Fluxaf Green review

Roger Bisby goes Dutch with some Fluxaf Green.

Ever since the completely justified EU ban on using methylene chloride in paint stripper, the trade has struggled to find viable alternatives. Modern strippers just don’t have the instant, crackle and pop of the old stuff. All too often they require re-applying several times in order to penetrate the built up coatings.

Modern strippers just don’t have the instant, crackle and pop of the old stuff. All too often they require re-applying several times in order to penetrate the built up coatings.

We accept this as progress because the health risks were significant with the old product but we still hope that someone out there will come up with a product that is kind to humans but strips paint and varnish as well as the old products used to.

I am not going to pretend that Dutch made Fluxaf Green is it but it comes a lot closer than many other products I have tried and it even has a number of advantages over the more aggressive products of old. The colour of the gel is green, as you would expect from an eco friendly product. It is also surprisingly free of fumes and doesn’t appear to evaporate as rapidly as other formulations even in warm weather. This gives it a much longer open time. It remains active from 30 minutes right up to nearly 30 hours in ideal conditions. Obviously in heat or high winds it is going to evaporate faster so you may need to cover it on external surfaces. The other remarkable thing is that it works with both alkyd and water based paints so you won’t have that problem of paint coats of water based paint stopping the stripper penetrating right down to the host material.

My approach was to lay it on and leave it while I got on with something else then I went back every 30 minutes to check on the progress. It had done the job in half an hour but I wanted to see what happened after four hours so I left it on. I then decided to try some other products on the same surface to see the difference.

I was impressed by Fluxaf and it seems to have lot of loyal followers among decorators.

I was impressed by Fluxaf and it seems to have lot of loyal followers among decorators.

My reservation about all chemical strippers is the price. Where possible I would still rather send things like doors away to be dipped and I have even removed staircase spindles to have them dipped because it is cheaper, quicker and more effective. For surfaces that are a little too well fixed such as skirtings the Fluxoriteworks a treat but I still wouldn’t want to tackle those jobs on a price, there are just too many unknowns involved and if you are going to lose money you might as well do it on something pleasurable.

Having said this is a ‘green product’ I feel I have to finish this review with a word of caution. This is still a hazardous material. If you flick a bit in your eye it can cause serious damage so you need eye protection but if, despite this, you do happen to get some in your eye wash your eye with running water and keep doing it long after you think the contaminant has gone. This may be green and more pleasant to use but it is still paint stripper and you need to ventilate the room you are using it in and it will also eat into plastic so avoid getting it on cables.