Which Selleys Araldite epoxy do you need, and how do you choose?

Every epoxy in this category is a Selleys Araldite. They all reach a strong bond, so the property that separates them is not strength but working time — how long you have between mixing and the point where the adhesive stops letting you move the parts.

That is the whole decision. A 90-second cure is what you want for a repair you cannot clamp and want done; a longer working time is what you want when you have several pieces to assemble, a large area to coat, or an alignment you need to fuss over. Choosing the fast one for a fiddly multi-part job is the standard way to waste a mix.

How to choose: match the set time to the job

When you cannot clamp it — Araldite Rapid

Selleys Araldite Rapid Epoxy Adhesive gives a rapid 90-second cure and is designed for more intricate repairs where clamping is not possible. Selleys names jewellery, vases, crockery and even leather bags. The 90 seconds is the point: you hold the pieces together by hand for a moment rather than rigging a clamp around an awkward shape.

When the repair has to carry weight — Araldite Super Strong and Ultimate Bond

Araldite Super Strong Epoxy Adhesive is for the most heavy-duty repairs, providing a super strong bond with a 5-minute set time, and is designed for load bearing repairs, broken furniture and woodworking.

Araldite Ultimate Bond Adhesive is described as a superior weight-bearing epoxy adhesive that is tug and snap proof, holds up to 200kg and sets in 5 minutes, bonding china, metal, glass and wood. Where you have an actual load figure in mind, this is the product in the range that publishes one.

When there is a lot to do before it goes off — Araldite Extra Time

Araldite Extra Time Epoxy Adhesive is the longer working time epoxy, intended for large surface areas or multi-assembly jobs — benchtops, flooring, coatings, structural application and load-bearing repairs. If you are mixing once and then working across a benchtop, a five-minute set time is not enough time, and this is the product that solves that.

When it is a quick household repair — Fix & Go Araldite 5 Minute

Selleys Fix & Go Araldite 5 Minute Epoxy Adhesive is the convenience format for heavy-duty repairs, giving a strong, durable bond in minutes.

The products in this range

• Araldite Rapid Epoxy Adhesive — 90-second cure, for intricate repairs where clamping is not possible; jewellery, vases, crockery, leather bags.
• Araldite Super Strong Epoxy Adhesive — super strong bond with a 5-minute set time, for load bearing repairs, broken furniture and woodworking.
• Araldite Ultimate Bond Adhesive — weight-bearing epoxy, tug and snap proof, holds up to 200kg, sets in 5 minutes, bonds china, metal, glass and wood.
• Araldite Extra Time Epoxy Adhesive — longer working time for large surface areas or multi-assembly jobs, including benchtops, flooring, coatings and structural application.
• Fix & Go Araldite 5 Minute Epoxy Adhesive — heavy-duty repairs made quick and easy, with a strong, durable bond in minutes.

A related epoxy that is not a glue

If the repair needs filling and shaping rather than bonding two faces together, Selleys Knead It Steel is a fast setting, non-rusting co-extruded epoxy repair system for metal items. It sits in the putty range rather than here.

The safety divide in this category — it runs through the pack, not between the products

Every Araldite here is a two-part system, and on the three products that publish a classification the two halves are not classified the same way. The hardener is the dangerous half, which is the opposite of what most people assume.

Product	Part A — resin	Part B — hardener
Araldite Super Strong	Warning. Skin irritation Cat 2 (H315), eye irritation Cat 2A (H319), skin sensitisation Cat 1 (H317). Transport: Dangerous Goods Class 9	Danger. Skin corrosion Cat 1B (H314, severe burns), eye damage Cat 1, skin sensitisation Cat 1 (H317). Transport: Dangerous Goods Class 8, corrosive
Araldite Extra Time	Warning. H315, H319, H317	Danger. H315, H318 serious eye damage, H317. Both parts ship as Class 9, UN 3082, Packing Group III, and are marine pollutants. Poison Schedule S5
Fix & Go Araldite 5 Minute	Skin and eye irritation, skin sensitisation	Danger. Skin corrosion Cat 1C, eye damage Cat 1, skin sensitisation Cat 1
Araldite Rapid, Araldite Ultimate Bond	No hazard classification is published on either product page. That is an absence of published data, not a statement that these products are unclassified — read the pack and the safety data sheet before use

H317 — skin sensitisation — is on both halves of every pack that publishes a classification, and it is the one to understand. It is not irritation. Irritation is a local reaction that settles once you wash the material off; sensitisation is the immune system learning to react to it. Once acquired it is generally permanent, it is afterwards triggered by a smear far smaller than the exposure that caused it, and each later contact tends to be worse rather than milder. Epoxy resins and amine hardeners are among the best-documented causes of this in trade work, and the exposure pattern that does it is not a spill — it is mixing on a scrap of card and pressing the joint closed with a thumb, repair after repair. Gloves every time, including for a small one.

The hardener is alkaline, and that is why it burns. Part B in these packs is a polyamine system; Super Strong's is corrosive at Category 1B and Fix & Go's at 1C. A smear of hardener left on skin causes a burn rather than a rash, and an eye splash is a hospital trip, not a rinse. Keep the goggles on for the mixing, not just the application. Never use solvent to clean epoxy off skin — it carries the material in rather than removing it. Once fully cross-linked the joint is inert; every classification above describes the liquids and the mixing stage.

Araldite Extra Time gives you more of that exposure than its siblings do, by design. A five-minute epoxy is unworkable almost immediately; Extra Time stays liquid and reactive for an hour, so on a multi-part assembly the uncured adhesive is on the bench, on the work and on your hands for the whole of that hour.

Comparing the epoxies on the numbers that decide the job

Product	Set time	Usable life once mixed	Maximum bond time	Holding strength	Temperature limit
Araldite Rapid	90 seconds	1 minute in the nozzle	16 hours	Up to 75 kg/cm² on clean, abraded steel	60 °C
Araldite Super Strong	5 minutes	2–3 minutes at 20 °C	16 hours	Up to 150 kg/cm² on clean, abraded copper	60 °C
Araldite Ultimate Bond	About 5 minutes working time at 20 °C	3–4 minutes at 20 °C	24 hours to cure; full cure more than 72 hours	Up to 200 kg; 200 kg/cm on stainless steel	Softens above 60 °C
Araldite Extra Time	60 minutes	1 hour at 20 °C	24–72 hours	Up to 150 kg/cm² on clean, abraded steel	80 °C
Fix & Go Araldite 5 Minute	About 5 minutes	See product page	See product page	See product page	See product page

The strength figures are each measured on a different metal — steel, copper, stainless — so treat them as indicative rather than as a like-for-like ranking.

Speed costs strength, and the page above does not say so. Araldite Rapid publishes half the holding strength of Super Strong and Extra Time. The category text is right that working time is the thing that separates these products in use, but the 90-second option is also the weakest of the three that publish a figure. Where a repair has to take load, the extra three and a half minutes are not a nuisance, they are the point.

Only Extra Time has any headroom above 60 °C. Everything else in the table stops at 60, and Ultimate Bond is explicitly described as softening above it. That rules the fast epoxies out of anything washed hot, sat against a heater, left in a car in summer or put through a dishwasher. Extra Time’s 80 °C is the only figure with room to spare, and it is still not a high-temperature adhesive.

A quoted load figure belongs to the fully cured joint, not the set one. Ultimate Bond's 200 kg is a maximum on stainless steel under favourable conditions, and its own page puts full cure at more than 72 hours with a minimum bond area of 2.25 cm². Sets in five minutes and holds 200 kg are two true statements about two different moments three days apart. If the repair has to carry real weight, work to the three-day figure.

One trap at the fast end: Araldite Rapid’s nozzle must be pulled off and discarded inside the same one minute, or it sets solid and the syringe is finished. Prepare the joint before you mix.

Common questions about Selleys epoxy glue

Which epoxy sets fastest?

Araldite Rapid, with a 90-second cure.

Which epoxy is strongest?

Araldite Ultimate Bond is described as holding up to 200kg and being tug and snap proof. Araldite Super Strong is described as providing a super strong bond for the most heavy-duty repairs.

Which one do I use if I cannot clamp the pieces?

Araldite Rapid. Its 90-second cure is specifically for intricate repairs where clamping is not possible.

What should I use for a benchtop or a large area?

Araldite Extra Time, which has a longer working time for large surface areas or multi-assembly jobs, including benchtops, flooring and coatings.

Can I use these on china and crockery?

Araldite Rapid is named for vases and crockery, and Ultimate Bond is described as bonding china, metal, glass and wood.

What is the difference between Araldite Super Strong and Fix & Go Araldite 5 Minute?

Both are for heavy-duty repairs with a 5-minute frame. Super Strong is described for load bearing repairs, broken furniture and woodworking; Fix & Go Araldite 5 Minute is presented as the quick and easy option for heavy-duty repairs.

Will an epoxy bond metal?

Ultimate Bond names metal among the materials it bonds. For metal items that need filling as well, Knead It Steel is the epoxy repair system Selleys lists.

Why does this category page talk about wood glue?

The editorial text on the live Epoxy Glues page is the Selleys wood glue write-up — a content mismatch on the site. None of it describes the Araldite epoxies. The wood glue category is where those products are.