Best chemical/product to clean soft cover?

[coachgeo]

The material I read when trying search for big rig tarp cleaning...... was all over the place (like here) on cleaner but over and over saw repeated to use 303 protectant afterwords

 

[Awesomeness]

Yesterday we did a bunch of testing, on several products. (The pictures, and they way I'm presenting it here, is a bit out of order from the way we went through them, so don't compare to stuff far away in the pictures.) All products applied with a hand-pump bleach applicator sprayer (e.g. pressure washer NOT used), or a hand spray bottle.

TLDR: Clorox Outdoor Bleach wins, but everything except Purple Power works well. 3-4 gallons to clean the whole cover, inside & out.

First up...

Purple Power, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting (wet patch above bottle sprayer)
Result: Barely does anything, even after scrubbing.



Drano Max Gel, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Result: Works ok, though slowest of the rest, and was helped by scrubbing. I just wanted to try it for comparison since some of the following products contain Sodium Hydroxide, and had some on hand.



The Starbrite (far left) and Clorox Outdoor Bleach (far right) are sodium hypochlorite ("bleach") and sodium hydroxide ("Drano") blends. The middle two are just pool bleach (10.5%) and Mold Armor (bleach only).


Starbrite Mildew Stain Remover, $10/16oz, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Result: Worked very well. Dissolved most of the stains within minutes, and rest with a second spray and some scrubbing with a push broom (not shown). Unreasonably expensive compared to the other products, since it's such a small bottle. I won't buy it again, but I refilled the bottle with the Clorox Outdoor Bleach.



Pinch-A-Penny Liquid Chlorinating Product 10.5% (pool shock bleach), $6/gal, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Result: Works well, required a little scrubbing with a push broom


Mold Armor E-Z Multi-Purpose, $18/gal, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Results: Works very well, and wouldn't really require scrubbing. I think it was 5% bleach, making it 1/2 the strength of the pool bleach or Clorox Outdoor. Not sure why it is so expensive... maybe it has special additives for pressure washer use? (The bleach would likely wreck the seals in your pressure washer soap injector anyway.)


Clorox Outdoor Bleach, $10/gal, full concentration, 1.5 minutes sitting
Result: Works extremely well... by the time I was done spraying it across the cover panel, the mold was already totally gone. No scrubbing. I don't know why this one worked so well, or fast. It could be that this was the only panel in the sun, which would aid the chemical reaction?


The Clorox Outdoor Bleach is the clear champion in this totally-not-scientific-test. None of the chemicals harmed the cover, that I can tell. I used 3-4 gallons to do the whole cover, inside and out. I also tried a couple dilution ratios of a few, but they just took longer and required multiple applications, so I personally don't find that to be a money saving approach.

I made a very-diluted mix by swishing ~1/4 bottle of water in each "empty" jug (to rinse them out for recycling), and pouring it back into the sprayer, with some more water. I used that to gently get some green mold off a few spots on the truck paint. It took some time, and a couple applications, but it worked without harming the paint.

Cover looks good as new!

 

[Mullaney]

Yesterday we did a bunch of testing, on several products. (The pictures, and they way I'm presenting it here, is a bit out of order from the way we went through them, so don't compare to stuff far away in the pictures.) All products applied with a hand-pump bleach applicator sprayer (e.g. pressure washer NOT used), or a hand spray bottle.

TLDR: Clorox Outdoor Bleach wins, but everything except Purple Power works well. 3-4 gallons to clean the whole cover, inside & out.

First up...

Purple Power, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting (wet patch above bottle sprayer)
Result: Barely does anything, even after scrubbing.
View attachment 898064
View attachment 898065

Drano Max Gel, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Result: Works ok, though slowest of the rest, and was helped by scrubbing. I just wanted to try it for comparison since some of the following products contain Sodium Hydroxide, and had some on hand.
View attachment 898066
View attachment 898067

The Starbrite (far left) and Clorox Outdoor Bleach (far right) are sodium hypochlorite ("bleach") and sodium hydroxide ("Drano") blends. The middle two are just pool bleach (10.5%) and Mold Armor (bleach only).
View attachment 898068

Starbrite Mildew Stain Remover, $10/16oz, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Result: Worked very well. Dissolved most of the stains within minutes, and rest with a second spray and some scrubbing with a push broom (not shown). Unreasonably expensive compared to the other products, since it's such a small bottle. I won't buy it again, but I refilled the bottle with the Clorox Outdoor Bleach.
View attachment 898069
View attachment 898070

Pinch-A-Penny Liquid Chlorinating Product 10.5% (pool shock bleach), $6/gal, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Result: Works well, required a little scrubbing with a push broom
View attachment 898071

Mold Armor E-Z Multi-Purpose, $18/gal, full concentration, 3 minutes sitting
Results: Works very well, and wouldn't really require scrubbing. I think it was 5% bleach, making it 1/2 the strength of the pool bleach or Clorox Outdoor. Not sure why it is so expensive... maybe it has special additives for pressure washer use? (The bleach would likely wreck the seals in your pressure washer soap injector anyway.)
View attachment 898072

Clorox Outdoor Bleach, $10/gal, full concentration, 1.5 minutes sitting
Result: Works extremely well... by the time I was done spraying it across the cover panel, the mold was already totally gone. No scrubbing. I don't know why this one worked so well, or fast. It could be that this was the only panel in the sun, which would aid the chemical reaction?
View attachment 898073

The Clorox Outdoor Bleach is the clear champion in this totally-not-scientific-test. None of the chemicals harmed the cover, that I can tell. I used 3-4 gallons to do the whole cover, inside and out. I also tried a couple dilution ratios of a few, but they just took longer and required multiple applications, so I personally don't find that to be a money saving approach.

I made a very-diluted mix by swishing ~1/4 bottle of water in each "empty" jug (to rinse them out for recycling), and pouring it back into the sprayer, with some more water. I used that to gently get some green mold off a few spots on the truck paint. It took some time, and a couple applications, but it worked without harming the paint.

Cover looks good as new!
View attachment 898074

.
Wow!

Nice work on the testing and documentation too
Clorox has generally been one of my favorite cleaners for almost any application.
Nice to see that it came out on top!
.

 

[chucky]

Next time you could probly save a couple gallons of bleach using a pump up sprayer ! I spray it uncut on the shingles(whole roof ) all the vinyl siding and rinse it off with a garden hose and might have 5 gallons in the whole house wash then it all looks like new ! I would leave the top on the trailer and spray the whole thing once a year and a garden hose easy peasy !

 

[Awesomeness]

Next time you could probly save a couple gallons of bleach using a pump up sprayer ! I spray it uncut on the shingles(whole roof ) all the vinyl siding and rinse it off with a garden hose and might have 5 gallons in the whole house wash then it all looks like new ! I would leave the top on the trailer and spray the whole thing once a year and a garden hose easy peasy !

I did use a pump up sprayer.

From above...

All products applied with a hand-pump bleach applicator sprayer (e.g. pressure washer NOT used), or a hand spray bottle.

Like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-1-5-Gallon-Multi-Purpose-Bleach-Pump-Sprayer-1415HDX/312284087

 

[cwc]

The Chlorox Outdoor Bleach has several surfactants among the ingredients; I think that probably accounts for its good performance compared to the rest. The sodium hydroxide is present only in a small amount and functions mostly as a stabilizer for the hypochlorite, to keep it from decomposing and possibly offgassing chlorine. (You want to be careful about mixing hypochlorite solutions with acids, ammonia, etc. because that can create some bad effects.)

I have also tried some other products, such as IAQ concentrated peroxide cleaner, Bleche-White, and various mildew killers, and none of them work as well as the outdoor bleach.

Purple Power is a great product for degreasing, but not so much for whitening mildew stains. It is especially good for removing oil films since the active ingredient is ethylene glycol monobutyl ether. Glycol ethers are sort of a hybrid molecule with a part that acts like an organic solvent to dissolve oil and grease, but also a part that is like an alcohol so it mixes freely with water. I like it for cleaning the underside and suspension of HMMWVs prior to paint. Soak with half-strength PP, pressure wash and then hit it again if there is any remaining oil film.

 

[TheDrashStash]

The material is vinyl coated polyester, or called PVC fabric (Poly Vinyl Chloride).
Whenever I wash tents, and they come black with mold sometimes, I start out with a 20% bleach solution and go up to 50% for stubborn areas. At 50% it can start taking the color out of the vinyl, especially on green.

We mix up our "bleach" with pool HTH calcium hypochlorite, which is the cheapest source of chlorine. This is great but only if you need a LOT of bleach

If we need liquid bleach we get a pack of 4 gallons of pool chlorinator from home Depot

Also if there's any stitching on tarps or tents it's most likely a bonded nylon thread which isn't affected by bleach. It's sunlight that kills the thread

 

[TheDrashStash]

I also use a 40 gallon spot sprayer from tractor supply with a bleach sprayer 12v pump from northern tool. This coupled up with a pressure washer makes short work of even the worst mold