Adzel...real world benefits? Drawbacks?
I've seen a few manufacturers tout the use of Adzel, which appears to be a world of improvement over marine grade wood in terms of weight. What real-world benefits does that translate into? Any draw...
Forum Discussion
From what I understand from my reading on this material, it's main advantages are that it is effectively waterproof, and it has the abilty to be molded into complex shapes fairly economically.
My experience over the years with thermo plastic materiels is that if they do have a long term shortcoming, it is that over the years of out-gassing of the oils that make up the resins, they "can" become brittle and fracture. I think only time will tell whether this particular material suffers this fate. It has not been in widespread use long enough to honestly give good long term durability data. It may turn out to be excellent. It may not.
Accelerated long term durability testing can give some fairly good hints as to what product lifespan will be, but it is not a real substitute for actual field use.
This product is more expensive that wood. Luan has been around a long time, and if kept dry has actually proven to be an economical and effective product for RV use.
To say that a given product "no" disadvantage in the use of construction is not a realistic way of viewing how this all works in the real world. There are always compromises.
Looking at videos and other marketing blurbs from a supplier of a product, or from the manufacturer of, for instance an RV company, is likely only going tell us part of the story. As in, all the "good things" about the product. So having said that, comments from paid spokesmen mean very little to me when evaluating a new product. In my career that I am now retired from, I got to spend much time with "salesmen and engineers" from various suppliers of materials we used. Those guys could sure spin some tales, and make lots of impressive sounding promises.
My experience over the years with thermo plastic materiels is that if they do have a long term shortcoming, it is that over the years of out-gassing of the oils that make up the resins, they "can" become brittle and fracture. I think only time will tell whether this particular material suffers this fate. It has not been in widespread use long enough to honestly give good long term durability data. It may turn out to be excellent. It may not.
Accelerated long term durability testing can give some fairly good hints as to what product lifespan will be, but it is not a real substitute for actual field use.
This product is more expensive that wood. Luan has been around a long time, and if kept dry has actually proven to be an economical and effective product for RV use.
To say that a given product "no" disadvantage in the use of construction is not a realistic way of viewing how this all works in the real world. There are always compromises.
Looking at videos and other marketing blurbs from a supplier of a product, or from the manufacturer of, for instance an RV company, is likely only going tell us part of the story. As in, all the "good things" about the product. So having said that, comments from paid spokesmen mean very little to me when evaluating a new product. In my career that I am now retired from, I got to spend much time with "salesmen and engineers" from various suppliers of materials we used. Those guys could sure spin some tales, and make lots of impressive sounding promises.
