About Althor's foam, it was my understanding that they have (about 15
years ago, John) recognized the propensity for disintegration of an
earlier type of foam that they and other distributors commonly used. The
sort of foam John Wolff is talking about is their answer to the problem,
a foam that is not expected to disintegrate.

Of course there have been a lot of supposedly durable plastic products
on the market that have not proven to be of lasting usefulness. Those
white five-gallon buckets that contain dry-wall mud and driveway sealant
and detergent, etc...crack and crumble after 20 years of use. I know
whereof I speak...I've been using the things for garden buckets ever
since our neighborhood was new, 20 years ago, and the buckets were
readily available in construction trash piles all the time. Also plastic
dustpans, broom handles, hair brushes, milk bottles, you name it, go the
way of all things...to dust.

It is all very well to say that a product will not disintegrate, but you
can't know til it has been tested by time. So if you use foam (and I do)
it is a good idea to run a check periodically on what it's doing.
Nothing is yuckier than dying foam, and it is so gummy that it does
stick to shells and some get etched by the chemicals in it.

There may be an upside to this plastics degeneration however...the
plastic stuff we are so worried about in landfills may fall apart after
a reasonable number of years. (And turn into what sorts of other
hazardous waste products? Better living through chemistry!)

Lynn Scheu
Louisville KY
Note my new email address: <[log in to unmask]>

John Wolff wrote:
>
> >Do not use foam of any kind.  It disintegrates and makes a sticky goo on the
> >shell.
> >Jordan *
>
> I have dark gray foam from Althor that's in perfect condition after 15
> years...
>
> John W.