Cleaning inflatable

[easterly]

Will 409 GP cleaner hurt my Achilles? It works great. I just wonder what the long term will bring.

[David M]

Have you tried Simple Green? You certainly don't want to use any sort of petroleum based cleaner. From chemistry: Likes dissolve likes.

[easterly]

Never mind, I ran out of the old bottle of 409 All Purpose cleaner I was using and went to the store and bought another bottle of 409 All Purpose cleaner. It's different, doesn't work as well, foams up more, and smells different. Back to the drawing board.

[Lady Hawk]

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sponges are truly magic for cleaning tough spots on fiberglass or inflatable tubing along with a bucket of boat soap and a regular sponge on the not so dirty areas. I also applied a coating of Aerospace Protectorant 303. It looks great. Our neighbor used it on an older grey in color inflatable and you could really see the difference.

[Waterwayguy]

best stuff we have found for cleaning the dinghy is Mary Kate Inflatable Boat Cleaner. Does a fantastic job. Find it at Boaters World.

[GordMay]

Both Formula 409 (Chlorox) & MaryKate Inflatable Boat Cleaner (CRC Industries) contain 2-Butoxyethanol*, and surfactants (soap/detergent), as do Windex Aerosol and Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner.

*An organic solvent, also known as Propylene Ethylene Glycol Mono-Butyl Ether (C4H9OCH2CH2OH)

These products are Not recommended for use on soft Vinyl, Varnishes, Aluminum, nor some painted surfaces; but are generally safe for use on Hypalon & PVC.

[easterly]

*An organic solvent, also known as Propylene Ethylene Glycol Mono-Butyl Ether (C4H9OCH2CH2OH)

Gord your starting to worry me.

The 409 was $2.79, the StaBright inflatable cleaner from West Marine was like $9.00 for the same size bottle. I'll check the price of the MaryKate.

[Waterwayguy]

I have used the 409, Starbrite and Mary Kate and the Mary Kate works better IMO than the other two. I generally go with what works and not necessarily how much it cost. I believe your original post ask about long term harm to the inflatable. You might want to pose that question to the manufacturer.

[GordMay]

StarBrite #83416 Inflatable Boat Cleaner contains “Distillates, petroleum, hydrotreated light” (Mineral spirits or Kerosene), among several other things.
See the MSDS: www.starbrite.com/
http://www.starbrite.com/msdssheets/...D19%2D06%2Epdf

[defjef]

I use 409 on my hypalon and find it pretty good. I got some product called Inflatable Boat Cleaner, but don't recall who makes it. It was a tad better than the 409.

jef
sv shiva

[High Cotton]

When I purchased my boat it had a 10' CARIBE that was really nasty.... tried several things, wasn't happy, since it was mostly mildew, I used one of those bathroom mildew sprays... worked like a miracle... but I washed it with soap and water after spraying to make sure there was no chemical reaction.

[sullybeboating]

Has anyone tried comet or ajax, something with bleach in it?

Thanks Dan

[Hud3]

Those might be a bit too gritty. I've had good results with a soft-scrub product, like Barkeepers Friend, or Vex brand, found in the SE Caribbean. I'm not sure that the bleach component would be all that useful on Hypalon or vinyl.

[mike d.]

i use citric cleaner i get in concentrate from home depot or lowes when doing my inflatable's bottom (fiberglass/PVC) i wet down the boat mix the cleaner in water not what the mfg calls for just a 1/4 inch in bucket add about 6-8 inches water so it's still pretty concentrated use a boat scrub brush with the heavy bristles scrub whole bottom and tubes let sit for about 5 mins. then rinse all the algae and crud comes right off, even the brown tar like stuff which is the oil gas residue we have up here in some of the rivers in the N.E. where there is a lot of boat traffic

[sullybeboating]

I have tried 409 and it cleans up pretty good, I still have a sticky feeling to the hull, I think it might have been caused by another cleaner that I used or the previous owner used, any ideas of what can remove this,

Thanks Dan