Adzel...real world benefits? Drawbacks?

WoodGlue wrote:

gmw photos wrote:
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 the 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 materialsuffers 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.

Azdel has no formaldehyde or other materials that could "off gas" and Azdel will not become brittle. It's Luaun that becomes brittle and fractures. Luaun fractures due to the water content of it evaporating. All trees have some degree of water. Azdel doesn't have any water. When Luaun gets wet, it delaminaates, molds and mildews. Azdel doesn't cause delamination or mold or mildew.

Azdel has been around for years. Since the late 60's or 70's iirc. And it's use in race cars is like baptism by fire, as far as "longterm durability testing" goes.

By the way, you also might want to direct some of your Azdel questions towards another superior substrate called Compositek.

Independent Compositek Testing

Watch that video and you'll understand much better!

WoodGlue

Holy cow, back away from the Kool-Aid, please. Wood fractures from evaporation? Do you have any mahogany furniture in the house or is it a pile of splinters? No mold with plastics? Turn your frdge off and leave it closed, report back in a couple of weeks. No off gassing? You can't be serious, it a polyolefin resin. your Azdel in your rig is off-gassing as I write.
This is the kind of blind-faith reporting that makes me an even bigger sceptic. I'm happy that you're happy with Azdel and the rest of your RV but "different" doesn't necessarily mean "bad".