How to choose the best ecowool for insulation: advantages, disadvantages, manufacturers

Cold winters make you constantly think about how to make your home more comfortable and warm. Besides reliable heating systems It is also important to provide for quality insulation, which in the future will help to start saving everything on the same heating. The modern building materials market offers a wide selection of the most various heaters, but today one of the leading positions is occupied by ecowool. Its main advantage is that with approximately the same indicators with other heaters, this material becomes more accessible, even taking into account the need to use special equipment for its application. Nevertheless, there are a lot of myths, according to which ecowool is not the best insulation. In order to understand once and for all what kind of material it is and draw conclusions about the possibility of its use in a specific situation, it is necessary to know the advantages and disadvantages of ecowool, some of its features and characteristics.

What is ecowool?

Ecowool - a heater of a grayish shade. This material get from recycled waste paper in the form of cardboard, newspapers, residues in the manufacture of corrugated packaging, etc., which ultimately is about 80% ecowool. Yet 12% is boric acid, which is used in production as an antiseptic, so that the finished material is resistant to the effects of fungus and bacteria. Rest 8% is sodium tetraborate, a flame retardant with insecticidal properties, which is also used to reduce the combustibility of ecowool.

Ecowool has become popular thermal insulation material, which is widely used in the construction of both residential buildings and warehouses, industrial and public buildings. Material has become indispensable when it is necessary to insulate a room with high humidity.

As for the types of ecowool, now the building materials market offers such a variety:

• dry ecowool - the material that is used most often;
• atomized ecowool - the same dry, but in this embodiment, crushed paper mixed with water and glue, and foam are used;
• oil-coated ecowool. This material can significantly reduce the amount of dust that appears during installation;
• stabilization ecowool it is wetted with a small amount of water before installation, expands and fills a larger space when using less material.

Ecowool Benefits

Ecowool has a huge number of advantages that make this material indispensable in specific situations. So, the main advantages of ecowool are:

1. low thermal conductivitywhich is at the level of 0.04 W / mK. According to this indicator, ecowool can be compared with other types of insulation, such as mineral wool, but for a number of other advantages it wins against their background. So, ecowool is mounted in a seamless way, it is easily blown even to the most inaccessible placesthat allows you to more effectively fill all the voids, which means to increase the level of thermal insulation of the room;
2. fire safety, because when exposed to fire, the material does not ignite, but can only slightly smolder;
3. high level of sound insulation: A 15 mm insulation layer reduces noise by 9 dB. That is why the material is often used where not only thermal insulation is needed, but also reliable sound insulation;
4. environmental friendliness, since the composition of the material does not contain toxic components, such as formaldehyde, which can adversely affect human health, cause allergies, diseases of the skin or respiratory system. But still, before buying a heater it is better to ask about the composition, namely, which flame retardant was used. So, for example, if ammonium sulfate is present in the composition, then with a high degree of probability an unpleasant odor will be felt, and the durability of the insulation in this case will not be maximum;
5. maintaining an optimal microclimate indoor and humidity control. So, even with an increase in the humidity level to 30%, the thermal insulation performance of ecowool does not decrease, unlike other types of insulation, which, when humidity is already 5%, lose a number of their positive properties. By the way, all this means that when using ecowool vapor barrier will not be required;
6. opportunity dispense with vapor barrier film - This is a great way to save a little while installing ecowool, which also applies to undeniable advantages;
7. profitability It also manifests itself in the fact that for the insulation of the room you will need a not very large amount of insulation, and the price of ecowool is quite affordable;
8. ecowool will not become a place for the development of mold or bacteriaor residence rodents, unlike some other mineral insulants.

Ecowool disadvantages

Unfortunately, today it is impossible to find the perfect insulation, which does not have any negative properties at all. Ecowool was no exception, and has a number of features that can be interpreted as a disadvantage. Nevertheless, most of them can be leveled, thereby making this thermal insulation material one of the most preferred for use at the moment.

The disadvantages of ecowool include:

1. the main and most important minus of this material is that it installation requires a professional approach, and if the work is not performed by a very qualified specialist, then the result will not be the highest quality. Of course, during the installation of almost any material it is difficult to do without the help of a specialist, but in the case of ecowool, more serious requirements are put forward than, for example, in the case of mineral wool or any other insulation;
2. so that all the unique properties of ecowool are revealed at the maximum level, it is better to use the mechanical method of its application, and this requires use of professional equipment. It is necessary to have special blowing pneumatic units that allow you to evenly and efficiently apply the material, filling them with all the cracks and other hard-to-reach spots, and thus creating a solid layer of insulation;
3. when laying ecowool do it yourself the risk of obtaining not only poor-quality thermal insulation increases, but the consumption of material also increases, which means that the economic efficiency of its use is reduced;
4. when wet installation of ecowool is necessary wait some timeuntil it dries completely, and this is about 48-72 hours, depending on what thickness the layer was applied and what weather conditions prevailed at the time of installation. Such a property of the material can become a significant drawback in the case when the terms are very tight, but, nevertheless, it is the wet method that allows the most evenly applied layer of ecowool and compacts it, which will subsequently affect its heat-insulating properties;
5. with dry installation a huge amount is formed dust, which slightly complicates the process of laying thermal insulation;
6. at arrangement floor screed ecowool cannot be used as an independent insulation due to its small stiffness;
7. stuff over time may decrease in volume, which leads to a decrease in its thermal insulation properties. But there is a way out of this situation: experts advise initially to use 20-25% more material, so that in the future the excess will cover the reduced volume. On the other hand, the most correct and accurate installation process using pneumatic equipment allows you to almost completely avoid the shrinkage process in the future;
8. although ecowool boasts fire-resistant properties, but with constant exposure to high temperatures on it, it may start to smolder. That is why it is worth very carefully using it near open flame sources, next to chimneys and other objects that can get quite hot. If such a neighborhood cannot be avoided, then it is better to protect the ecowool layer with basalt fire-resistant mats with a foil surface or asbestos-cement slabs.

What to look for when choosing?

Ecowool is an excellent insulation, and the negative experience of using this material is often associated with the fact that not the best quality material was purchased. Unfortunately, the latter is quite a lot on the domestic market, since there are no uniform requirements for ecowool quality in the country, which is becoming a loophole for unscrupulous manufacturers: in an effort to get instant profit and not cherishing their own reputation, they produce material of mediocre quality.

Often, manufacturing companies save on the components of ecowool, and this is not about waste paper, but about flame retardants. So, it is optimal to use sodium tetraborate (borax), which will not cause an unpleasant odor. If the manufacturer uses ammonium phosphates or sulfates, then ammonia is released when interacting with boric acid, whose aroma is very familiar to many, and the presence of which is extremely undesirable, and the fire-fighting properties in this case may decrease over time, since the amount of flame retardant gradually decreases.

When buying low-quality material, there is a high risk that the insulation will have the wrong structure, low antibacterial, fire and insulation properties. That is why it is worth considering some of its parameters when choosing ecowool.

1. Outwardly ecowool is somewhat reminiscent of fluff, must be homogeneous structurewithout seals and coarse fractions, gray color, and shades of yellow and white may suggest that in its manufacture used raw materials of inadequate quality.
2. Quality material when exposed to fire it begins to smolder on it, and then fades on its own when the source is removed. If ecowool behaves differently, then it is better not to buy such material.
3. Ecowool packaging must be integral, reliably protect the material and be transparent so that the buyer sees the insulation itself. Fractions in the form of sand should not remain at the bottom of the package, otherwise the manufacturer can be blamed for violating the ecowool manufacturing process and poor implementation of boron components.
4. Of course, the most important thing when choosing ecowool is manufacturer reputation and name. Customer reviews of this or that product are easy to find on the Internet, but below we have compiled for you a list of the most responsible companies that produce high-quality ecowool.

Ecowool manufacturers

Since the popularity of ecowool as a heater is constantly growing, a huge number of manufacturers appear on the market, both domestic and foreign. We will stop on some of the best of them.

1. Greenfiber. This American manufacturer is considered a recognized leader in the ecowool market. It uses advanced technology, quality raw materials, and ultimately provides customers with excellent products.The company boasts all the necessary quality certificates, is constantly striving to improve its products.
2. Ekovilla - A Finnish manufacturer of ecowool, whose products are widely represented in the domestic market, which, unfortunately, cannot be said about the previous company. The manufacturer has been on the market for more than 30 years, and the company's products are environmentally friendly and durable.
3. Termex - Another Finnish manufacturer, which began its activity back in 1988, and during this time managed to accumulate useful experience and earn a solid reputation. The company is trying to make its products as environmentally friendly as possible, and at the same time they use energy obtained from wind turbines in production.
4. Isofloc - A German manufacturer with a worldwide reputation who supplies its products worldwide. In the assortment of the company there is only the highest quality ecowool that can be used in the construction of absolutely any objects.
5. Ekovata Extra LLC - A domestic producer of ecowool selling its products under the Extra brand name. The material is of high quality, can be used for insulation of residential and non-residential buildings, new and old premises, has a high degree of thermal insulation, does not contain harmful impurities. The manufacturer has all the necessary quality certificates, regularly conducts product tests so that customers can use only the best thermal insulation material.
6. "Equator" - Another major Russian company that has been producing ecowool since 2007. The excellent performance of the finished product allowed the insulation of this manufacturer to gain trust among different categories of users: both specialists and private developers. The production uses the most modern equipment, the whole process is fully automated, and unsold newspapers are most often used as raw materials. The process of grinding paper to individual fibers improves the structure of ecowool, and subsequently allows you to get a strong adhesion of the fibers to each other, which explains the excellent performance properties of the insulation.
7. LLC "Kirov Eco Plus" - A company that produces ecowool on the most modern equipment, taking into account all quality requirements, which allows you to get a modern reliable insulation, which has already managed to positively establish itself among numerous buyers. Products are sold throughout Russia and are in high demand.
8. LLC "Nanova" - A manufacturer from Kazan, which produces ecowool of European quality, keeping the price at an affordable level for most buyers. For many years now, the company's products have been used at a wide variety of facilities, which once again confirms the excellent performance of the finished product.