GE Groov* Interior/Exterior & Kitchen, Bath & Plumbing Caulk
The new Groov* caulk by General Electric is a revolutionary caulk that brings the benefits of silicone long lasting caulk with the paint adhesion of acrylic caulk in one product.
Ease of Use/Performance: 22/25
Convenience/Storage 20/25
Appearance/Design 23/25
How much I enjoy 20/25
Total: 85/100
GE or General Electric has several different divisions with one being sealants, they have come up with a revolutionary new caulk that brings the benefits of both silicone and acrylic caulk into one product. Silicone caulk is better for weather applications or for places that are going to be rough on the sealant while acrylic caulk is best for paintable applications.
With a silicone caulk you get a long lasting sealant that will resist rain and moisture as well as mildew and mold but paint will also not adhere to it at all. Acrylic and latex caulk is a less durable caulk that is easier to use, is water cleanup and is paintable but does not come with much resistance against constant moisture or mildew.
GE brings the benefits of a long lasting silicone sealant with the paintable benefit of acrylic caulk in one product for your caulking and sealant needs. GE Groov* comes in a Kitchen, Bath & Plumbing type and an Indoor/Outdoor type for those windows, doors and around the house uses.
Currently Groov* is only available in white in the 9 ounce tubes for caulk guns and costs about $8 a tube, they can be purchased at home improvement and hardware stores nationwide. I received two tubes of Groov* for a review sample and have been busily using it up around the house.
I have a number of projects around my home and have used several different kinds of caulk including both silicone and the less expensive acrylic or latex caulk. First off the GE Groov* caulk should only be compared to the better, more expensive type of caulk and not those $2 tubes.
You get what you pay for and the same can definitely be said of caulk, those $2 tubes do not last more than a year or so if they are exposed to the weather but they do have their uses at times. The more expensive ones are better and for any application like around windows and doors outside, kitchens and plumbing applications you need to buy those 25 year plus expensive tubes.
If you don't spend the money for a decent caulk you'll only wind up redoing the job sooner than later and Groov* surely falls into the category of those more expensive caulks. I have used Groov* around some windows inside and out as well as around a sink in my bathroom.
I used both the bathroom caulk and the indoor outdoor caulk for the three different projects and was very happy with the caulk jobs. The bathroom sink and cabinet I installed was a full installation and I had to caulk between the sink and the cabinet then between the sink and the wall.
The first window project was your usual winterization project while the second was installing new, used but new to me, storm windows to enclose my front porch. The sink went in without any problems and the caulk also went on easily, I prefer to squeeze the caulk into a corner seam and spread it with my wet finger to get a nice smooth edge.
Once the caulk has partially dried I cut and got rid of any unwanted caulk that smears too far over the parts I don't want it on to clean it up. I understand this is one common practice but some people do not like to smear the caulk, they leave it as a bead straight from the tube.
I have seen both ways but prefer the smooth look and the Groov* caulk was very easy to work with, cleanup was the usual hassle of silicone though. Groov* is like both types of caulk, silicone and acrylic, with the benefits of paintable caulk but the cleanup is still with mineral spirits.
I did try using just soap and water but most of the caulk would not come off until I used some kind of chemical like mineral spirits or paint thinner. Tools also cleaned up with mineral spirits but the caulk itself does feel more like acrylic than silicone.
With silicone you have a more greasy feel and with acrylic there is a creamy almost toothpaste feel and the Groov* caulk has more of a paste like feel to it. Both types of caulk, indoor/outdoor and bathroom/kitchen, feel just about the same and are easy to work with whether using tools, glove covered or bare fingers and clean up just like silicone caulk.
I have had no problems applying the caulk and it works a lot like the acrylic for application and not like silicone but paints well just like acrylic caulk. I had to paint the wall near the sink and around the windows with exterior paint and latex paint for the bathroom with great results.
The caulk is ready to paint in an hour, GE says it can be painted in a half hour, but I did wait a little longer than that to paint around my porch windows. The two windows I just caulked for weatherizing did not require any painting but the sink also needed painting along the wall which went just fine.
Paint adheres nicely to the Groov* caulk without the beading that is common to silicone caulk, even good caulk will have paint bead like your trying to paint on a sheet of grease. The paint dried nicely and I had no problems with using and painting both types of Groov* caulk.
The Kitchen/Bath/Plumbing Groov* caulk is supposed to be a 5 year mold protection product but I will have to wait on giving my opinion on that claim. The caulk does go on easily, much like acrylic caulk but does not clean up as easily, much like silicone so you get the benefits and problems of both, sort of.
While the clean up would be the biggest hassle the benefits of a paintable acrylic caulk along with the faster drying time and the durability of silicone make Groov* a great new caulk. As you would expect time will only tell if the Groov* caulk stands up over time but applying it is great.
GE has spent years working toward improvements in their products and the Groov* caulk is definitely a much better product over the old caulks. Check out the new Groov* caulks from GE for your home projects available at your local hardware and home improvement stores.