Saturday, December 13, 2008

Product Review: Glue Glider Pro

I went to see Dawn the other day and she showed me the Glue Glider Pro that she'd recently purchased (Bad Dawn!) . Of course that meant that I had to stop by Hobby Lobby after I left her house and purchase one for myself. You know monkey see- monkey do....

I'm really am set for adhesive dispensers as I have a couple ATGs sitting on my desk that I'm finally using. I just couldn't resist the urge to see how these measure up... and it was soo cute!

What I liked:
The cost. Of course I used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby, so that brought the almost $15 dollar cost down to $9 and change including tax. I comes filled with 40 feet of tape.

Ease of use. It is very easy to use. Although it is shaped like a baby ATG adhesive tape gun it doesn't have a trigger. If the trigger presented a problem for you with the ATG this might be easier. Also if your problem with the ATG was placement because you couldn't see beyond the size of the thing, this is better just because it isn't bulky.
It is everything the advertisements say about it in my opinion. I've used lots of different adhesive dispensers over the last 10 years and this is the simplest to use. I'm refill challenged when it comes to the ones that have to be re-threaded. If this one is half as easy as they say, that would definitely be a plus.

What I don't like. After all that, you know there had to be a but....
I don't like the cost of the refills. I use a lot of adhesive in my style of card making and I've seen lots of other card makers whose cards have a lot more layers than mine. The GlueGlider Pro's refills sell for $8.99 for 40 feet.
Before I got the ATGs I used Tombow MonoAdhesive. I've been using it for years and I've seen many variations in price. Lately when I've bought a bunch at a time, I got the Tombow refills for under $3 on eBay with free shipping. I think I got my last batch for $2.50 each but my average has been $2.75. The Tombow refills are 472 inches.

The GlueGlider Pro's refills sell for $8.99 for 40 feet. Translated to inches in order to compare that to the Tombow Monoadhesive that would be $8.99 for 480 inches of 1/4 inch tape. As you can see it is considerably more expensive than Tombows $2.75 for 472 inches of 1/3 inch tape.

Just for fun I decided to compare the cost with the ATG refills I got on Ebay a few weeks ago. I paid 2.45 for each roll ( shipping was minimal I got a total of three rolls + shipping for $10 even. )

Each roll claims to have 36 yards of 1/4 inch tape. Now if we convert that to inches that's a whopping 1, 296 inches per roll at $2.45. Although the initial investment was a little over $50 I think, I'm going to make out better in the long run with the ATG. I just may have to find a place to hang that cute little dispenser in my room once it's empty.


Edited to add more information.

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ValerieM wants to know, "How big is this product in your hand? Wasn't there a former model that was gigantic? Almost embarrassing to be seen with?"

This is it in my hand. It is very comfortable, actually.
I did see the bigger one in the store and it was ridiculously huge. It was larger that the ATG.


Here is how it compares to the ATG in size. It doesn't sit up like the ATG. I had to lean it on the ATG to take the picture.


Overall, I really like this. The adhesive is superior. I like the way it lays down. It doesn't skip or gunk up like the MonoAdhesive because it's more like little pieces of tape than a film. I do understand that the whole pink part comes out for ease of replacing the adhesive. I'm sure that is why it's so expensive. I just don't think it would be cost effective for me to have to replace the cartridges constantly. See their website with more pictures.


EDITED again: If you looked at their website, you saw that they sell a couple different kinds of refills. I commented on the Perma Tac Pro because that was all that I saw at Hobby Lobby. The MSRP of the Perma Tac is what I quoted earlier. They also have a repositional version for the same price and amount. And then there is what they call High Tac which comes in a 60 feet refill. As I've used it a little more, I still love it-- maybe even a little more. I still don't think I will use it over the ATG because of the cost. I bought the ATG in order to save money on adhesive.

7 comments:

Valerie M said...

How big is this product in your hand? Wasn't there a former model that was gigantic? Almost embarrassing to be seen with?

Elaine said...

GREAT comparison! Thank you! I think I saw the refills online at Ritz cameras? SOmething like that which I never ever would have thought of looking at...and since I use Ebates, I get another 'discount' of sorts. Do you use ebates ever? If not, try it. It's free :)

hugs,
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Well, thanks for the review on this product. I had just bought one; it came yesterday and I'm hoping I will love it! I got the refill for $5.98. I think it says that there is 60 feet in the adhesive. Got a good buy on it though - buy one, get one for $1 for a total of $11 for 2 Pro Gliders. A friend went in and bought the other. I sure hope we like it.

L8ybug2 said...

I love mine. I had the ATG and didn't like it, sold it and got one of these. I think the adhesive sticks better than anything else I've ever used. Once you've adhered something to your project it's there to stay.
Thanks for your wonderful review.
Rita

Sandy Knecht said...

Thanks for the comparison. Where do you buy your ATG refills? Thanks again!

Jacki Marie said...

Sandy I got them on Ebay. Send me an email and I'll send you a link to the person I bought from if you are interested.

Dawn Bibbs said...

One of these days, I'm gonna get around to using this cute little thing. I sure wish it was purple instead of pink and green :-). Guess I'll have to buy another one when they come out with a purple one, hee hee.

Great comparison, by the way!