Dusting Off Our Drum

We’ve beat this drum before but some things are worth repeating. When products claim to be breakthrough or cutting-edge technology, it usually means they’re so new they have no history of performance in actual field conditions. Buzzwords can vary (micro and nano are currently en vogue), but unless someone can explain to me why a micro anything is better that a non-micro something, I’m skeptical.  I suspect there’s more psychology that physics at play there. Nano-tubes for example are exotic forms of a very mundane material (carbon). They exhibit some very unusual (and useful) properties that are too complicated for most (myself included) to fully understand. As such, they must be special.

That’s not to say all new products are worthless. After all, every product had to start as new. But before you spend a lot of money on one; be aware of its limitations. An “economical” or “simple” roof repair (tape, spray, goo-in-a-can) may be useful for an emergency, short-term fix and not much else.

Snake oil salesmen have been around for a long time, so they must be pretty good at selling their wares. In the early days, their potions, elixirs and decoctions at least had enough opium and alcohol in them to keep you from knowing you were being had.

If you’ve had any experience (good or bad) with rejuvenators, repair tapes or sprays or any other unorthodox products, please share them with us.