Choosing the Best Type of Insulation | by ecoMaster

www.ecomaster.com.au/
With so many types of insulation available, fire, water and durability must be considered. ecoMaster put polyester to the test - burning, wetting, tearing and squashing it.
See how polyester insulation holds up against moisture, flame, tearing and compression and learn why ecoMaster consider this the best type of insulation of all of the different types of insulation available.
When choosing the best type of insulation for your home's ceiling or underfloor area, moisture, fire and loft must be taken into account. In this video, Maurice Beinat, Chief Technical Officer of ecoMaster, puts polyester insulation to the test, demonstrating why we consider this product to be the best type of insulation.
For more information about professionally installed or DIY polyester insulation, visit www.ecoMaster.com.au
Transcript:
"You might be wondering about what kind of insulation batts to fit in your home, we wondered the same thing at ecoMaster and that's why we tested all the available batts. We wanted to provide a product that would last the test of time, something that would maintain it's R value no matter how long it was installed, and that would be applicable a range of applications. That's why we chose Autex Polyester.
You'll notice I'm sitting on a batt right now, one of the beauties of this product is its loft, that is, its ability to spring back to its original shape. There are lots of other products that you can't do this with, and therefore you don't know what R value you're going to end up with once they've been compressed. We're going to do a few more tests on this product right now and see how it performs.
Sometimes people are concerned that their insulation is going to hold water, so if you've got a roof leak for example, you might get some water on the insulations. Or if it's underfloor and you've got a leak, you certainly don't want that insulation to be like a sponge. Polyester doesn't hold water of itself. It just lets the water go straight through, just like that. And in no time at all it'll be pretty much dry. And it still retains it shape and its strength and all of the other properties that it has.
One of the other concerns about insulation is how it behaves in a fire. Now polyester is bonded together by heat, so all there is is polyester fibres. With other bulk insulation, it's not so much the fibres that are the risk, but the glues that hold them together. With polyester, as I say, there's only the polyester fibres. Now, I've got a gas torch here so I'm going to show you what happens to polyester in the case of a fire. As you can see, what happens to it is that it melts, and that's it.
I want to show you now how to tear and cut a batt. Now with polyester, all of the fibres are lined up in the one direction, what that means is, that it makes it incredibly, incredibly tough in that direction and easily torn in the opposite direction. What that means is, that if your batt doesn't fit exactly right this way in your joist space, you simply put it sideways and tear to the appropriate length, and you keep doing that butting them up - you'll get a perfect job that way.
In places where you absolutely must cut the batt, that is, in the direction where it's almost indestructible, then the way to do it is with a long snap-blade knife. Press down hard on a surface that can be scored and cut along the polyester. You'll need to cut several times to get through it, depends of course on the thickness of the batt, this is an R4.0 batt so it's very thick. You notice that I'm getting through it. In most cases this is not really necessary, because in almost every instance you can get by just tearing it. There we go, that's cutting a batt, I think you'll agree that tearing is easier.
I think we've seen just how resilient the polyester batts are. Autex Polyester is the best product available for bulk insulation. We've sat on it, we've tried to break it, we've poured water on it, we've torched it, it's still good. That's why we use Autex Polyester."
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[@leedaq7767]

hmmm i thought it would hold the water and dries out later on to prevent the water damage on the ceiling

[@ecoMasterAu]

The insulation is not there to protect ceiling plaster from water. Ceiling insulation that is not polyester soaks up the water and is destroyed by it. Polyester will pass the water through and dry out. No need to replace the insulation. However, it is a good idea to fix the roof! :-)

[@eltouristoduo]

idk why polyester is now unheard of in USA. It used to be available. Its the best because it's not nasty like fiberglass. Fiberglass is terribly irritating and unhealthy. Makes it horrible to get into attics etc.

[@ecoMasterAu]

Hi eltouristoduo, I don't understand why polyester is not available in the USA. We certainly get a lot of enquiry for it as many people do not like the itchiness associated with fibreglass insulation. Sorry we can't help you. :-(