Thursday, September 13, 2007

Thursday Tips: QuakeHold doesn't stand the test of time

Every Thursday is tip day.

When we first moved into Odyssey, I used a product called QuakeHold Putty to stick down small items that I didn't want to slide around. I had seen it recommended in a number of RV magazines and bulletin boards.



Folks, I cannot recommend this stuff to you. While it does keep items from moving, over time it turns into a mess that is nearly impossible to remove. Three years ago, I used little dabs of it in our medicine cabinet to keep storage trays from sliding. Yesterday I decided to completely reorganize the cabinet, and the QuakeHold was awful. I couldn't remove it using water, ammonia, rubbing alcohol, mineral oil, or elbow grease! Sean suggested I try diesel fuel, but c'mon! That shouldn't be necessary to use to clean in the bathroom or anywhere else in your home.

It may not feel sticky, but dust bonds permanently to it, changing it from white to grey. So even if you just leave the item in place, it is slowly getting really grubby underneath. It starts out as a white clay-like substance and it tends to ooze a bit from underneath whatever you're sticking down, so that dust grey yuckiness does show.

The Putty product is designed to protect collectibles, but I've found it makes a mess on ceramic, wood, granite and metal. These seem like pretty common materials for both the collectibles and the surfaces they sit on.

The company offers several other products, such as their Clear Gel and Museum Wax. If you have any experience with how those substances fare over several years, let me know in the comments.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Louise,

    I use a product called De-Solv-It to remove old labels, glue, etc so maybe it will help with your cleanup problem. It seems to be safe with most materials, but always test first.

    Bill

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  2. Louise,
    I have used Museum Wax (not the gel) for about 6 years or more. It holds really well; even lamps on my countertop going down the road in our bus with 'unexpected' stops. To remove Museum Wax, first I use a straight edge object such as a butter knife or a plastic putty knife to just scrape the excess off the counter or item the wax is on, and then any cleaner with orange oil in it will take off the rest without alot of elbow grease. I have NEVER had a problem with the stuff coming loose unless it wanted it to. Caution, when the instructions says to use a small pea size amount it means it, because it WILL ooze out around the edge when you flaten the object to the counter. For my lamps or heavy crystal flower vase I put a few pea size dots around the edge of the object and then push it down on the couter to get it really flattened out and make a good contact. I hope this helps. By the way, I have used De-Solv-it too and it works great; just stinks for a long time.
    Chere

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