who cleans with bleach?

[jpaul72]

I'm in the middle of my winter maintenance overhaul and have a question about keeping the bildge clean. For the past 3 years I've had this boat I scrub the bildge and the boxes with bleach to kill the mold that accumulated over the past 6 months. My question is, is there any potential harm in using bleach on A more regular basis instead of twice a year? It works great, keeps evrything clean and mold free and i always spray the wet areas with a corrosion x monthly, including rubber hoses and wiring harnesses. Will the bleach cause anything to fail prematurely?

[rwidman]

I clean my boat guns with bleach but only if I've been drinking beer.

Seriously, 50% will say bleach is great or at least fine and 50% will say it harms rubber and doesn't belong anywhere near a boat.

So who are you going to believe?

Me, I don't use bleach for cleaning my boat. I do add a tablespoon or two to the potable water tanks if I'm filling them at a "strange" source.

[puppy]

i use bleach. it definitely adversely affects some synthetics and rubber so i limit how often i use it. and i dont let it soak. use it strong enough that it only has to be on a short time.

and if im doing a laundry load i try not to mix colors and anything being washed for the first time i do separately.

[jeffro22]

I use bleach alot

[bellsisland]

A good alternative to bleach is hydrogen peroxide, when bleach drys it leaves the harmfull chemicals behind, when hydrogen perioxide dries it leave water behind.

Try it.

[tomfl]

I use bleach after every trip and wouldn't do without it. To be more specific, Soft Scrub with bleach. I like it because of the mild scrubbing grit and the bleach.

Bleach cleans any natural mess such as blood, guts, fish slime, etc. Obviously it also disinfects.

Simple green or similar degreasers will clean any man made type of mess on the boat.

Get the deck moist, squirt a little Soft Scrub with bleach around, scrub with your soft bristled deck brush and let the bleach to the work for a minute or two. Rinse off thoroughly.

Been doing it for 5+ years on many boats with no issues to the paint/gelcoat/vinyl upholstery.

-T

[psachseJr]

Fact: Bleach is an oxidizer. It makes new things old. While it is a great cleaner, it will shorten the life of nearly everything it touches that is reactive in any way (metals for instance). If you could ensure it never touched anything reactive, you would have no worries; but wiring, clamps, screws and aluminum fuel tanks should not be exposed to even the smallest amount of bleach.

As a result, I am not real proud of how my bilge looks, but I would look for an alternative (like a bilge cleaner).

[JackB]

I use bleach indirectly. Wesleys Blech white for white wall tires is relatively inexpensive, convenient, controls the amount of bleach which seems minimal and cleans effectively. I am careful to use it sparingly and keep it away from the seat stitches as much as possible.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by psachseJr

Fact: Bleach is an oxidizer. It makes new things old. While it is a great cleaner, it will shorten the life of nearly everything it touches that is reactive in any way (metals for instance). If you could ensure it never touched anything reactive, you would have no worries; but wiring, clamps, screws and aluminum fuel tanks should not be exposed to even the smallest amount of bleach.

As a result, I am not real proud of how my bilge looks, but I would look for an alternative (like a bilge cleaner).

Good point. I should mention I do not use it to clean anything other than my deck/gunnels/etc.

For the outside of the boat I use boat soap.

-T

[Bayfly]

It strips the natural oil out of wood and the wood will eventually rot. It looks great for a while, but soon the wood begins to degrade. Don't ask me how I know.

[Glen E]

I use a $40 Gilmour foam gun on my bilge from amazon. The soloution that it sprays is Dawn soap and 20% bleach. I open up the heart of my bilge and spray the whole bilge in foam...let it sit for 5-10 min and the flood with fresh water and rinse thoroughly. My bilge looks like the day I took delivery of the boat and has for 7 years...works perfectly on fish boxes and rope lockers too...and you can do it with a cold drink in your hand...

[baypro21]

There's nothing better for removing mildew from cushions

[CB Haws]

Only thing that works on tuna blood in the bilge. If you fish you use bleach.

[FLOLEDesign]

As a last resort I will use it upholstery, but it does work wonders. I also use bleach on any white plastics (Floodlights for example) that have acquired excessive mildew growth.

[cdx]

I often mix bleach in my wash bucket for the cockpit/gunnels after a day of fishing. But my boat is 30 years old, so at this point, no worries.

[SRQMynatt]

I use bleach after offshore trips. I mix a few big gulps in a bucket with soap and water. It cleans the deck up like nothing else. I rinse afterwords and the boat gets whiter as it dries. Been doing it for a long time haven't seen any problems yet.

[John_Madison CT]

I use a few ounces of bleach when cleaning my boat. Especially the bilge.

It kills the mold which loves the dark wet environment of a bilge.

[jayyy]

Bleach is sold in plastic containers, so it should be fine on plastics and fiber reinforced plastics (fiberglass).

[sjef]

Originally Posted by jayyy

Bleach is sold in plastic containers, so it should be fine on plastics and fiber reinforced plastics (fiberglass).

Muriatic acid also is sold in plastic containers but I don't think it's safe for plastics or vinyl upholstery.

[Black Water]

Used to use bleach religiously. I also used to use hull cleaner in a big mix to clean the outside of the boat. After having to wet sand, compound, and polish my hull then compound and polish the inside of the boat, I probably wont anymore. In the bilge and under decks? Probably so