Customer Reviews

SOY-Gel Paint and Urethane Remover, Quart

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Soy-gel is the best low-toxicity paint stripper I have been able to find. It blows Citristrip away, easily lifting off multiple layers of paint. It also removes difficult-to-remove paints (e.g. milk-based). It comes very close to, and perhaps even equals, the effectiveness of dangerous methylene chloride strippers like Rock Miracle and Easy-Strip.

The product stays wet for a long time, increasing its
effectiveness.

It does cost more than twice what the very toxic strippers do, but it is worth it for the health benefits. You can leave it working in your house and not worry about being gassed to death while you go about other things.

I have just used this gel to strip a painted brick fireplace. Three layers of paint bubbled off and practically melted away. Just lift the paint off with a scraper (no real effort required) and remove the softened paint from the grout with a wire brush.

It is almost completely odourless and I was thrilled to be able to use such a safe and EFFECTIVE product with a two year old around. I've been using Amazon for years but this is the first review I've been moved to write because I just can't get over how good this was.

I bought a quart of this product to make sure it worked before ordering a gallon, as it is not cheap. But if you are unwilling to use toxic strippers, as I am, then it is worth every penny. It is beautifully effective on wood, and the Franmar website states it is safe for plaster. As my husband and I are stripping many layers of (probably) lead-based paint off old lumpy rough plaster, we would never have accomplished the task without this stripper.

I have found it is most effective to use a relatively thin layer of gel (even on thick layers of paint) and wait at least one day, maybe two (not covered with plastic film) until the surface is no longer gooey or wet. The paint is now very pliable but dryish and will peel away from the underlying surface in nice strips

I used the product on an antique chest that had been painted with several layers of paint. The newer paint on top came off easily. The very old paint underneath, however, was a different story. I called the manufacturer to get help and they told me the old paint is indeed harder to get off. They advised me to leave the product on longer, up to 24 hours. That helped quite a lot and I was able to get most of the paint off, but I will still have to sand what is left. If you are working with old paint, don't be afraid to let the gel sit for a while. As long it stays wet, it is still working. I wish I had known this earlier, I wouldn't have wasted as much product (and money) as I did by removing it too early.

This worked pretty well. I had to use several coats, it doesn't work with one coat only as in their description, so the quart definately doesn't go far. It has NO bad smell, doesn't BURN bare skin so that is great. It is expensive, and only removes layers after several applications, but it does work eventually. You do have to watch and check when to remove the layers, it depends on outside temp and number of layers. I waited 12 hours the first application, but it had already dried, and was difficult to remove, I had to reapply more, so watch and check every hour or so. It does remove easily when it is still wet.

I have never used anything else, so I can't compare. So I can't give my review 5 stars because I have hopes there is something better out there! What I would like to have tried was the Klean Strip premium with color change because a friend tells me it dries crusty and can be swept up easily - but local orange big box store only had it in a gallon container, and I didn't need that much. So I stuck with the soy gel, which is what I started with.

I stripped one layer of white latex paint of a previously (like, for 80+ years) unpainted bannister/handrail/etc in my stairway. I highly suspect the previous owner was told by the realtor to "brighten it up" before selling and holy cow I'd like to choke both of them. It looked ok but he didn't do it right so the paint was falling off in sections. We had to either strip and repaint or strip and stain. Having confirmed with the previous previous owner that this staircase had never been painted, we decided to strip and stain.

This was easily the most distasteful job I have ever undertaken in my life.

This stuff is MESSY. I can't say how it compares to other strippers but since it has a long drying time you end up with what I call "soy gel boogers" all over the place. The more stripper you use, the more mess. It cleans up with water, and I was initially using a bucket of water and a plastic scrubby - but this also makes a mess, with drips of water everywhere and flying paint boogers. Near the end of my stripping oddesy, I learned that an old sock soaked with denatured alcohol makes a much better cleaner-upper.

Other things I learned on this journey -

Work from the top down - otherwise you'll end up with goo stuck to part you already finished.

On flat surfaces, a razor blade window scraper might be all you need. No stripper. Be VERY careful not to gouge the wood.

For stubborn flat areas, apply LIGHTLY - then use a razor blade to CAREFULLY scrape. Wipe with denatured alcohol. There is a LOT less mess this way. I started out applying this heavily and using a plastic scraper and it's just so, so messy that way... and not very effective. You'll get big sections that come off easily and then stubborn sections that stick, big mess in the end, lots of splashes and goo.

If at all possible, take it OUTSIDE.

I couldn't even begin to understand how to take a staircase outside, so I had to work inside. What I liked about this was there was NO odor. I mean it had a scent but it wasn't bad and it didn't make me dizzy or anything. Whereas 2-3 minutes with lacquer thinner and I had a buzz.

Cover everything librally with plastic and PLAN TO THROW IT ALL AWAY. I tried so hard early in my job to only use re-usuable materials... but it makes it SO much harder and messier. My contribution to the planet will be, I won't be dumb enough to repaint this, so this will never happen again. The more plastic you lay, the crazier you can scrape and and scrub, and the better it goes.

Plastic credit cards will start to melt while scraping. They will work, but you can smell them melting - kinda bizarre. This will not burn your hand, though - as much as I thought I shouldn't be touching the stuff, working with gloves just made me lose too much dexterity. On big flat areas, though, gloves might be OK.

For grooves and such - apply heavily, get off what you can, then let it dry a few days - go back with a wire brush or dental picks - and pull or brush it out. Comes out better once it is hard again.

I don't know how safe I believe this is. It claims to be biodegradable and made from soy beans, but it also has the CA warnings of cancer and reproductive harm on it. Having lived in CA for 5 years, I know they tend to put this on everything so you don't really know when it's a huge risk and when it's small. but it's on this.

Oh - and BEWARE of caulking. I never knew it was common to caulk woodwork before painting. You need to find the caulk and remove it, because this will make it into a sticky paste that sticks very firmly to the wood. You can clean it off with lacquer thinner but better just to pull as much caulk as you can in the first place.

Bottom line - messy messy messy. But it works. I went with this because I have 3 little kids under foot and I had to work in the house. I'd love to try something else to compare, but I don't think I am ever going to strip anything ever again.

Took me about 1 3/4 of these bottles to do my handrails, spindles, newel posts, etc. I did not do baseboards or risers.

I needed some stripper that I could use indoors, around my family. I'd tried Citrustrip or whatever it's called and was underwhelmed by its stripping power, plus its odor isn't quite as benign as they'd want you to believe. SoyGel, on the other hand, is an aggressive stripper, about the equal of those based on methylene chloride, and it really has no toxic odor at all that I could notice. I don't know how it would compare in ease of use and effectiveness with a heat gun (bearing in mind that you have to keep the heat down to avoid vaporizing the lead in the paint), but in the middle of summer, I wasn't about to start warming up the house with one of those. I am really fantastically impressed with this product!

I can't recommend this stuff highly enough. Goop it on, let it sit for an hour or two, and the paint just wipes away. Fantastic!

This is my first review ever and I order a lot of stuff over the net. I had to write how impressed I am with this product! I tried to stain my concrete driveway because I heard how nice it looked but I bought the WRONG stain and as soon as I rolled it on, my husband and I knew that it was a mistake! WE stopped immediately but now there was a large gray area of concrete stain. I went to the paint store and they sold me citistrip but they even doubt that it would work. The I read all the reviews and decided to return it and wait for this Soy-Gel stripper. When It arrived, I spread a thick layer on the paint and covered it with a plastic bag. Let it sit for about 3 hours. I first started scrubbing with a wired brush and it looked like it wasn't going to come off. Then I read the directions again and saw that I needed to rinse with water. Well.... I put the hose on full and shot all the paint off!!!! It was really cool to see! So... even though it was a bit expensive it was worth the 1 shot deal! Highly recommended!

I was skeptical, but now I'm loving this stuff. We ordered a small container to see if SoyGel was as effective as advertised...and then returned to order the larger size.