Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Thompson's Water Seal follow-up

I finally heard back from Thompson's Water Seal customer service on Tuesday, one week after submitting an inquiry to them.   This is what I wrote:

I purchased Thompson's Advanced Formula Water Seal to seal the teak decks of my boat. I applied it to the flybridge and aft deck and it worked beautifully. I bought another jug of it and it looked different. I compared the two jugs and the first one is "Natural Wood Protector" and the second "Clear Multi-Surface Waterproofer". The directions indicated it would work so I applied the second jug to the foredeck. It did not work. It looks bad, and the wood under the water seal is getting soaked. Please advise.

This was their answer:

Hello,

 Thank you for taking the time to contact Thompson’s. We appreciate your
 interest in our products.

 The Multi-Surface and the Natural Wood Protector are two different
 products. Can you please answer the following questions so I can better
 understand and resolve this issue.

 1) Can you explain in more details why it looks "bad"?

 2) Were the products applied next to each other?

 3) How were these products applied?

 Thank you for your time.  Please respond with e-mail history if you
 require
 additional assistance.

 Regards,

 Kevin
 Thompson’s Product Support

My answer:

Hi Kevin,

1)  The foredeck that was coated with the Multi-Surface has a blotchy
appearance.   Not so with the deck coated with the Natural Wood Protector.

2) Yes.  The port side deck runs up to the foredeck and are next to each
other.

3) The products were applied the same way, with a brush.

The Multi-Surface isn't waterproof.  When it rains, the deck turns the same

wet-wood look it did before applying the Multi-Surface.   The decks treated

with the Natural Wood Protector look fine and water beads up and runs off.

Dave Gibson

This was Kevin's reply yesterday:

Dave

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.  If the Multi-Surface
is not beading up water, that means the product penetrated so deep it
cannot protect the surface layer.  I would recommend applying another thin
application over these areas.  This should help even out any blotchiness
and make the surface layer 100% protected, like you other applications.
You want to make sure to apply as thin as possible, if applied to heavy the
surface will seem oily or tacky.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Sincerely,

Kevin
Thompson's Product Support

So, what to do?  I'm thinking I'm not going to apply the Multi-purpose.  I'll save that for waterproofing other things, like the dinghy's bimini.  I'll go back to what I know works, the Natural Wood Protector.  I may wait a bit for the Multi-purpose to wear down first, I think.

Anyway, the lesson learned here is to read the labels carefully.  These two different products look too much alike.


1 comment:

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