# The Best Shower Silicone



## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

Doing numerous re-caulks, I constantly find myself asking the question -- What's the best brand/type?

In terms of holding power to metal, tile, fiberglass and resistance to mold and growth that they all seem to claim. Inner shower door frames and tubs along the outer base seem to be the test. 

My go-to has been GE. Have yet to use Gorilla silicone (which got my mind starting on this again). So what is everyone using... for both new placements and the re-do?


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## rrk (Apr 22, 2012)

Lately what ever is in stock, silicone seems to be on the shortage item list near me


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

I stopped using real silicone years ago.

I use the newish GE 30 minute bathroom sealant for sealing and glazing shower doors. Works like a real sealant instead of the minimal hold and usefulness of a 100 percent silicone. 

Products move on.

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## CarpenterRN (Dec 3, 2009)

.


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## Randy Bush (Mar 7, 2011)

Best and silicone is almost a oxymoron. I use the newer stuff , no smell or little kitchen and bath caulk. Even on window installs don't use silicone any more.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

Yep. I always love coming in years later trying to reseal a house that someone uses silicone on.

Nothing sticks, it's always full of grime and even after peeling it out, nothing still sticks.

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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

Randy Bush said:


> Best and silicone is almost a oxymoron. I use the newer stuff , no smell or little kitchen and bath caulk. Even on window installs don't use silicone any more.


Alright, besides calling it an oxymoron - what do you use?


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

VinylHanger said:


> Yep. I always love coming in years later trying to reseal a house that someone uses silicone on.
> 
> Nothing sticks, it's always full of grime and even after peeling it out, nothing still sticks.


 I know exactly what you mean. You need the patience of a yogi. Plenty of spirits to clean with. And be on hourly plus.🚿


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## Randy Bush (Mar 7, 2011)

I don't do a lot of interior caulking, but have used the Dap Kitchen and bath that can be painted with low to no smell to it. Exterior like using Quad will stay on what you put it on. Whereas will silicone cam pretty much pull that off.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

I was wrong. This is what I use.






DAP 3.0™ Kitchen & Bath | DAP Global


High performance, no-shrink hybrid sealant provides superior flexibility, adhesion and mold resistance, along with low odor and 30 minute paintability for a 100% waterproof seal, backed with a lifetime guarantee.




www.dap.com





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## Glassit (Mar 26, 2015)

Pure silicone is still the best product you can use for longevity in almost any application. Neutral cure (doesn't smell like vinegar) is usually easier to work with and has better specs, but is harder to find. Any commercial site you go to will have pallets of silicones around to be used on the waterproofing membranes, glazing, and other critical envelope components. "Best" is going to be from an industrial supplier, not Home Depot or Lowes, because cost is more of a driver there than quality is. I use DAP for cosmetic stuff like painting occasionally but never where water is a concern. Dowsil/Dow Corning, Sika, and Tremco are the sealant industry leaders but there are plenty of others. 

Dowsil makes the best silicones, in my opinion, and most of their products perform perfectly even if applied well past their "use by "date, unlike some other brands. I've used 795 in all the showers I've done, 995 and 790 would also be good choices. 995 is thinner but higher strength. GE does make commercial grade products like SCS2800 (great for faster cure times) and others. Tremco's best sealant would probably be Spectrem 2. Some of the other options already listed above are hybrid polymers, which is basically a blend of silicone and/or polyurethane and/or acrylic, with the properties usually resembling a blend of the bases. For example a silicone-poly hybrid won't last as long or have the joint movement capacity of a pure silicone but will be less expensive and may stick to some surfaces better.

If you can pull any sealant off it's usually a surface prep issue, although some loose surfaces may need a primer, but that's not an issue with tile. The downside, as mentioned, is once you use silicone you can't use anything else in the future without a lot of acetone or xylene and scrubbing, it won't stick.


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

VinylHanger said:


> I was wrong. This is what I use.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Is it as hard to get out of the tube as some of the reviews at that page say?


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

Glassit said:


> Pure silicone is still the best product you can use for longevity in almost any application...I use DAP for cosmetic stuff like painting occasionally but never where water is a concern. Dowsil/Dow Corning, Sika, and Tremco are the sealant industry leaders but there are plenty of others.


Would agree that silicone is still potentially the best, while keeping an open mind to exceptions. I'm not impressed by DAP tub and tile as I've redone so much of theirs. Noting that sometimes it's more of a color choice to match. I don't believe the others you mention are available in my area, unless I'm in for an excursion



Glassit said:


> The downside, as mentioned, is once you use silicone you can't use anything else in the future without a lot of acetone or xylene and scrubbing, it won't stick.


 A lot of times I notice the frustrated scrape marks from a knife in fiberglass showers where someone had a time with it...I stick to spirits if possible, though have used acetone.


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## We Fix Houses (Aug 15, 2007)

Polyseamseal - I've gone back to customers home 5-6 years later - still good.

Not avail at the box stores now - I used the DAP kitchen - adhesive latex which used this week. We'll see. These high vinyl content latex caulk work and tool well.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

artinall said:


> Is it as hard to get out of the tube as some of the reviews at that page say?


Not with a decent caulk gun. Maybe with a pressed metal diy gun, or those stupid plastic guns everyone likes. Those wouldnt push pudding, let alone caulk very well

I like the HD heavy duty orange store brand guns. Lots of piston power and just work well.

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## David-Remodeler (Nov 30, 2018)

I’ve used Dymonic around sinks before, that seems like it will stick to anything, very durable, lots of flex plus you can get colors close to the counter top so it blends in even better. 

I’ve used the GE silicone from Menards a few times and it seemed to work alright.

The last shower I did there wasn’t much on the shelves so I tried white lightning Optima which is some kind of exterior grade hybrid that looks like it should hold up very well for just a shower but time will tell. It’s paintable in 30 minutes too which is helpful.

Ive bought commercial silicone from a specialty sealant place near me for some exterior stuff before and they were very knowledgeable, if you could find someplace like that near you you could stop in and probably get some good recommendations.

As far as caulk coming out of the gun easily, different guns are rated at different thrust ratios which are usually pretty easy to find. My go to caulk gun is a dripless ergo which I think is a 12:1 ratio and it works great for lighter stuff like 950 and white lightning quick dry but has a hard time moving heavier stuff. I also have a dripless industrial that I think is at a 20:1 ratio so it doesn’t move those lighter sealants as fast but it does a good job pumping things like Quad Max.


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## Glassit (Mar 26, 2015)

From the reviews it sounds like the sealant you were asking about may have issues with premature curing, or maybe they all got out of date tubes. In addition to being hard to squeeze, many describe it as not sticking, both of which are what happens when sealant starts to cure in the tube/sausage. Another less likely possibility is that they weren't puncturing an internal seal correctly, if there is one. I've seen newbies pop a hole and wonder why they can't get much caulk, the seal needs to be jabbed and sliced in an "x" for best results. 

We've used pallets of Dymonic FC, it's a good sealant at a good price, and is actually what I was thinking of when I wrote the poly-silicone hybrid description in my last post. 

To give another time perspective, we've serviced skylights 40+ years old, full southern exposure, where Dow's 795 was used and fully exposed to the weather. Even after timeframes like that, if applied correctly, most of the joints are intact and pliable.


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## rrk (Apr 22, 2012)

We Fix Houses said:


> Polyseamseal - I've gone back to customers home 5-6 years later - still good.
> 
> Not avail at the box stores now - I used the DAP kitchen - adhesive latex which used this week. We'll see. These high vinyl content latex caulk work and tool well.


Polyseamseal? the crap that used to come with cast iron sinks, that used to get hard as a rock, that needed a hammer and chisel to get the sink out when replacing tops, that turned black by the faucet, that used to pull the laminate off the substrate, that crap? I hate that crap


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## nickko (Nov 11, 2012)

I have some polyseamseal where the dry wall meets the top of a shower in a spare bathroom of mine. It’s as hard as a rock.


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

Polyseamseal - that stuff, is memory serves me right, is ancient. On the brighter side maybe they've reformulated it?


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