Campbell Hausfeld PL1558 Air-Powered Caulk Gun

• Smoothly dispenses caulks, adhesives and sealants from standard cartridges
• Shut-off valve stops material when trigger is released
• Dispenses 10.1 fl. oz (uses 1-15/16-Inch diameter by 8.5-Inch cartridge)

The era of pneumatic and battery powered tools has greatly increased productivity and made many arduous, but necessary, tasks like installing caulking, a lot easier and faster. The question that professional builders, tradesmen, and others must ask, is whether the cost of the tool outweighs the potential advantages and savings in time and effort that the tool promises.

In our case, having spent several hours in a row gunning a "conventional" caulking gun, and still needing to spend many more hours similarly installing caulking, the advantages of an air powered caulking gun was potentially offering as much advantage in speed and utility as an electric circular saw has over using a handsaw.

We bought the Campbell Hausfeld air-powered caulking gun to dispense some dozen and a half cartridges of 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant, the 3M "Fast Cure 4000 UV". We are mentioning the material because it is not quite like regular caulking, it is a bit thicker and a little more viscous and doesn't gun well from a regular caulking gun without a lot of pressure and constant squeezing.

The 3M marine caulking is quite expensive as caulking goes, and we wanted to install it as quickly as we could with as much ease and smooth seams as possible, thus we thought we would try an air powered caulking gun.

Unfortunately, the Campbell Hausfeld air-powered caulking gun does not dispense the 3M marine caulking at the recommended air pressure of 20psi; we wound up cranking the air regulator to the maximum air pressure specification stated in the manual: 50psi, and the caulking still barely trickled out of the tube, making the Campbell Hausfeld air-powered caulking gun a frustrating and slow tool to use with 3M marine caulking.

We have not tried the Campbell Hausfeld air-powered caulking gun with other caulking types, but the caulking gun could potentially work well with thin latex caulking types. Silicon caulking, "elastomeric" caulking, and construction adhesives are also thicker compounds, and may not gun well with the Campbell Hausfeld PL 1558 caulking gun.

Those that do caulking regularly or use thick caulking materials will likely want to look for an air powered caulking gun that has greater dispensing "push" than the Campbell Hausfeld PL1558. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground between the cheaper air powered guns like the Campbell Hausfeld, and more professional quality air powered caulking guns costing a lot more money.

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May 2010, Update:

The Campbell Hausfeld PL 1558 did not perform as needed, so we purchased the Cooper Tools, "Caulk Master pg110" air powered caulking gun (again from Amazon); an air powered caulking gun that allows cranking up the air pressure of the caulk gun to a maximum of 100 p.s.i. The new "Caulk Master" is a much lighter tool, is nicely machined, has a larger and easier to squeeze trigger, and has a three foot air hose "pigtail" ready to accept a 1/4 inch quick disconnect coupling. The good news for us is that the "Caulk Master pg110" pushes the heavier 3M Marine Caulking with ease (cranked up to about sixty p.s.i.). The "Caulk Master pg110" was considerably more expensive than the Campbell Hausfeld unit, but hopefully will give many years of service.

Note that there are some quirks to using the "Caulk Master" gun as well, and hopefully we'll post some of our observations regarding those issues on the review section of that tool sometime later.

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Here's why you need this tool:

1. Dependability: Air tools are simple, durable and generally more reliable. It has outlasted every other caulk gun I've ever owned. Very TOUGH.

2. Quality: Mine was made in Taiwan, but I'd give a 9 out of 10 on quality. You can depend on it.

3. Flexibility: This is the third best feature in my opinion. If you work with silicone, this thing will push it easily! If you use those hand-cranking guns, silicone caulk is dense enough to make life miserable after a few tubes in some cold weather. With this tool, I just adjusted my compressor pressure to 35 psi and let it rip...SO EASY. Latex caulk runs well at 20 psi.

4. Speed: this tool is a marathon runner. If you're just using a few tubes of caulk, it's about as fast as a regular hand-cranking gun. But when you factor in fatigue after about 20 tubes, this thing will nullify it and you will be able to lay down far more caulk rather than taking breaks. Plus, you won't feel drained when you are finished, and you will most likely avoid tendonitis in your hand.

5. Price: This is one of those rare items when you receive it, hold it and use it, you'll be scratching your head wondering how you ever got it for so cheap. It's about the same price as a decent quality hand-cranker. Seriously, the only things that even really compare are the battery-operated ones, but those can cost 10 times more than this thing.

Here are the negatives:

1. Trigger. Many reviews complain about it and I agree. However, I suggest gripping the gun BELOW the trigger and pushing UP on it from underneath with your index finger. This eliminates the pinch from pulling it like a conventional trigger. Also wear gloves for added protection.

2. You need a compressor. If you already have one great! You have zero excuse for not owning one of these. If you don't own one, you'll have an added expense to consider before getting this tool. On the other hand, this gun uses very little air, so you can run it on the smallest of compressors.

3. Connection to air hose. Two things: A) What the hell is up with manufacturers no longer including a 1/4 inch adapter? You'll need to go buy one because it's not included...charge me a little extra and save me an annoying trip to the hardware store to buy a part that costs less than $1 please. B) Hand-crankers and battery-operated guns are cordless, this one will eventually be attached to an air hose which can limit its range.

4. Weight. It's a little heavy, but not bad. Some folks might complain, but I'd rather have a tough, slightly heavy tool versus a flimsy lightweight tool.

Summary

I ripped through about 65 tubes of silicone on a cool day, and I didn't even break a sweat. No sore hands. No frustration. It's not perfect, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of anything else out there. And for the money, it just can't be beat.

Read Best Reviews of Campbell Hausfeld PL1558 Air-Powered Caulk Gun Here

Sure, the trigger stings a bit after several hours of use, but at 15 psi it lays out a great bead, limited only by my ability to #1: Cut the tip at the right angle. #2: Hold the gun at a consistant angle. As far as the tool, 5 stars. BTW: I'm sure my whole arm would have been in pain if I had been working with a manual. It's worth it in spades, and it's not expensive if you have a compressor, you will never go back.

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I cannot imagine a similar product performing any better than one this regardless of the price, and this one is really inexpensive: it delivers caulk smoothly, is well balanced, solidly built, easy to take apart to clean, and when trigger is let go there is no residual flow of material. It has already saved my hands and fingers from hours of pumping on a manual caulk gun only to get bumpy beads and a tired hand.

Absolutely nothing to do with the gun, but for convenience purchase an inline pressure regulator to connect to the gun since different caulking materials will require "fine tuning" of the pressure. Having a pressure regular at the caulk gun avoids having to run back and forth to the pressure regulator at the compressor.

However, whoever designed this otherwise excellent tool spent a lot of time making it work very well but they could not have used it for any length of time or they would have noticed a serious design flaw. As mentioned by a previous reviewer, the placement of the trigger leaves about a 3/16" gap between it and the bottom black collar of the tube. This absolutely ensures that you WILL get pinched when your finger gets caught between the trigger and tube bottom which will happen many times when you are caulking. This is a very annoying, stupid and unnecessary problem on an otherwise well designed tool which is why I deducted two stars and gave it a 3 star rating. This thing deserves 5 stars.

They needed to either lower the trigger farther down, or possibly extend the trigger forward and angle it down. Campbell Hausfeld needs to make available some sort of retrofit or plastic part that could be fitted over the trigger to avoid this very unnecessary design flaw. I guess I might just try wearing leather gloves.

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only complaint is the trigger,,, butt-an easy fix! use a air die grinder and a carbide burr and in no time it is a custom fit! It uses very little air at 10 psi.

I just went through 2 cases of caulking for a lap siding house. It is easy to control the flow and when you let off the trigger the caulking stops. My only regret is I shold have bought it a long time ago.