How much is "Up to"?

[brianivor]

I bought a can of Polycell expanding foam to fill a large hole in a wall and the can said "Produces up to 15 litres of foam"

Well, 15 litres is about 3 gallons so I envisaged 3 x 1 gallon cans side by side and that was nearly double what I required.

However I could only complete half the job with the contents of the can, so what tolerance should one allow for this marketing "up to" hype?

If I bought a bag containing up to 20 potatoes, I would expect at least 18 so Polycell's claim seems outrageously inaccurate.

Am I being unreasonable?

 

[JohnD]

did you spray with water to help it expand?

 

[foxhole]

'Up to' refers to perfect conditions which will not be achieved in general usage. If you used in a confined space the expansion would have been hindered and so the volume.

 

[brianivor]

The site was a horizontal slot in brickwork where I had removed 2 courses in a wall.

The whole area was liberally sprayed with water before commencement.

The can was shaken the required number of times.

I take your points about optimum working conditions but they are not clearly explained on the can.

Nevertheless, I estimate I got less than 8 litres of cured foam which I consider to be less than I had a right to expect.

To confirm my complaint, the shop I purchased the product from kindly gave me another can and it STILL did not completee the job!

I would also add that I had a 5 litre can to hand to estimate the volume of the job.

Back to the original question: What percentage of a quantity can one expect within the "up to" get-out clause?

 

[Diyisfun]

The smaller the area the more dense it will be.
The foam that insulates a fridge if put in a plastic bag is huge, when inserted in the mould of the fridge, it cannot expand & so is dense which equals beter insulation.
So the volume is related to the density.

 

[brianivor]

There was every opportunity for the foam to expand to its maximum potential and I would have expected the foam to ooze out of the hole once it had filled it.
As I said, I would have reluctantly accepted 50% of the claimed figure but it wasn't even that.

 

[foxhole]

Foam was confined to hole in brickwork therefor becomes more dense as it cures very rapidly, you would have to empty the can onto the floor in a long narrow trail to achieve the maximum expansion.

 

[merlin50]

up to can mean anything, if there was more you could complain

 

[Diyisfun]

The smaller the area the more dense it will be.
The foam that insulates a fridge if put in a plastic bag is huge, when inserted in the mould of the fridge, it cannot expand & so is dense which equals beter insulation.
So the volume is related to the density.

Also
I forget to mention temperature will have a big effect on the volume