$9 for 12 yd + Sturdiness: The test's champ: It took 85 pounds to break the Gorilla's back. Thinner tapes are too floppy to handle. If you want a tape to use exclusively outdoors, we recommend Sticky Ass Tape. The samples spent a total of seven months in the field and experienced significant rain, wind, heat above 90 degrees, and snow and cold below 0 degrees (“one of the coldest winters in 20 years,” according to Accuweather). Duct tape is for everyone. It was still holding to the plywood, but there was significant curling at the edges, proving that it can hold up to a little outdoor use, but that there are better options for long-term fixes. It’s a heavy-duty tape with a big, thick adhesive, so it’s not as flexible as Duck Max and more difficult to tear. Silver Gorilla Tape is 3x stronger* for a hold that lasts. Sticky Ass doesn’t have the raw strength of some of the other tapes that we looked at, but on the exterior sample boards it had no parallel. On another board, they were holding blocks of wood. After about a week and a half, the strips holding the poly square let go. It’s also doesn’t conform to uneven surfaces as well as thinner tapes. Made from 3 layers - a double thick adhesive layer, a strong reinforced backing and a tough all weather shell. More information on that episode (with pictures of the rigged patch) is here. It was extremely flexible and by far the easiest to wrap, but it was so floppy that it often flopped over on itself. Through our research, and backed up by our firsthand testing, we found that a good general use duct tape should be around 11 milli-inches (mil) thick, use a natural rubber-based adhesive, and be made using a co-extrusion process. Are there different grades of Gorilla Tape? This lack of flexibility also causes problems if you’re bundling something together with the tape. Nashua 357 is the tape that the Mythbusters used to build a bridge and lift a car. As we found out in our testing, some adhesives are so gooey that they’ll melt in the hot sun. Gorilla, Duck Max Strength, T-Rex, Nashua 357 and Polyken 231 are some of the strongest brands of adhesive tape. There’s no question that Gorilla Tape had the strongest adhesive layered on top of the strongest mesh. On this board, Sticky Ass and Gorilla were still fully adhered, while the others were either gone or show dramatic curling, usually along the top edge. Made with double-thick adhesive, strong reinforced backing, and a tough all-weather shell, this duct tape is great for projects and repairs … What’s not as important are width and length. In 1972, duct tape made an emergency fix to the fender of the Apollo 17 moon buggy… on the moon. This kind of stretching is nearly impossible to do with a thick 17-mil tape. It measures 1.88 × 9 inches and occupies a considerable surface area wherever it’s applied. It’s rips very cleanly, has a very grippy adhesive and is very strong. In a home setting, this means things like chimney piping, dryer vents, and any points where you’re feeling hot air leaking from an HVAC furnace connection, like a transition between two separate duct pieces. There’s such a thing as being “too sticky.”. It’s much better if you can give the tape a strong pull and add a little stretch to it as you’re adhering it. Gorilla is 17 mils thick, with a strong mesh that holds up to 101 pounds securely… Intertape AC36, an 11-mil laminated tape, didn’t excel in any of the tests, coming in behind both Duck Max Strength, Nashua 398, and the 9-mil Scotch every time. It’s certainly not a dealbreaker, but once you’ve ripped as much tape as we have, you’ll understand just how much more difficult the 17-mil tapes were. It lays nice and flat, and it’s easy to get a good seal along the edges. No. These were typically thicker tapes and ones that tended to have specific strengths (and, as we discovered, specific weaknesses). Duck Max Strength is thinner at 11.5 mils, but still holds up to 62 pounds and is easier to tear in a clean, straight line. Polyken 231 Military Grade had the most distinctive adhesive of the tested tapes. We performed all structured strength tests at least three times per tape to eliminate the human factor as much as possible. We feel it’s better to be able to stick, even if it leaves something to clean up, than to not stick to glass at all. This little bit of flexibility, which tapes around 11-mil usually have, can add just enough tension to secure the whole bundle together. OVERVIEW White Gorilla Tape is 3X stronger for a hold that lasts. It appears to be hampered by its own structural strength. Duck Advanced is also a 9-mil tape, but it felt much thinner than the Scotch, possibly because of the lack of wrinkles. The adhesive on the Sticky Ass had melted some and the poly had slid about a quarter-inch, but it still held firm. On one tape, the ridges were so extreme that we were unable to get it to sit flat against any surface for more than a day or so. All true duct tape has a rubber-based adhesive, but each tape has its own adhesive recipe. 4. He spent 10 years in high-end construction as a carpenter, foreman, and supervisor. But during our third week of exterior testing, there was a three-day heat wave with two days in the low 90s and a final day in the high 80s. Of the general-use tapes, the Duck Max Strength consistently got the highest marks in strength testing, especially in material strength and adhesion to masonry. These original tests were done in 2013, and in the ensuing years, we’ve continued to use Duck Max Strength and have never found it lacking for regular around-the-house fixes and patches. After six weeks, the piece of Sticky Ass on the plywood was still 100 percent adhered. It is too stiff to wrap tightly around corners, but has an adhesive strength of more than 80 pounds when stuck to wood and masonry. The problem with lamination is the poly/scrim connection is nowhere near as secure as it is with the coextrusion method. Before getting into these specifics, it helps to know a bit about the three ingredients that make up a piece of duct tape: a polyethylene sheet backing, a cloth grid, and a rubber-based adhesive. After putting 13 scratchers up against the claws of 74 cats, we think Pioneer Pet’s SmartCat The Ultimate Scratching Post is the one that stands tall. The other way to make duct tape is called lamination. … x 35 yd. The threads that run the length of the tape are what give it its material strength—how much weight the tape can hold before breaking. After many conversations with four prominent duct tape manufacturers (and confirmed through our testing), we’re convinced a process called coextrusion is the best way to assemble these three ingredients. Once we started testing, it didn’t take long to realize that the thicker specialty tapes (Gorilla, Nashua 357, Sticky Ass, T-Rex, and Polyken 231) operate in an entirely different realm from the others. This one wasn’t nearly as strong as the others and it wasn’t that durable outdoors. In every case, the adhesion level surpasses that of the material strength and the tape broke before peeling away. Gorilla Tape is manufactured … The beefier they are, the less flexibility and conformity they have. Researchers Are Now Much Closer to Finding Out. Thickness is measured in “mils” (or milli-inches, roughly .0254 millimeters) and tapes vary from as thin as 3 mils to as thick as 17 mils. It’s designed for high heat and conforms very easily to make a nice seal over the uneven surfaces at duct connections. Some of the materials supported include brick, stone, plaster, and w… Compared to the other general-use tapes we tested, it has the strongest adhesive and the highest material strength, yet at 11.5 mils, it still has a lot of flexibility and is easy to wrap around curved or uneven objects, like the finger of a glove or a battered pair of work boots. Gorilla Tape is 3X stronger* for a hold that lasts. In every strength test, Gorilla was stronger. The tape itself is double-layered while the adhesive is double-layered to provide enough thickness and toughness for high-pressure cracks and leaks. Find Gorilla duct tape at Lowe's today. While Duck Tape-brand Classic duct tape fell short in our testing, the heavier-gauge Duck Tape MAX proved to be a powerful yet affordable alternative to Gorilla Tape. Each test was run during a single day continuously until completion, so humidity and temperature were constant throughout. The most telling is that co-extruded tapes have very small, clearly defined dimples on the exterior of the roll. Grips to most surfaces. by Jim Travers, Kit Dillon, and Wirecutter Staff. Among the tapes, this one did the best in all of the exterior testing, and after seven months of sitting in a field, it was the only tape that was still attached to all four sample boards. In 2019, we tested the 15-mil IronForce Heavy Duty Duct Tape. Gorilla Thick&Strong Waterproof Adhesive Tape Indoor/Outdoor UV-resistant White. The same was true for the pieces holding up the poly square. Gorilla Tape® Black is extra strong, double-thick and incredibly tough. Once this happens, especially if it’s adhesive to adhesive, it’s pretty much a permanent bond, so you have to discard the piece and start over. But the fact is that a 17-mil tape isn’t very malleable at all. In the five years since our original testing, we’ve continued to use and evaluate many of the tested duct tapes. Q. Shop duct tape and a variety of glues & tapes products online at Lowes.com. Without the fender, the abrasive moondust could cover the equipment and the astronauts—and then potentially overheat in the fierce lunar sun, cooking the astronauts in their suits.