• Introduction
• Why Do It?
• Should You?
• How To
• Asphalt vs. Butyl
• Product Specs
• Temperature Tests
• Adhesion Test
• Price Comparison
• Conclusions
• Contact Me

Products Reviewed: B-Quiet Extreme and Ultimate, Brown Bread, Cascade Audio Engineering VB2, Dynamic Control Dynamat Original and Dynamat Xtreme, Elemental Designs eDead v1 and eDead v1SE, FatMat, RAAMaudio RAAMmat BXT, Second Skin Damplifier and Damplifier Pro,

Room Temperature Adhesion Test

The Problem

For a sound deadening product to be effective, it has to maintain firm contact with the surface to which it is applied. The Temperature Test demonstrated how well our test subjects performed when subjected to escalating temperature. I wanted to see what could be learned about these products by testing the strength of their adhesive at 78°F.

Methodology

I took a large steel shelf bracket painted with a very durable and smooth white baked enamel and mounted it securely in a bench vise. Before each test, I cleaned the surface with acetone, then denatured alcohol and finally wiped the surface with a clean microfiber towel.

I cut a 1 inch by 6 inch strip of each product. I then cut a 1 inch by 7 inch strip of aluminum sheet metal and cleaned each one thoroughly. I drilled a quarter inch hole at the end of each strip.

I mounted each strip onto a piece of the prepared aluminum, offset by 1 inch from the end without the hole, so that there was a 1 inch square area of mat exposed at the end of each test strip.

I applied the exposed mat to the underside of the steel bracket and used the roller to be sure of firm contact. To perform each test, I hung a 2.5 pound barbell plate from a cord with a hook on the end from the hole in the test strip. I used a stopwatch to measure the time it took for the 1 inch square section of mat to be pulled away from the mounting surface. I then repeated the test and instead of hanging the weight immediately, I let the mounted sample sit for one hour first.

The Results - listed from longest to shortest time.

Observations

While there where a wide range of times posted by the products, this test is likely the least indicative of actual performance and the one I see most often misinterpreted. It only demonstrates the adhesive capabilities, at room temperature, on a perfect surface, immediately after installation and one hour later.

Under these conditions, each of these products had significantly more adhesive strength than it will ever need in actual use. It is interesting that the products with the highest failure rates have the highest initial bond strength.

The behavior of the Second Skin products is notable. They had very short initial adhesion that increased dramatically over the course of the first hour. At first glance, this may seem odd or even cause for concern. It is in fact a very nice feature that it turns out is a property of high quality butyl. During installation, if you misplace a piece of mat, it is easy to pull it up, reposition it and have it bond in its new location as well as it would have when you first laid it down. Very handy.

From this test, we can see that asphalt mats have sufficient adhesive strength to stay in place when first installed. I think we can safely concluded that their failure is a function of deterioration over time or exposure to temperatures than they were intended to withstand.