Spray foam guns can be a dream come true for homeowners. When they want more efficient insulation for their home, the foam can fill any space to decrease air loss and increase sound absorption. The gun allows you to inject the foam wherever you want, with ease and precision. You can even choose from a few different types of spray foam guns, each with their own benefits.
Spray foam guns may be a dream come true, but like any dream, it requires some work and effort on your part. Your tool could be state-of-the-art, but as with any machinery and equipment, it would not work as well as you would want if you do not keep it clean. Thankfully, the task is not that difficult, as long as you have the right knowledge. Here are some tips for proper spray foam gun maintenance.
Clean After Every Day of Use
Cleaning a spray foam gun may seem like an obvious necessity to many. How often it should be cleaned may be less obvious, and we advise doing it after every day of use. We say day of use rather than use because you may use and put down your spray gun multiple times over a good day of work. It is rarely necessary for you to clean it after each spray. Still, you should set aside some time near or after the end of the workday for spray foam gun maintenance.
In truth, you do not even really need to do it as often as we recommend. Spray foam guns can function well over several days of use before the need for care becomes urgent. With that said, we still strongly suggest that beginners, in particular, should do this so that it becomes a habit. When they finish using their spray gun, one of their first and most nagging thoughts will be, “I should clean this as soon as possible.” This practice may be a bit mind-over-matter, but it can be a great motivator.
Developing that habit is important because cleaning a spray foam gun can feel a bit tedious. You may need special solvents to clean up any marks and residue without damaging the tool. Moreover, when you want to do a real deep-cleaning, you might need multiple separate utensils and cleaners for the many parts that comprise the device. When you make it part of your routine, it just might feel less annoying and more like a normal part of the job.
Learn How to Clean Every Piece
Spray foam gun maintenance is about more than simply washing the exterior and the tip of the nozzle. These machines may not be as complex as the Autobots and Decepticons, but in Transformers parlance, they are still more than meets the eye. The surface conceals some intricate inner workings, involving an assortment of parts that work in unison to make the device work so well. This is especially true for mechanical purge guns, which have more parts than other types.
Now, you do not need to take care of the internal parts after every use, as we advised above. With that said, you should do it every once in a while. In particular, you must give the pieces a thorough cleaning if you do not plan to use the gun for a while. We know how dirty a tool can get when kept in storage for a long time. Any dirtiness that it may already have could get even worse, resulting in malfunctions and degradation.
The challenge here is that many of those pieces are small and fragile. They still need to be cleaned, but you will need to be more careful in handling them than you would with, say, the barrel. If you apply a wee bit too much pressure or use the wrong materials, you may have to shell out for replacement parts or even a new spray foam gun. Take the time to learn, then practice with care. When every piece is cleaned properly, the gun may feel like new.
Remember to Clean the Utensils
Many people use a special brush when taking care of the dirty dishes, cups, cutlery, and other utensils in their kitchen sink. In addition to spreading soap, the brush is almost always designed to scrape off any gunk. After getting scrubbed off, however, that gunk may sometimes get caught in the brush hairs — especially non-solids like, for example, mustard. You would not want to spread that mustard to your dishes, cups, cutlery, and utensils. So, you wash the brush.
Anyone practicing spray foam gun maintenance should extend that same philosophy to the brushes and other tools they use for cleaning. The entire purpose of these tools is to remove residue and contaminants. However, if you are not careful, you could also end up spreading them with those very same tools. Obviously, this would defeat their purpose. You cannot clean something with something that is not itself clean.
This piece of advice is just something worth keeping in mind. Your focus should primarily be on your spray foam gun, of course. Still, at least every once in a while, check your tools and decontaminate them as well. This practice may require a bit of extra work, but it will increase the quality and longevity of the spray foam gun. In the end, that is what spray foam gun maintenance is all about.
Use High-Quality Spray Foam Gun Maintenace Products
Naturally, the quality of the products you use for spray foam gun maintenance can also enhance the quality and longevity of the device. If you are serious about cleanliness, you should narrow your search to the best utensils and cleaners you can find. Here at Spray Foam Parts and Supplies, we offer all the brushes and tools you may want in a handy spray gun cleaning kit. This collection is just one of the many high-end supplies that you can find in our online store.
Give your spray foam gun the care it deserves and place an order with us today.