Gizmo 04

What's your opinion on this product and have you ever used it?

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

never tried it, but i prefer second skin. easier to apply, better quality stuff, does the job.

rich20730

I haven't used it, but from what I've read it's an asphalt-based roofing product (Peel & Seal) rebranded and marked up in price.

Here's a comment from Don of Sound Deadener Showdown from DIYMA:


Rubberized asphalt is NOT butyl. All asphalt products of this type have rubber compounds mixed in, so this product is ASPHALT.

It really distresses me to see people endorsing Peel & Seal, FatMat and other asphalt products for automotive sound deadener use - especially on DIYMA. Anybody reading this thread and considering following this path should do a search. The deficiencies of asphalt have been established beyond any doubt. Here's the real irony. Asphalt is much less effective than butyl. Much less of a proper butyl/aluminum foil product will do the same job as much more asphalt. Asphalt is no cheaper in use, requires much more work to install and is subject to failure. To add insult to injury (actually injury to insult) the fumes are toxic. There is no legitimate reason to use it. People perpetuate this nonsense because it is cheaper per square foot - an almost completely worthless metric.

Some people will insist on using asphalt regardless of the facts so let's look at the logic of using FatMat in particular - as a way to gain some insight into the thought processes of those who endorse this particular product. FatMat is sold as a side line by a roofing supplies distributor. They are an authorized dealer of MFM products, including Peel & Seal.

Peel & Seal and FatMat are indistinguishable except for a cheesy blue logo that gets inked onto FatMat. People complain about it coming off on their hands all the time. I have challenged the owner of FatMat to describe any difference between the two products and he has declined. They measure and test identically. This means that the people who buy FatMat are paying extra to have someone ship them exactly the same material they can buy at Lowe's for less.

Using asphalt in a car is utter foolishness. The way to save money on sound deadening is to use less. There actually are some decent quality butyl/aluminum foil flashing tapes that will work pretty well. Only problem is that they are very thin - 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness of products intended for sound deadening. When you compensate for this, they are no cheaper. Butyl is very expensive. Either the markup isn't as great as some seem to think it is or Industrial suppliers mark their products up as much as sound deadening companies.

I've been looking for cheaper alternatives for years and they really don't exist. You are either going to buy crap at a low price/ft² or you are going to pay a little more. Look at the the ² versions of eDead. People like to believe that these products are comparable to more expensive competitors and that ED is just a bunch of great guys or buys in such volume that they can sell their product for less. No! They buy a product that uses much cheaper Mylar instead of the far superior but more expensive aluminum foil used by the others. They charge less because eDead costs them less and once again you get what you pay for.

Trunk Monkey

iTrader: (1)

Second Skin, Dynamat, Sound Deadener Showdown or Cascade (from Jerry aka Niebur3).

Seems like Second Skin is the choice product of most here that are doing large projects. Jerry sells a kit for the door, and maybe a larger bulk kit too, from Cascade that he says works great. From reviews, it seems like a solid product like all the others listed.


Now Fatmat can get the job done, but you'll need 2x the amount as it's basically a mass loader that uses asphalt and a butyl base. By the time you get the same performance as the 4 above, you'll have caked on quite a bit of this stuff and likely spent more than you would have. I don't trust any product where the owner/CEO/whatever has to make up a word to describe it.