IDI’s Spray Foam Tech Team traveled a lot of miles this spring and had some wisdom to share with all their spray foam applicators and owners out there making it happen every day.
Transitioning from cold months to warmer months can be a great time for spray foam applicators. Substrates warm up, and there’s less need for constantly heating everything. That said, this time of year can still be filled with challenges that can lead to many unwanted issues.
The number one challenge they saw was chemical temperatures. More specifically, the challenge was crews keeping drums up to recommended temperatures. After all, that can cost you a lot of yield. Every spray foam system, or formula, has storage temps and processing parameters specified by the manufacturer. However, when we get to this time of year, our spray foam technicians see too many applicators no longer monitoring and maintaining these parameters. Unfortunately, even though its 70-80 degrees during the day, it’s not at night. It’s not unusual in spring and early summer to have drastic temperature changes. Think about the big snowstorm that just hit Denver May 20th 2022. And, even if it is 75 degrees during the day, it can easily be 40 degrees overnight. Monitoring and maintaining drums temps is important year-round. Don’t let warmer, or cooler, daytime temps fool you into thinking otherwise.
The second most popular seasonal challenge is when putting equipment back into service. That’s right, this one’s for our snowbirds and seasonal spray foam contractors getting ready to break that rig out of storage and fire it up. Before you get ready to connect the power and hit the job sites, the main question is… when you put your rig away for the winter months, did you flush it? Provided you did, what did you flush it with? If you did flush it, what storage solution did you put in it? Was that the right one? These are the questions we have to ask with mothballed rigs. Putting rigs to “sleep” can be beneficial, when done correctly. Far too often though, they have problems when it’s time to put them back into service. The most common violations are improper flushing and using the wrong storage solution. We strongly recommend GSP’S NZD ISO Flush for cleaning the system out. This product is an ISO neutralizer, and traps and vacates moisture. For storage, IDI’s tech team suggests Surf-A-Lube from GSP. Surf-A-Lube has zero VOC’S, zero water content, withstands up to 50 degrees below zero, and is designed specifically for storing spray foam equipment. Watch Surf-A-Lube in action in our latest video where we walk through an easy process of flushing out material from your spray guns. At the end of the day, if you’re going to go the storage route, make sure you use the right products.
While springtime certainly alleviates a lot of the cold weather issues, don’t forget to watch those temperatures and follow the best protocol when taking your spray foam into and out of service. Everything you need is on hand at our locations, and IDI’s spray foam techs are always ready to help you through these issues. If you have any questions about drum temps, flushing, rig storage, processing or on any of our products, contact your local IDI branch, where we look forward to earning your business every day.