Safe to "wash" on the water?

[jcr159]

Stupid question...

are there any general boat wash products (boat wash, dawn, etc.) that are safe to use on the boat if moored, and the soap/dirt will fall into the water...

I'm docked all season with no way to remove the boat to wash it down... looking for a product if it exists to wash down while on the water. I'm putting together a freshwater pump with filters that will pull lake water to use to do the hose down/rinsing, but a couple times a season it would be nice to get a good full washdown with a detergent product...

thanks!

 

[Jack M]

I wipe mine down at the sand bar once a week ,toons included .I use car wash mits on both . And Mothers marine wax on the panels .

 

[Jack M]

DeWalt makes a battery power washer ,just put the hose in the lake .

 

[jcr159]

I wipe mine down at the sand bar once a week ,toons included .I use car wash mits on both . And Mothers marine wax on the panels .

What kind of wash down do you use?

This 303 boat wash seemed good….

303 Boat Wash | Gold Eagle Co.

Got a dirty boat? 303® Ultra Concentrated Boat Wash is proven to remove dirt, grime, and salt accumulation with ease.

www.goldeagle.com

 

[Jack M]

I don't use anything but the lake water on the panels and toons . I know dish soap of any kind is not good on painted surfaces . It will take the wax off .I use hot sauce on the motor to remove water spots before waxing

 

[jcr159]

I don't use anything but the lake water on the panels and toons . I know dish soap of any kind is not good on painted surfaces . It will take the wax off .I use hot sauce on the motor to remove water spots before waxing

I should have been more clear... wash isn't so much for panels.. mostly for the interior. sea grass flooring and Simtex seating... even the bimini and mooring cover..

 

[Jack M]

Do a search upper right, I just reposted the updated Simtex care and cleaning instructions yesterday. Canvas 303 products

 

[Vikingstaff]

I should have been more clear... wash isn't so much for panels.. mostly for the interior. sea grass flooring and Simtex seating... even the bimini and mooring cover..

Oh..I thought you meant exterior as well. Not sure why any interior cleaning would run off into lake unless you want to spray clean these areas somehow…which I guess I just wouldn’t do with most of the items you listed.

For us without a trailer and boat docked lakeside seasonally on its sea legs:

1) Simtex: just follow cleaning directions with a bucket of water and hand towel, and approved cleaning agent if needed. Ours turns out fine doing it by hand this way. No run off into the lake using hand towels and a bucket of clean water for rinsing towels.

2) Mooring cover: It can just be removed and cleaned shoreside. No need for lake run off, and I don’t think you could get it cleaned well on the boat anyway. I would not use any pressure sprayer on it myself, and I wouldn’t want to use a scrub brush on a long pole unless its flat on a hard surface such as a yard, driveway, deck, etc… We clean ours at the end of the season, lakeside in the yard with some scrub brushes, a bucket of dish soap and a bucket of clean water, with just our yard hose.

3) Bimini & bimini cover: we wipe it down by hand with a bucket of water and sometimes dish-soap & water during the boating season. If the top of it needs cleaning, we remove and do it in the yard lakeside like the mooring cover at the end of the season. However, 90% of the time if we are going to have a hard rain with low winds, I will leave the bimini deployed and Mother Nature basically scrubs it clean for us. That said, ours is also only deployed about 10% of the time, mainly in August. Thus, it rarely gets dirty and we have only had to “clean it” once in the yard.

4) Sea Grass: we don’t really seem to need to do much of anything. I have literally never “cleaned it”. I use a leaf blower to blow stuff out/off, and if anything gets “in” it, I just spot clean the area by hand (which has only been necessariy a couple times in 7 years for us). Others in here have talked about scrubbing and using a very gentle power wash or water sprayer. We don’t get sand or mud on it due to the nature of our lake house shore and lake, so we are inexperienced in ”needing” to clean it.

 

[ILLINOIS AVE]

I use Northwoods Zap Power Cleaner HD ( I don.t have Simtex) Or lake friendly Simple Green. Like Jack M replied Search.

 

[jcr159]

thanks for the replies so far... I'm in a situation where there is no clean water access anywhere on the lake... so, its either carry it with me (limits me to about 5 gallons of water, maybe 10), or pull water through filtration and pump out of the lake to clean/rinse. Lake water is safe, but has a lot of solids and doesn't leave things too "clean" when rinsing.

I'm over an hour away, so taking covers off to take home can be done, but then i have even more cleaning of bird bombs when I get back, not to mention, a day or two minimum additional sun exposure to the interior. generally things are pretty clean and we just spot clean, but i'll want to properly scrub down the floors and interior and then wax things before the boat goes into storage. Because of the nature of the arrangements (dealer picks up the boat at the dock, then handles trailering/winterizing/shrink wrapping), I don't even get time to do those activities out of the water...

Hence asking if there are things that can be used safely (occasionally) if rinsed off and runoff makes it's way to the water... I'm not looking to foam cannon the whole thing, lol... but if a little rinsing ends up in the lake, i'd want it to be as safe as possible.

It sounds like products that are "marine" safe, still really shouldn't end up in the water, so I'll need to try and figure something out...

 

[BigKahuna]

Back in the day when we had our jet skis we used Simple Green to clean everything from top to bottom while it was in water!

 

[jcr159]

Back in the day when we had our jet skis we used Simple Green to clean everything from top to bottom while it was in water!

That’s what I used when I started an auto detailing business as a teenager back in the early 90s, lol. It was nice because I could mix any concentration I wanted. And even diluted quite heavily it did a pretty good job.

That was sort of my thought, heavy dilution for a product like that may actually be safe if it rinses into the water. that said, the idea would be to not get more in the water than necessary to get the job done once or twice a season when the deck and seats needed a wash down with the soft brush (think car wash brush)…

 

[Vikingstaff]

D’oh! Most all of my ideas don’t work for you. Sorry. After reading further above, I can appreciate your inquiry and challenge to do even basic cleaning.

 

[jcr159]

D’oh! Most all of my ideas don’t work for you. Sorry. After reading further above, I can appreciate your inquiry and challenge to do even basic cleaning.

Thanks!

I tried offering to pay the dock land owner to put in fresh water hose bibb, but he said the DNR wouldn't let them as they didn't want to encourage water discharge into the lake.... (there is no ramp at our docks. the only 2 ramps in/out are in a state park).

I'm starting to think it might be "easier" to buy a truck and trailer, lol...

 

[Vikingstaff]

Thanks!

I'm starting to think it might be "easier" to buy a truck and trailer, lol...

I hear you. The dealer we bought our boat from services our boat similar to yours: does drop off and put in for us, stores it, and services is. Thus, we “saved money” and didn’t get a trailer either. We are now rethinking our situation of dependency on them this year and might get a trailer and tow vehicle next year too. The convenience is nice…but it does lead to other potential “issues” and costs.