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OT- mildew on vinyl on boat

cockymom2boys

Well-Known Member
Dec 28, 2000
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We keep a boat in storage for our oldest son to use when he comes to town. I went over yesterday to check it and from all the rain it had some mildew on the seats.
We store it in a covered storage shed so this doesn't happen often.
Does anyone have a good mildew cleaner to recommend? Thanks in advance
 
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Go to Lowes and buy a jug of "30 Second Outdoor Cleaner" - Only stuff I've found that will take mildew off a white picket fence with little to no scrubbing. You can thank me later.
 
We keep a boat in storage for our oldest son to use when he comes to town. I went over yesterday to check it and from all the rain it had some mildew on the seats.
We store it in a covered storage shed so this doesn't happen often.
Does anyone have a good mildew cleaner to recommend? Thanks in advance
 
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Simple green is cheap and it will take everything off, including the wax off your paint, color from your black bumpers and vinyl and skin from your hands . But it kicks mildews but. I don’t use it after the first time but it does do mildew
 
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We keep a boat in storage for our oldest son to use when he comes to town. I went over yesterday to check it and from all the rain it had some mildew on the seats.
We store it in a covered storage shed so this doesn't happen often.
Does anyone have a good mildew cleaner to recommend? Thanks in advance
A solution of diluted bleach maybe with a little all purpose cleaner in it. The least expensive and effective way.
 
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I got some deck cleaner stuff from a buddy that works great, I will try to find it when I get home and let you know the name.
 
Bleach (Sodium hypochlorite) is the main ingredient in almost all effective mildew removers for vinyl. It works well. I always try to minimize hitting the threads with it and rinse when done. I recently sold my pontoon that still had the original seats on it and they looked great after 16 seasons. Once clean and dry use 303 vinyl protectant on the seats. It won't prevent mildew from coming back but it is like sunscreen for your seats. It protects them from the sun.
 
We keep a boat in storage for our oldest son to use when he comes to town. I went over yesterday to check it and from all the rain it had some mildew on the seats.
We store it in a covered storage shed so this doesn't happen often.
Does anyone have a good mildew cleaner to recommend? Thanks in advance
Thanks for reminding me of one of the reasons I was so happy the day I sold my boat.
 
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We keep a boat in storage for our oldest son to use when he comes to town. I went over yesterday to check it and from all the rain it had some mildew on the seats.
We store it in a covered storage shed so this doesn't happen often.
Does anyone have a good mildew cleaner to recommend? Thanks in advance

X-14 is the best cleaner/mildew remover I have ever used on our "leather" boat seats
 
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If none of the above work, a magic eraser does wonders. Be careful, as it's essentially sandpaper. I wouldn't scrub with them.
 
Simple green is cheap and it will take everything off, including the wax off your paint, color from your black bumpers and vinyl and skin from your hands . But it kicks mildews but. I don’t use it after the first time but it does do mildew
It's meant to be diluted. I've used it to clean bicycle chains and gears before re-oiling. Also good for detailing dirty engines.
 
This worked very well for me the other day. Seemed mild too so I’m not worried about the seams.
That shelter does no good to prevent mildew. Most mornings the metal roof condensates and drips onto those shady seats.
Next year I am removing all the seats after Labor Day and bringing them indoors.

 
We keep a boat in storage for our oldest son to use when he comes to town. I went over yesterday to check it and from all the rain it had some mildew on the seats.
We store it in a covered storage shed so this doesn't happen often.
Does anyone have a good mildew cleaner to recommend? Thanks in advance
All of these options work but I will tell you to minimize the bleach on the stitching of the vinyl. The thread will start to deteriorate and while the vinyl still looks nice it cause seats to pull apart at seems when stitches fail. Unfortunately, this is from personal experience on couple boats.
 
Interesting story about recovering furniture. the wife has used the same folks for 25+ yrs to recover various chairs and such. They came last week to pick up a chair and i asked the guy what he would recommend to cover my to old lazy boy chairs that are cracked bad. it is very hard to find real leather these days. In our talks he tells me i have 4 choices: pleather, Naugahyde (first developed plastic to counter leather), leather itself (although very difficult to make sure you getting quality for your enormous fees) and lastly he tells me and recommends that i use marine vinyl (a type of Naugahyde) because it is very durable, a great product to recover recliners and an excellent alternative to real leather (if you can really find it). i am going the marine vinyl route in a maroon (Garnet color) as these will spend their remaining years in my man cave.
 
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I use Tilex that has bleach in it. I don’t add any additional bleach. Let it sit 5-10 minutes and hose it off. Maybe a little scrubbing. But make sure you hose off all seats - good -. Especially the seams. I’ve read where bleach will make the seams weak (makes sense) but have never had any issues. I usually end up washing the boat with soap and water afterwards as extra precaution
 
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Vinegar. Undiluted.

Doesnt work as fast as bleach but works. Spray it and let it sit for an hour or two. More effective than bleach for killing the roots of black mold to keep it from coming back after you remove it from the surface. Not as effective on green mold.

Safe. Will not hurt your dog (or child) if he licks it. Won't burn your hands or lungs like Clorox. Won't fade out the color on your vinyl.

That;s all our grandparents used before the rise of chemicals.
 
We keep a boat in storage for our oldest son to use when he comes to town. I went over yesterday to check it and from all the rain it had some mildew on the seats.
We store it in a covered storage shed so this doesn't happen often.
Does anyone have a good mildew cleaner to recommend? Thanks in advance

Mama! The boy is old enough to handle this......u need to worry about keeping up with the grandkids!

Oh, & if u don’t have any grands yet......he’s spending too much time on the boat.:)
 
LA’s Totally Awesome sold at Dollar General. Only thing I’ve seen you can spray on blackened gutters and wipe them clean back to white. Be warned spray it on then wipe it off. Also great for shower pans. My wife used straight bleach and scrubbed with no luck. I squirted on LA’s and instantly wiped it clean. They don’t show the ingredients or even provide an MSDS but say it is non-toxic. It will clean tile grout.
 
Go to Lowes and buy a jug of "30 Second Outdoor Cleaner" - Only stuff I've found that will take mildew off a white picket fence with little to no scrubbing. You can thank me later.
I use that on vinyl siding. Works great.
 
There are many companies where you can find such products on the internet, just take your chances and search for them. Also, be careful and choose wisely for a good website with a good reputation. Read some reviews, look at its previous orders, and ask for a financial statement. Only after that will you understand if it is worth spending your time and money or not. Also, maybe the best saltwater washdown pump could be handy in your situation.
 
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