I’ve never tried this, but I’ve seen folks take a lemon and cut it in half and rub the flat side to rub all over the moldy areas. Let it sit for a while and rinse. It worked really well! Cheap and natural! Good luck
Great video! Mold can be such a nuisance on boats, so it's fantastic that you're sharing tips on how to remove it. Tilex seems like a helpful solution, and it's interesting to hear that acetone works too, although it might be harsh on the fabric. Microfiber clothes are definitely a gentler option to keep our upholstery in good condition. Keep up the great work, looking forward to more boat maintenance tips! ⛵️👍
People will continue to make comments on your video about how bleach will destroy the upholstery threads and how this process is hard on the vinyl. First off, if you are contemplating the time and cost of re-upholstery, then whatever you do to get more life out of your boat seats is a big plus! Secondly, there is a way to prevent the treads from breaking down. It is as simple as very thorough rinsing. I have a video on my channel dealing with a "very severe" case of mold with over 200K views that explains this. I also have a followup video taken several months later showing the threads were not harmed. Think about washing your white clothes using bleach. Do they just fall apart after doing this cleaning process many times? No. The reason is because they get thoroughly rinsed. Now if you just use a bleach type of cleaner and do not rinse (very well), then yes the threads will eventually fail. I like Clorox Clean Up with Bleach and I also like MIRACLE MIST for cleaning sever mold/mildew. The Magic Eraser sponges are great in certain situations also (Remember to rinse). The last part of this process is that after the seats are completely dry, you need to apply vinyl conditioner liberally for this first time. Really work it in. Then just continue with regular type cleaning, but you should not need any bleach cleaners with these regular cleanings. Use vinyl conditioner a couple times during the season and when you store the boat. Your boat seats will last many years being treated correctly. It makes no sense to fear doing damage to boat seats that may otherwise have to be discarded. I sold a boat to a friend of mine over a decade ago, in which I did this very process. The upholstery still looks great! Hope this helps put things into perspective for any naysayers 😉
Yeah I agree totally. I literally just talked to my local upholstery guy and he was saying that when mold gets really bad , it’s hard to totally get rid of it because it’s imbedded in the upholstery so you either pay big money to get new upholstery or use an abrasive cleaner to get as much life out of it before it needs to be replaced any way. The heavy rinsing makes sense. Everyone with a keyboard has an opinion. Educated or not lol! Cheers!
As a professional detailer, what you think is mold and mildew is actually sun screen sprayed into the vinyl. And because the sun screen gets on the vinyl, and bakes in the sun, you're actually dealing with vinyl dye getting ruined by the sun screen.
Good morning fellow boaters I used a product called30 seconds for the first treatment on a 26’ pontoon stored uncovered under pine trees from October to April 😮 well besides first removing all the seating ( leaving the frames ) it worked really well for the initial. 12 hours plenty of clear water . Next 8 hours I used AMAZING Roll Off 22.00 a bottle and it transformed the seats to a beautiful finish it has a polymer type wax so use it a few times on each area . After that 3 hours of vinyl protection rubbed in then buffing all with microfiber constantly rinse the microfiber . I don’t know how to load the picture but it’s 12 year old vinyl that looks brand new )
There appears to be a lot of bleach in the Tilex. I can’t imagine that’s great for the vinal either but was recommended by fellow boaters and worked well.
The Magic Eraser worked for a yr or two and then couldn’t clean it so we had to try something new. I hear Magic Erasers can also damage the material over time🤷🏼♂️
