ProCaulk was a neat idea when it first came out -- a set of tools packaged together that can make your caulking job easier and more professional-looking. At around $20 it's not terribly expensive, and it comes with a money-back guarantee.I'd been putting off re-caulking my bathtub for months. The other day in Bed, Bath & Beyond (my wife dragged me there -- I didn't go by choice) I saw the ProCaulk kit. I'd seen it on TV a few times and commented to my wife that it looked helpful. So while we were at the store, I bought it.
The kit comes with three different caulking tools of various sizes, designed to help smooth the caulk along joints and corners so you don't have to use your finger anymore. It also comes with a hook-shaped caulk removal tool and a tube of DAP Kwik Seal Plus indoor caulk. (The ProCaulk website used to let you choose whether you wanted indoor or outdoor caulk, but the site isn't up anymore.)
I broke the kit open and used it to remove the old caulk from my bathtub and lay new caulk. The caulk removal tool is kind of cool -- it has a hook and a point that both work fairly well to remove the old caulk. The hook is good for dragging out a chunk of wedged-in caulk. However, for bathtub corners (where the two walls and the tub meet) it's next to useless. Neither the hook nor the point can get in there. The tool is a durable plastic, but it bites into your hand if you push too hard, and I got the feeling I would be better off with a flathead screwdriver (though I was too lazy to actually get up and get one). The hook is better than a utility knife for the sole reason that it will cut through the caulk but not your tile.
When I applied the new caulk, the three smoothing tools were nice to have. Even when moving from one tile to the next, the tools were fairly steady, keeping the caulk a lot smoother than it would have been if I'd used my finger. For corners, though, my finger would have worked just as well. The tools are easy to clean, and they are made of a sturdy but bendable plastic with a guaranteed life of at least five years. The multiple sized edges also came in handy for different parts of the tub.
It was nice that the kit came with a tube of caulk, but if you're like me and you can't caulk without a caulk gun (or just prefer not to) the tube won't do you any good -- it's a soft tube that won't work with a caulk gun.
The ProCaulk kit seems to be marketed toward homeowners who know how to caulk but are not experts, and would rather do the job themselves than pay someone else to do it for them. ProCaulk is affordable, and the tools in the kit, while certainly not lifesavers, are helpful. From me, this kit gets 3.5 out of 5 stars.
You can get the ProCaulk kit online at Amazon.com for $11.74 (plus shipping). There's also a smaller version of the kit -- all the tools, but no caulk -- for $7.64 (eligible for free shipping). It used to be sold at Bed, Bath & Beyond stores, but it might be an online-only product now.
(Originally posted on Helium.com, June 2009 -- has since been updated)
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