20 Best Sealer For Aluminum Boats (2023 Updated)

We have been using 5200 for so many years and we just love it. In 2017 days before Irma and Maria – two CAT 5 hurricanes hit the US. Virgin Islands. We were putting a railing on our deck outside and it is a tile deck so we didn’t want to screw it in as it would crack the tile.

We used 5200 to secure the bases of the posts. Not only did they make it through TWO CAT 5 hurricanes but 5 years later they are all standing. You got to love this product. We also used it on a plastic drawer from the freezer that broke.

Just a dab of 5200 and it is fixed. It’s like the old saying it’s not broke if you have duct tape. This product is far superior to anything we have every used. We also used it around the kitchen sink.

You will never be disappointed with 5200.

I purchased a 10-ounce tube of 5200 Marine Adhesive to seal the gap between a stainless steel pipe fitting attached to a through-hole on a galvanized container and a layer of fiberglass separated by an insulating layer of polystyrene foam.

After considerable research, I chose the 5200 Marine Adhesive because it was one of the few that would withstand continuous exposure to water. The instructions stated that it would become tacky after 24 hours and cure completely in five days.

Well, seven days later and the sealant was barely tacky and far from cured. I checked the manufacture date on the tube and found that it was only 3 months old. Next, I called the 3M helpline and soon determined that because it had been one of those typical southern California summer weeks where the temperature in the workshop hovered in the mid-nineties and relative humidity was less than 20%, there hadn’t been sufficient moisture to effect a complete cure.

I spritzed it with a bit of water and checked back the next day – sure enough, it seemed to be setting up somewhat. However, I’d already lost a week waiting for the sealant to solidify and couldn’t wait around for another week, so I decided to encase everything using additional fiberglass with a short length of pipe to decouple the inner and outer layers.

Fingers crossed, I hope this works.

I have used 5200 for over 40 yrs. It has been a good product. As of lately the quality of the packaging (the nozzle) has gone down the toilet. The nozzles won’t tighten and either pop off or leak around the flange.

Its hard enough to not get the stuff all over the place —I’m paying over twenty dollars a tube for a product that the 3m engineers can’t seem to figure out how to package. Here’s a hint guys—-turn to the right -makes things tight.

Hard as pine knots and returned them for credit. Couldn’t get the stuff out of the tube. Wasted a day trying to use it. Had to buy from alternate supplier-Worked fine. Assume the two tube I bought must have been lying around for a couple of years.

Not what I usually expect from CT.

Product is ok & will likely work as advertised, but the tube split open within two squeezes (and I was squeezing from the bottom up!) making half of the contents go to waste. I would have rather used a caulking tube in a caulking gun, if I had my choice, but it doesn’t come in such packaging.

Purchased a tube and nozzle would not tighten onto plastic top. Returned and bought a new tube and same thing. Because it wouldn’t tighten, the caulk continuously leaked around the bottom edge of the nozzle making it messy and then the volume of that would push the nozzle off the tube.

Cheap plastic and wasted money.

I bought life calk to use as bedding for a keel on a canoe. It says sandable and paintable. Well, I am having trouble. The sanding wasn’t all that good and the painting isn’t working either. The paint over the calk stayed sticky and never cured.

I’ve wiped it with thinner and am waiting to see what happens when I give it more time to cure. The caulk itself may not have cured in the area and caused the oil based marine enamel to not cure either? Not sure.

I’ve used it before and varnished over it without trouble, so we’ll see. Use your own judgement. But be aware there may be a problem.

Not compatible with traditional alkyd-enamel based paint such as Kirby Paint! Painting over the fully cured Life Caulk, including the Kirby Paint Primer, would not dry and the surface remained “wet”.

Given my observation, it appears that the paint and caulk are having an adverse reaction where the caulk is softened or slightly dissolved. Only option was to remove all traces of the caulk and start over.

In my opinion the root cause is a chemical incompatibility and not a surface contamination issue as some have suggested. Other than this compatibility issue, the caulk seals and sands fine.

Been using Lifecalk in cartridges since 1988. GREAT product. I had small install of GPS on boat so bought small tube, filled screw holes with small nozzle. I removed the small nozzle to fill the 1 inch hole where cable went through the transom.

When I squeezed the tube, the bottom of the tube blew out and Lifecalk all over. Cleaned area with acetone and threw my clothes away. OTHERWISE still a great product, just make sure the bottom seal on the tube stays secure.

I’m a merchant mariner and have successfully used 5200 for boats (above and below water line) and a hot tub window below water line. This use was to install an aluminum brace to a plastic body panel that tested too slick and flexible for fiberglass.

5200 is not brittle like resin/epoxy and adheres well to just about anything. Must handle carefully. can be messy, sticky and permanent. Need acetone or MEK for clean up and 48 hours to cure to tack free and 7 days to fully cure.

If you do not have this cure time you need another product. Consider 5200 for permanent install only. strong adhesion and difficult removal.

I used the 5200 to permanently adhere a starboard block to my bassboat transon to mount my side imaging tranducer in order not to drill holes in my transom. The fiberglas was properly prepped. The starboard mounting side is very rough and has a waffle pattern to proper adhesion.

This weekend the starboard block pulled off the boat and the transom cable was cut by the prop. $200 transducer gone. The 5200 is still on the boat with the waffle pattern eposed. The fiberglas was properly prepped since the 5200 is still in tact on the transom.

Very disappointing and very costly. I’ll add a photo.

I have used the fast cure 5200 for many years. I build and restore boats. As of late I have had several of the nozzles on both big tubes and medium tubes not tighten causing the nozzle to pop off making a mess.

The price of the product has gone through the roof and the quality of the packaging has gone down the toilet.

This is what is used to glue decks on, through hulls etc. If you ever want to take whatever is glued with this apart, there is going to be some degree of damage. Really strong stuff. For most deck hardware 4000 series adhesives are a better choice and will not pull up gel coat.

The polyurethane adhesives/sealers are far better than silicone for bedding hardware on fiberglass boats. Not only do they work better, they are easier to clean up, and do not leave a halo of silicone around the part after clean up.

I still use silicone sealer, but only for situations where hardware needs to be removed regularly for service like engine controls.

Used for replacing a broken seacock and install of a new keel cooler. Cut out all prior caulk on seacock, did not use any form of solvent/alcohol on old stuff. For keel cooler, stripped hull back to the epoxy where it would contact hull and applied liberally to surface and hole.

Would probably use less next time. Stuff is messy and hard to get off tools and any spillover. Do not know how effective it is yet as boat is still out of the water.

The adhesive was old and solid in the tube. I’ve used this before and an opened tube I left in my boat over the winter was in better shape than the one I bought at Canadian Tire Ajax. At least I was able to return it for a full refund.

But having said that, my review is for the fact that this was old stock left sitting around for far too long. The product itself, when fresh is excellent.

Recently had some quick release bases fabricated to the legs of my flats boat poling platform. Im now able to take the platform on and off with ease to open up rear deck space for a back deck fisherman.

Applied 4200 fast cure to bottom of the detachable bases and spread to a thin layer before securing to the deck. it pressed outward as I tightened all hardware and any excess was wiped clean. After curing it has done a great job waterproofing the screw holes, anchoring the platform down, and slightly buffering vibration to the platform, which got rid of what litttle noise came from the hardware that mounts the top side of the platform.

an all around win!.

Works very well. Utilized to attached a 4″x 4″ non wood decking product to the stern of my boat. Attached my fish finger transponder to that. Where silicone had failed in the past this stuff is holding.

Very good product.

I only use this NP1 product for any concrete joint sealant. A longtime professional friend recommended it to me many years ago and I’m always impressed on how well it sticks to the surface, smooths out, and how it lasts forever.

This is a very difficult product to find and was surprised when I recently found that I could get it online through Walmart. This is what the people “who knows what is best” use on their own projects.

Also, a hint, once the product starts to dry you can buy an aerosol can of window cleaner (no ammonia) and spray one it on sealant and then let your finger run down the seam for a nice smooth professional finish with NO mess or stickiness.

Sealant flows easily and takes a day or two to totally set up. Once set, it feels tough yet flexible. I’ve never used this product before but it was highly recommended. I hope it lasts a long long time in the cement cracks.

I’ve used this product for years but I have always purchased it from the local supplier this time I needed white and they didn’t have it so rather than wait for them to order some and pay more and pay shipping I purchased on line I’m sure glad I did the lubes are fresh and the product came out of the tubs with ease.

This product creates a good, flexible seal around an RV’s exterior openings, especially when installing new or replacement parts/ equipment. The “no-sag” sealant works well on horizonal and vertical surfaces.

It is still more viscous than many household sealants, and can be a bit messy to use and clean up. As a result, our nickname for the product is “guckempuckie”. With care, it can give you a good, watertight seal that looks good on your RV.

Vertical application not dry after an hour. Pulled off painters tape and the side of the caulk strung out like spaghetti off of clean aluminum.

Great product for trailers and rv units. Must call Dicor on the application and use. It applies differently from other types of sealants. It is an art to make the application look good. All in all, it works and seals like nothing else that you’ll ever use on your RV.

Used it to seal a plaque on an outdoor sign works like a champ. Not for permanent underwater use but easily handles rain and exterior weather climate with no problems. Love it would buy it again.

This is one of the best tubed I’ve used. Keeps the water out. Keeps the moisture out. Doesn’t expand too much. Goes with the hot weather and the cold weather. Very easy to work with. Smells at first.

But when you get done your job looks awesome. Doesn’t peel the way like the other ones do. I ended up buying 8 more. To put my camper van top on. And it’s still going strong. I recommend this to anyone.

Easy cleanup.

The product may be fine, but the tube and nozzle are terrible. The nozzle doesn’t stay attached to the tube, so you need to hold it on with one hand while squeezing the tube with the other. It makes application awkward and messy.

If you don’t hold it on, the sealant gets everywhere. I thought I got a bad tube, so bought another one for $13 and it did the same thing. I expect better from 3M.

My friend gave me a free twelve foot aluminum boat. Eight rivets on the bottom were leaking water into the boat pretty bad. I used 80 grit on my orbital sander and removed all the old paint around the rivets.

Cleaned it off and dried the metal. I used DAP marine sealant on both sides of the rivets and let it dry for 48 hours. It stopped the leaks. Its been eight months of fishing on the lake with no leaks.

This product works good and is so much cheaper than most marine sealants.

It really works!!! I tried other kinds of glue and none of them worked. I needed something that would stick to silicone and this was the only thing that did the job!!! I am 100% satisfied, thanks to the customer who wrote the review when I was in search of it!!!.

The product works perfectly the tip however has a use of one time and comes with no cap. You have to throw away the tip and put the regular cap back on when you are done. That means the next time you want to use it it’s without a pointed tip.

It goesn on easy and is holding up!.

At first I was skeptical about the product. I used my caulk gun that I use for everything and it was very hard to push the product through the tip. I also was concerned about the color. For whatever reason I was under the impression that it would be a grey color.

It’s not, which is ok. I wasn’t able to get it in the inside of the seam where I would have liked to put it so I ended up putting it the outside of the seam in layers. I believe it will hold. I has hardened to a very strong feel.

I sanded down the existing paint to the bare aluminum and it has adheared very well. Only time will tell.

i tried several products to patch my aluminum boat. this one seems to stay on the best and is definitly the strongest. i would recommend this product this product over all the others that i tried. i did not use the mixing tip because of the amount of pressure it takes to push it through the tip.

i just left the tip off and ejected the two materials onto some cardboard and mixed iit by hand with a stir stick then applied with a putty knife.

I used this Epoxy to seal up 4 leaking rivets. I used as instructed and cleaned aluminium with etch wash. Was able to apply epoxy with boat on the trailer. I have used the boat 11 times in 3 weeks and no leaking so far so I am happy so far with the results.

I bought to reseal window that were leaking. I had a total of about 3 linear feet. By the time I got all the way around the window, it was already skinning over. That’s good and bad. It’s good that is will setup quick, but make sure you are prepared.

Once you start you can’t stop in the middle (like you might with silicon). The product seems to adhere well and I only gave 4 stars because it’s only been a month – no leaks so far – hopefully good for another 10 years.

Tape off around area and use soapy water on finger to smooth out. It will be pliable and workable for a very short window. Just have everything ready. Definitely not for someone who doesn’t have caulking experience.

I used this TotalBoat Seal to afix my cover board on my center board trunk. I had used some sort of silicon previously and had some water splashing through in rough seas. I didn’t want to use 5200 as I feared it would be too permanent.

In truth, I haven’t tried to remove the cover board and hope to not need to anytime soon but it applied nice and neat and somehow I didn’t get it all over myself which is pretty much SOP with 5200, Ha!.

The products skins very fast, nothing will work for clean up other than the recommended mineral spirits. I replaced the chainplates and recored the area around it, I layed down a medium to large bead of the sealer arround the chainplates to temp seal them until I installed the closeout covers the next weekend.

The sealer received one week of hot Florida sun before the next weekend when I installed the close outs. The sealer was still soft and peeled of rather easy, very strange. I am not sure about this product yet, ask me next year.

Used as a beer/cider fridge- Ample of room inside, more than expected. Nice size on worktop -larger than your usual mini fridge. Quiet running noise. Handy little freezer section at the top for ice trays, ideal for when ice machine runs low in the main fridge.

Only very small negative that isnt really one as was advertised as it is, no internal light.

Received fridge about 4 months ago. Had way more dents than expected with the back right side the metal kinda folded! Wasn’t happy with that at all but was desperate for a fridge so I kept it. Can be noisy at times but all in all I am happy with it.

Nothing wrong with the inside except no light inside, much more roomy and hold more than you think! Am happy with the size of the freezer part, can take items out of their packages to fit in. Also you can turn the fridge on or near maximum and most things will freeze anyway.

The way it was packaged was good just have to lift the main box off. Overall I can still say I am well pleased with my purchase bought at around 68, very good value for what you get. I would recommend this product it just depends if you are happy with the dents and that’s my only complaint as this is my only fridge.

this mini fridge is great if you are looking for something small that you can sit on the surface of any kitchen unit. I`m moving house and I wanted to buy a fridge later on when the kitchen is being done but in the meantime have a portable fridge.

good value and good quality and I would recommend this this gem.

It cures to a rubbery and stretchy consistency, useful for all types of sealing purposes. Doesn’t crack the way acrylic sealants tend to do over time. The tube is not resealable after opening as it has no cap, so you have to make provisions to seal it yourself or just use the tube up in one shot.

Pricing at HF is good compared to other local sellers.

I think the product has been reviewed and recommended thousands of times. So I’m going to review the reason I purchased this particular size. I only had 6 1/4″ screws into a swim step to mount a pedestal for bait board and/or barbecue.

No need for a full size tube that would ultimately go to waste. I drilled out the appropriate sized holes and injected the sealant with a bit of a lip around the hole before seating the mount and driving the screws in.

The seal seems very good and based on other reviews should be durable.

3M Fast Cure 5200 Sealant is an excellent product. This sealant is best used at the waterline or below. I sealed my depth finder transducer and below waterline fittings with it. It cures quickly and does a great job.

One warning I would advise you to wear latex gloves when applying it. It literally stayed on my hands for over a week no matter what I tried cleaning it off with. The spout provided with the sealant did not do a great job for me.

I recommend this product for any fittings etc. at or under the waterline. A little pricey but well worth it. Thanks.

As an aerospace engineer for years at Cape Canaveral we went through pound tubes of this continuously it is the perfect sealant for a wet or submersible environment, it actually cures quicker when it’s in the water, but if you use it be advised is very sticky and Messy you definitely don’t want to be using your best clothes.

Lol and if it’s raining and it dries on your hands you almost need sandpaper to get it off, the easiest way to apply it properly is to use disposable medical gloves and smooth it with your fingers and have plenty of paper towels available depending on how much your applying can you need a nice thick coat.

And after it’s cured it cuts very easily with an exacto knife for removal. nothing beats it, it’s the best stuff on the planet!!.

Haven’t had a chance to use it yet. Won’t use until late spring – early summer. Rated with three stars as a neutral review until I can actually use.

I read on boating blogs that this was the best product for sealing the bolt holes when mounting an outboard to the transom. After using it I agree.

Excellent! I used this to glaze our greenhouse. Perfect. This silicon rubber holds up well to the weather here (snow, ice, rain), and the seals on the greenhouse panels stayed put. Good for outdoor applications where it is exposed to the sun, it seems.

Read the reviews and ordered one. Made a mistake. I used this glue to fix my Mercedes C300 leaking washer fluid reservoir. I did not drain the fluid out of the reservoir. I put this glue outside of the fluid reservoir at the seem area and inside the fluid reservoir at the seem area.

This glue is not a fast dry glue. It took at least TWO days to settle and cure NOT underwater. Two day later it seems like the glue was cure. I peeled a small dried glue off from the outside of the reservoir.

The fluid reservoir was leaking and wet outside. I had to take the fluid reservoir out and drain all the fluid inside. I reapplied this glue outside of the seem again. I afraid this glue might not work, I poured some wood stain paint inside to give it an extra coating inside at the bottome of the fluid reservoir.

I let it dred again for another day. I tested the fluid reservoir before I reinstalled the fluid reservoir. No leak, so I reinstall it back. This glue can’t work underwater, and it does not bond well with black plastic.

Too bad the fast cure glue only has White color, no Black color for black fluid reservoir.

My aluminum fishing boat had not been out in a long while. A test had drips everywhere. I used this stuff along all of the seems using painters tape to keep it pretty and edges clean. I had enough for everything I was doing which was the whole boat.

It took the 7 days to stop being tacky, but when we put it in the water. NO LEAKS AT ALL. Amazing stuff and looks great. It can be messy which is why you need the painters tape. Peel the tape after you seal it in with a gloved finger and it will look great.

You can work with it for a very long time.

I had 2 leaks in the basement in law suit, 1 in a hose under the toilet, and the other at a welded connection at the cut off for the kitchen sink. Since I couldn’t afford to hire a plumber, I was told it would work.

I had shut both off so they would be dry, spray both areas, waited 24hrs sprayed again, did this several times, both still leaked. So I did it again on both until I finished the can thinking this has to do it.

Nope! Not only did it not work, anything else it hit I had to scrape off because it left an awful lumpy feel. It may work for other things, but not a quick plumbing fix.

As a contractor, I have used many different formulations of epoxy, urethane, polyester, polyaspartic and other ‘resins’. This is the first one I’ve seen that wood takes up almost like water. Consolidated material strength after cure is impressive.

Easy to mix & apply. Predictable and generous work time. Due to its very low viscosity you do need to anticipate where it may flow or settle undesirably. Dams, plugs and sealants can contain potential overflows especially in areas where you are using the large syringes to inject the resin.

Thin-able, although I didn’t. All praise here and I’m not one pull my punches when displeased.

We used this product to fill a carved bear that was decaying from the inside. The large sugar pine tree succumbed to the bark beetles so it was carved into a bear called “Tripp”. There was a good sized woodpecker hole in the back of his head and several small bug holes that we used to inject the epoxy as well as we drilled a hole at the top of his head to pour into.

We injected and poured a partial amount each day for 4-5 days. We then filled the holes with a sawdust and epoxy mix. We might have to do this again in the future but he is sounding a lot more solid.

He survived the recent Creek Fire so he deserved this extra special treatment. Thank you so much for your help and expert advise with our project.