potomac hull stain

[coolbri70]

the river has stained the bottom of my boat brown. i have used softscrub and bleach, i have lightened it but still not white:facepalm: what else can i do short of paint

 

[Fish Lip Ripper]

Re: potomac hull stain

I fish in the same water couple of days a week, that is some nasty stuff, huh?!?
My boat is aluminum and I am guessing that yours is fibreglass...
Simple green works pretty good for me, I would stay away from scouring cleaners or bleach, but that is me.

 

[coolbri70]

Re: potomac hull stain

I fish in the same water couple of days a week, that is some nasty stuff, huh?!?
My boat is aluminum and I am guessing that yours is fibreglass...
Simple green works pretty good for me, I would stay away from scouring cleaners or bleach, but that is me.

thanks, i have some i will give it a try, my boat is glass and the stain seems to be impervious to everything

 

[Rentaltux]

Re: potomac hull stain

I have tried many things and the only thing that has worked for me is toilet bowl cleaner and Deck wood cleaner. Last fall I used a product called Behr All in one Deck cleaner. It has oxalic acid in it and wow! it made my stained fiberglass look brand new in minutes. I just spayed it on and rinsed it off. Def. will be using that again this year..

R

 

[kawakx125]

Re: potomac hull stain

personally i'd use something boat specific due to the fiberglass and the possibility of compromising the integrity of it. certain things may not be gelcoat friendly?

 

[tpenfield]

Re: potomac hull stain

try rust stain remover. . .

 

[Gpayne]

Re: potomac hull stain

Been there, after a couple good trips my boat had a nice brown ring all the way around it. Purple power did the trick for me. Spray it on, let it soak for 10 minutes or so, then hit it with a Mr. Clean magic eraser.

 

[louiefl]

Re: potomac hull stain

Left my Fiberglas boat in brackish water for two weeks and used cheap toilet bowl cleaner to remove the brown stain. Wearing a rubber glove I put some on a sponge, wiped on, and in 60 seconds it was gone. Rinsed, washed with soapy water, and waxed the hull as it was overdue. Looks brand new. TB cleaner was $1.29 and have enough left to do my boat 5 more times.

 

[dingbat]

Re: potomac hull stain

I use Attwood hull cleaner. It works as well as anything else and it's biodegradable.

I use a garden sprayer and dilute the cleaner to about a 1/4 of a bottle of cleaner to a 1/2 gallon of water. Takes less than 15 minutes from finish to end.

The stuff will spot a galvanized trailer so hose the trailer down with water before starting.

Pump the sprayer up and go at it. It doesn't take much. I used less than 1/2 gallon of mixture to do the bottom of a 22' boat. No scrubbing required. The stains just disappear. By the time you get to the back of the boat the front of the boat will already be clean. Just rinse with water and your done. When your done make sure you hose the trailer down real well to get all the cleaner off of it.

 

[mercrewser]

Re: potomac hull stain

what you have is a tannin stain.... same as a coffee stain, or tea stain. Any acid based cleaner will work, speed and ease depend on how acidic the product is.

 

[coolbri70]

Re: potomac hull stain

thanks for all the tips, i will give it a go after work tomorrow, with something acidic, i was actually thinking the stuff they dip dentures in those 1970s tv commercials

 

[maagee79]

Re: potomac hull stain

Im not sure if it is harmful to the gel coat but I used Lysol with peroxide and added more peroxide to it putt in a pump sprayer let it sit for a few minutes and it washed off with a hose. No scrubbing at all.

 

[Rentaltux]

Re: potomac hull stain

Not sure if you got your boat clean yet but here is a video of using oxalic acid. My deck cleaner with oxalic acid works much the same. it is a long goofy video but the last few minutes really show that you can just spray it on and watch the hull transform to clean almost instantly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IER1gzjLizM