Consumer Issue – Hazard from Paint Mixed by Computerized Colour Mixers

I bought 1 liter of white Jotun Primer with anti rust from a Jotun paint dealer from Jalan Beserah, Kuantan. I actually wanted a red primer as I already started off with red when 1 liter was not enough for my 50 feet long fence. So I went back to the shop the next day and she was kind enough to let me exchange it for a liter of top coat by adding RM10.

She took a Jotun Gardex Multi Colour Premier Gloss off the shelf and started punching onto a keyboard by the colour dispensing machine. These days it is all about computerized colour mixing and theorectically you can get the exact shade of whatever colour you fancy but I just wanted black.

The steps are as follows:

-       She ply opened the Jotun Gardex with a flat hard metal object.

-       She adjusted the pan to fit the 1 liter can under the dispenser.

-       She went back to the keyboard and did more punching and you can see the colour being dispense into the can.

-       Then she removed the can from the dispenser and put the lid back on and secured the lid by hitting it with a rubber mallet.

-       Next, she put the can into another machine next to the dispenser and twisted some knobs and pushed a button.

-       The machine was shaking the can at very high speed for about 30 seconds.

-       Then she went back to the keyboard and punched some keys and a label was printed and she stuck it to the can. On the label, other than the name of the shop was the very important colour code that you can use to get exactly the same colour from any other shop round the world that sells Jotun paints.

Great is it not, technology?

I paid her RM10, got my receipt and thank her for the inconvenience caused. I refused a plastic bag as I am an environment conscious consumer. The wife and my almost 3 years old son were waiting in the car. I placed the can of black colour Jotun Gardex Premier Gloss on the mat behind the driver’s seat. The wife was seated next to me in front and my son was in the back.

I looked at the time and we still have time to drive across the road to pick up some passport photos for my sister and stopped by a hardware shop to pick up a liter of red primer before picking up my youngest daughter from Tadika Imbi.

After picking her up, we drove to get Nasi Campur for lunch from Yee Gor which is on the way home. Being an environment conscious family, we brought along our stainless steel food containers to pack our lunch. It was 4 containers high and I have to drive with care so as to not tip our lunch over. Time was good. I will have plenty of time to enjoy my lunch before going off to pick up my 2 older girls from school.

The wife was screaming when we reached home. The can of black Jotun Gardex has spilled. I quickly got the children into the house. The wife tried to remedy the situation by taking the spilt can out and got her fingers soiled black. I quickly took the mat out with as much care as I could in that situation but some paint stained the car carpet. I took the mat to the nearest garden hose but the premier gloss black paint was overflowing the mat. I looked back and saw a thick line of black along my slate floored car porch.

I ran the hose over the car mat hoping to wash off the black paint and left the hose running while I dashed to get some old cloth and soaked it in thinner and started to scrub my slate flooring. I soaked up what I could with the old cloth but slate being natural rocks has absorbed some of the black paint and will be stained for good.

I managed to clean out the car body but gave up on scrubbing the slate flooring after about 15 minutes. My nails were soiled and I was hungry. I washed my hands and had a quick lunch as I was running late to pick up the girls from school. On the way to school, I called the lady with whom I bought that Jotun paint from and relate to her what had happened. She quickly commented if I had placed the can in the car boot where it was rolling about freely. She also said that I saw her hammered the lid back on.

It occurred to me that she did not inspect it after removing it from the shaking machine and she insisted that was not necessary as she had secured the lid before putting it in the shaking machine.

I am not a rocket scientist but I do know that when something is shaken at high speed, there bound to be heat produced as all these billions of little molecules were knocking against each other. We all know from science classes in school that heat will expand and create a pressurized condition.

This was not the first time I have bought paints from computerized paint mixers and remembered the need to bleed pressure from the can after it has been shaken.

All I got from this RM35 of Jotun Gardex Black Premier Gloss was stained car carpet, stained slate floorings, soiled finger nails, hard scrubbing and a “Sorry lor!” from the nice lady. I did not even get to use the paint as most of it was spilt and is now a nice black almost 2 inch wide line on my car porch floor all the way to my garden hose.  


posted by an unhappy consumer