I'm looking to buy the gun and foam. Does the case hold the gun and can of foam together? Or do you have to find somewhere else to store them when they are together? I see it says do not ever take the can off the gun unless you are changing cans.

The green plastic case holds a gun and a mounted foam can. There are additonal molded cradles for holding additional foam cans and or cleaner cans.

We remove the foam can after each use from the gun and keep the screw on foam cleaner can, spray until clean and keep it there until the next use. We have used our last gun for 6 years by following this procedure.

That goes against everything the pur foam rep said. I was always told keep The can on the gun until empty, the problem is I can never empty a can because the gun always gets plugged inside the trigger area. This is my second gun (the economy model).Im going to try it your way and see if it helps. Is the more expensive model that much better?

The expensive one clogs too. We usually leave the can on until done, and clean periodically. I figured that the dry foam bits would clog gun....if you removed the can without cleaning top of can. I just keep buying guns...ugh.

I have been using the Pur foam guns since they hit the market many years ago. My system is the best one I have found for keeping a gun in working order. If you follow the reps lead you wont get very much service from them.They want you to buy guns of course. You will use some cleaner but it works the best.A case of cleaner is a good investment if you use your gun very much.

Also keep them from freezing in the winter months as this will cause the foam to cure inside the barrel quickly also. Keep them at room temperature if at all possible. If you are not storing your guns indoors in the winter months you must keep a can of cleaner on the gun at all times. If not they usually wont last the year.

You will find that the foam will dry over time in the barrel and in the tip area. Thus causing the trigger to cease up as the internal barrel rod will fail to move back and forth as it was designed to do. Do the company reps method for a couple of years then as you learn you will find my method will serve you the best.

So if the can is not empty is it garbage after you remove it?

Not if you clean it well but generally not recommended.

We don't use Bob's method because we are a bunch of morons. We've had some of our guns last 6 weeks before they clog. ( Can you tell that I don't personally use Pur foam guns and that I would like to punch all of our guys who do? )

If the cleaner blows thru the gun with pressure after the pur foam can is removed then the gun is ok. Make sure the tip is cleaned off well prior to cleaning as the foam will tend to seal over the tip if you arent in the good habit of wiping the gun tip clean after each use before the foam can dry.

Scrape the tip clean with a razor knife or carpenter knife of sorts regularly so you can see the gun barrel and the internal flow rod tip. This will insure good foam flow and help keep the gun working well.

You can draw dried pieces of foam into the barrel tip at times clogging the gun tip over time. This is just doing some good preventive maintenance.

Last summer I think I went through two short
And one long gun, this year as of yet I haven't had
One gum up on me! This year I have been using
Cleaner when I feel the can is about half empty and whenever
I place a new can on! I have been gettin a lot of cans
That only last for half the can! I think maybe it's the weird
Angles I'm forced to use the can at!

I expect if I ever get mine unclogged again I will go with Bob's method. I hate mine!

Bob..thank you!
I've been thru 3 long guns..2 shorts and 1 cheap short gun since I started using these. Each one was having trigger problems after about a case of foam. I started running the cleaner thru them once a week and everything has been good so far.
Cleaning the tips was the first game changer for me. I use a can of great stuff pro gun cleaner to spray the tip after every job...as well as using some of the copper mesh stuffing material as an abrasive.
Also.. I spray some cleaner on the valve where the gun and can connect between jobs. Take the can off...spray a bit of cleaner...work the trigger..spray again..and put the new or old can back on. This has worked to get a gun going that I just knew was done.
So far this has worked way better than the sales reps advice of using the cleaner as little as possible !

Spray cleaning the check ball area of the gun completely after a foam can is removed / changed is a given I would think.Dried foam will in time impede or restrict the spring valve movement of the check ball if this isnt done regularly.

All the things I have mentioned are a good procedure I learned to follow and will ensure that you will get the most time served from your pageris guns.I was going thru several guns both long and short barrel models in what I deemed an unreasonable time period. The Long guns are more prone to seizeing due to their length and more potential clogging surface area we found.

Keeping the cleaning can attached to the guns between use has been the key for maintaining working guns for us. You may use more cleaner then you are accustomed to using and waste a little foam due to the clean out process. However, the use of small amounts of each the product is justified in my experience.

If you can't condition yourself or your employees to an alternative practice of pageris gun maintenance you can always keep buying more guns like Paul. I bet the company and dealers selling guns know when bat season rolls around. I guess Paul has WCS on speed dial this time of year.LOL

Foam guns fail for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is poor manufacturing but mainly the faults come from the users. The foam itself has an expiration date that can be found on the bottom of each can. As Bob pointed out, how you store the foam is just as important as using fresh foam. Let's face it, if you're using bad product you're going to get bad results.

A main way that guns get ruined is how they are cleaned. Running cleaner through the gun will eat away at the plastic O ring seal and allow air (e.g. moisture) to enter causing the foam to cure in the barrel. Normally, this is just at the tip which as Bob pointed out prevents the cable from moving when the trigger is depressed. This can be fixed several times by gently grinding away a very small portion of the barrel tip with a Dremel tool. Just make sure you go very slowly and check the gun frequently so that you don't remove too much material and permanently ruin the gun. If the gun is made by Pageris, you are supposed to be able to return it to the manufacture to have it fixed at no cost which is the better solution.

Bob's system works well mainly because he doesn't keep foam on the gun and by running the cleaner through the barrel keeps any cure from happening. Where most operators have a problem is that they run a can of foam, let it sit on the gun until empty then run cleaning solution through it along with running a knife or other metal object over the tip to remove dried foam in order to use the gun again or by dragging it over brick/stone surfaces. This process will destroy the internal O ring and damage the tip allowing air to enter the barrel.

If you are going to keep foam on a foam gun per the recommendations, do not clean the inside of the gun, run metal over the tip, or drag the tip over any hard uneven surface. Instead, use the spray cleaner to clean the tip after each application and use add on syringes and needles to protect the tip. Also keep the foam stored at room temperatures at all times, don't allow the foam on the gun to go bad (don't replace a can with one that will expire in a month and then not immediately use it) and make sure the foam can seal has not become loose.

As long as there are no defects with the gun itself, these steps will keep the gun working for years. Or, use Bob's technique and take the foam out of the equation.

So for a guy that'll only use it very little would it be best for me to just get the cans until I get to using it more often??

TJP - I've only been in business 3 years now, I bought the green kit from WCS. I don't use it all the time, I don't follow any particular rule except that I don't remove the can till a new can is ready to go. I would be a light user and don't use it often and I'm not doing the volume most guys who commented are in terms of workload.

So if you are wondering about buying or not buying because you might not use much, I'd say buy it, just don't load up on cases of cans till you see where your work takes you and the techniques and materials you find most useful in your exclusion.

Just don't want you to wait because it sounds complicated. Any tool requires some knowledge or experience to get the most of it, I love the pur system for some work and don't pull it out at all for others.

Anyway, .02 from a part time - full time operator

Justin

Justin that helped a ton. Thank you everyone for the comments, I'm going to go ahead and buy the whole kit

I should have added though, if I was running lots of it, I'd be following Bob J's recommended treatment.

Just a little disclaimer there....

Glad it helped!

It helps, I think, to clean the tip with plain ol' acetone on a rough rag or those steel wool pads used for scrubbing pots. Then put a little Vaseline over the tip and a cap over that.

Very easy to solve this issue, don't use foam.. Period. Make a proper repair...

Bud....You never ever use foam at all ??

So if I use foam it's not a proper rapair? According to who?
Why would I fight using backer rod all the time
Having to have different sizes in the truck taking up
Space, when I can just foam the gaps that need it and
Caulk over the top of a perfectly sealed area! Or how about
Putting the excluders on in a soffit pocket? Foam it into
Place and it's done until you get back and take down
The job and finish! How about for mice in vinyl siding corners?
Excluder material foam, trim it of and a ring of lexel
And it's done not going anywhere!
There is always a use for some foam on my
Jobs, if your not using it at all then I think your
Missing out, or just want to say I use NO foam?

Foam works very well for non chewing animals and void fills. With a good silicone glaze over the cured foam a good seal can be provided in my experience. It should not be used for voids that can be chewed by ground level animals or elevated points to prevent squirrel entries obviously.Coil flashing or other type materials need to be used for these repairs.

For draft prevention and detection for bats it is a good material to use for certain applications.For large void runs or other faulty construction practices encountered other covering/closure materials are needed and recommended.

Foam should not be used in my experience to seal bat entry points. Particularly those that allow the bats to rest and provide a good footing point as this could and can promote chewing back into the primary entry site.This I have witnessed in my years, so no foam is used as a result of this potential problem.

We dont use alot of foam as we did years ago but it does have its use. Used with good judgement it is very effective. I have inspected some jobs from 10 years ago where we used some foam. It had been glazed with a good silicone. The seals were in very good condition with regards to preventative standards.

Dave that's close to what I do, I keep a small jar of acetone in the tool box just for the foam gun but what I do is crack the valve on the gun and stick the tip into the acetone and pull the trigger. This ejects a small amount of foam into the acetone and when the tip plunger closes it draws a little bit of acetone back into the tip. I have been replacing fewer guns this way.

Excllent! Anything that slows down the attrition rate of these little &^%#*s is okay with me!

Menards sells foam guns there 50 bucks and there better then the pur black guns never buy one again .For 100 bucks you can get the 4 foot foam gun the thing rocks and works with pur black if you must . Menards sells construction adhesive foam for there guns as well and it's cheaper and better then pur black . Menards sells cleaner cans there cheaper and better then pur black cleaner cans and guess what it's made in Michigan not some forien land .

Just used a can of brake cleaner on the tip. Worked wonders! Cut the old dried foam of like hot butter! I wouldn't use it in the trigger assembly. But for quick clean ups, it worked well!

I'm a Menards junkie. Anyone else use their guns and foam?

I use the guns but with pur black!

The foam at Menards comes out foam like but after a week or so sets up into this rock hard constrution adhesive made for glueing down 3/4 plywood on floors so it's hardcore stuff also made outdoor or indoors . If you havent tried really should because the stuff will bond anything blows away pur black . Pur black is joke compaired to this stuff .

Guns are better as well and cost much less and Paul you get that long barrel won't even need a ladder reach up like 12 foot with that thing

Hey pesky,what's the name brand of that gun.Is it the eco.gun ECSTASY sells.

Sorry guys my dumb phone reworded that- is it the one wildlife control supplies sells

Made a short video of the adhesive foam and guns found at Menards this is a product of Dow made right here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FjKaNA8qmc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

i did an inspection on a golf course clubhouse yesterday and the manager showed me where "the" bat has been hanging off the beams on the ceiling in the dining room. "their" maintenance guys used the yellow expando crap and it stuck out like a sore thumb.. i like the black.. it hides better.. hides in the shadows better.

Wiggler got any pics of that? Can't picture it, assuming it isn't an open faced beam, but they were behind it maybe?

Just curious...

it looked like a hanging light fixture and the bat was roosting on or near the light fixture. so these brilliant guys decided to use the yellow spray foam all around the fixture to keep the bat from roosting there.. no i did not take any photos.. their were customers in the restaurant and the manager wanted me to be "low-key" about it. rmemeber this is a dark brown interior building.. all wood.. my point is.. using the yellow was like a neon light up there.. where the black foam would not have been noticed.
they were not hanging behind it, but off the beam itself.

Thanks wiggler, definitely understand what you meant by the yellow versus black, just couldn't picture why foam would be a good thing in the middle of a ceiling, related to the first guys who were there, not yourself.

No worries on the pics, totally understand, lately I've come home with stories and my wife says, "where are the pics" and I say, you know what, I totally forgot, or my hands were full, plus was straddling two rafters making sure not to go through the drywall, etc....

I guess you missed the point this isnt foam it's adhesive

I was recently told of a new workable foam product. IIRC it's a DAP product.

I had a foam failure. Bats chewed thru 1 1/2 inches of foam. After that, I placed copper mesh in the opening, then covered it with foam. Depending on the size of opening, and where it is located, I use flashing, or mesh and foam. I use Pur Black as it does blend in on shingles. Just my 2 cents.

I know many folks have stated they've seen bats chew through the foam to enter. Enough folks that I would have to believe it.

My question which I haven't asked is what time of year do you tend to see these chew throughs and is it 100% that it is bats versus
squirrels or other gnawing critters that did it?

I'm honestly very curious so I'm asking the question in hopes of adding some light by those who have seen this as I've not, but I haven't
had ample opportunities and a short tenure so far to see it myself.

Any additional info appreciated.

Justin

Unless you watch the bats chew through....I would suspect that the mice lead the way.

foam cleaner won't help cured foam in the gun but it will remove the uncured foam so it can't set up so that will keep the gun from stoping up. acetone in squirt bottle will save you on foam cleanr for external cleanup and little spots on your job. Most clog ups happen in the barrel. Outside in a safe place take a blow torch back and forth on the barrel while putting pressure on the trigger. If you like you could put a can of cleaner on the gun as it will clean out melted foam. Many time it will break loose cleaning out and saving your gun. The most important thing is buy your foam from someone who sells a lot of it as the date is always in and store it in room or warmer temperatures and you will have less trouble with your gun.

This does work...but only for steel barrels.

I almost broke down and got a new 3 footer,It wouldn't stop spraying when I let go of the trigger. But today I took the adjustment knob off, took the spring out, and saw some white corrosion. So I gave it some WD 40 and then a few drops of CLP and it works like new again!

Thats a great tip Mike ! I ve thrown more than one away that was on automatic thought I tried everything. Call me a dummy but whats CLP -- gun cleaner ??

Yea, its cleaner, lubricant, and protect-ant. CLP I think the solvent dries everything out and makes it stick.

Gave up mine.