50826d ago

Always test a small batch in a bucket with the same water conditions first. The specs are basically useless for real world work, especially in cold water. I learned that the hard way too.

grace_bailey16d ago

Actually specs can be pretty reliable if you know how to read them right. They list the exact conditions for testing, like water temperature. The problem is when people ignore that part. For cold water work, you just need to find the spec sheet for the low-temp version of the product. It saves a lot of time compared to testing every single batch.

terry_carter1526d ago

Yeah the "specs are useless" line really hit home lol. I used to trust the numbers on the box until a winter project went totally wrong. Now I always do the bucket test.