Wait a sec, you say: how can it be possible to use it wrong?
Long story short: I had my CrackResearchTeam©®™ drill down on this question many, many years ago because one day it occurred to me that since the two sides are not the same — only one side has bubbles while the other is flat — one side must be meant to be on the inside against whatever it's protecting and the other facing out.
I was right.
A company that makes bubble wrap was kind enough to get back to me with the following:
The bubbles go on the inside
The topic came up just now when I unwrapped a 2015 11" MacBook Air I bought on eBay.
It was beautifully protected by three (3) layers of protection:
1. A heavy cardboard box
2. Filling the box, substantial corrugated cardboard cut to make it flexible and serve as a shock barrier
3. Bubble wrap surrounding the computer, three layers of it
The bubbles — as usual — were on the outside.
Most people don't think it matters which side the bubbles are on, though if you persist in asking which side do you put against the object to be protected, almost everyone will tell you they put the bubbles on the outside.
Not convinced?
Below, what Perplexity Pro had to say.
Now aren't you glad you read bookofjoe?
This may usually be true, but there are certainly cases where bubbles-out would work better, depending on the surface hardness, shape, etc., of the objects to be protected. Rather than just blindly following rules, why not make the tool work for you?
ReplyDeleteThis seemed incredibly obvious to me, like how could anybody possibly ever think the air pockets should be *separated* from the treasured item? The ways in which bubble-out makes no sense are manifold.
ReplyDeleteConsider: an edge impact pops a row of bubbles, and then the item hits the same edge again. With bubbles-out, now the only thing the warp is doing is keeping the pieces that break in place. With bubbles-in, there is still space between plastic and wrapped item because of the bubbles on either side of the popped bubble!
Seriously, I'm surprised anybody could ever think otherwise, and yet the evidence is right here that some people apparently do. TIL!