There's been some confusion regarding this question. Hopefully this short article can provide some insight to clarify this common questions.

 

What is Icynene?

Established in 1986, Icynene is a Canadian-based company which distributes a line of spray foam insulation products. They were the first company to mainstream spray foam insulation products in the United States market

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Icynene entered the United States market in the early 2000’s. At the time it was one of the only commercially available foam insulation products. They offered an open cell product, and only one at that. It wasn't until 2012 that Icynene saw a demand for closed cell spray foam and started manufacturing a closed cell product, long after other spray foam manufacturing companies had already started offering it.

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Icynene's open cell spray foam product started becoming popular in the United States in the late 2000's. At this time, homes were built using traditional insulation products which included fiberglass batts and blown-in cellulose. Icynene was the first mover in the open cell insulation space. They spearheaded a lot of the legal and code changes that allowed spray foam to be used today.

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Through a large marketing budget and a clever marketing strategy, Icynene established itself as being synonymous with spray foam insulation. They targeted architects and building inspectors who not knowing the difference would simply start specifying Icynene as spray foam in their blueprints. As spray foam was such a new product with virtually no competition, builders and homeowners started using the term Icynene when referring to spray foam insulation. It is not unlike calling a tissue a Kleenex!

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In late 2017 Icynene merged with Lapolla Industries, another spray foam supplier, which then changed it's name to Icynene-Lapolla.

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So, how does Icynene compare to other spray foam insulation brands?

Or perhaps a better question is do you like Pepsi or Coke? Charmin or Cottonelle? Mercedes or BMW? At the end of the day, Icynene is simply a brand of spray foam insulation with spray foam products that are no better or worse than other insulation products available today. There are now over two dozen spray foam manufacturers that make comparable or better spray foam than Icynene. Many of these companies have comparable, if not better state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, larger research and development departments and more ICC-ES testing than Icynene.

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But we remind that you that the most important aspect of choosing a spray foam company is not the raw materials they use but the level of experience of the sprayer installing the product. An inexperienced sprayer can take the best product and create bad spray foam simply by not knowing what to look for when spraying. At Compass, you can sleep well at night knowing that our employees are certified, trained and only work in insulation, and nothing else. 

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So what's the difference between Icynene and Spray Foam?

Absolutely nothing because they are one and the same!

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Edit: As of 12/5/19 Huntsman Corporation (HUN) has acquired Icynene and associated trademarks.