Canvas

Handymans342

Is everyone cleaning and protecting their canvas as shown on the Sunbrella web site??

Dream_Inn

Handymans342 said:

Is everyone cleaning and protecting their canvas as shown on the Sunbrella web site??

Canvas?  what canvas?

Willhound

Website? Have to take a look. Usual is wash with mild soap, let dry and treat with Aero 303.

Handymans342

Yes if no mildew

Liberty44140

Yes and no. Use 303 to seal and protect sunbrella per sunbrella but I use meguires plastx on eisenglass and I wash with dish soap

Autodog61

Cleaning once per month.....hmmm.  I remove the camper canvas every spring.  take home, clean with mild car soap and water and store.  About every other year requires light bleach to remove mildew on interior, mostly.  In the Northwest, we also get significant pollen build up and sometimes that requires a light bleach to loosen as well.  Boat is under cover year round and I clean the cockpit cover about twice per summer while I wash the boat at the same time.  What I didn't know is there is a product 303 that recreates the water resistance.  Will include that in my annual spring cleaning process now.

My canvas on my 2002 Fiesta Vee is original (16 years now, woo hoo!) and only the back eisenglass boundary stitching is starting to wear.  If you are good about caring for your canvas it will last.  My other boat has a sunbrella cockpit cover (27 foot so its big) that is original to the boat - 1989 -and still going.  Has required some re-stitching and new snaps but still looks pretty decent.  I use snap wax also to make the snaps easy to on/off.   

Black_Diamond

Exactly why I switched to Stamoid when I replaced all my canvas 7 years ago or so.  No mold. No mildew. No 303. 

Dream_Inn

Black_Diamond said:

Exactly why I switched to Stamoid when I replaced all my canvas 7 years ago or so.  No mold. No mildew. No 303. 

I used stamoid light for my full winter cover.  Absolutely the best material!  Very lightweight, no mild or mildew and keeps clean!  Not the cheapest material when you are covering a 40' boat all the way past the water line, but well worth it.

natalee520

I read this thread and tried to clean my canvas (cockpit cover) per the recommendations…sprayed it down, mild dish soap, sponges on spots, another round of spray, planned to treat with 303. It looked clean when it was still wet, but when it dried it still looked dirty! Any other recommendations? I’m sure you can’t put it in a washing machine… 😂 TY in advance! 

aero3113

@natalee520 , I put my bimini in the washing machine and it came out looking like new. It was a tight squeeze but worked. You can take it to a laundromat to use an industrial size if you need. I let it air dry after then sprayed it with Starbrite waterproofing.

Black_Diamond

If it still looks dirty, might be mold.  Did you use bleach?  

https://www.sunbrella.com/how-to-clean-sunbrella-fabric

natalee520

Thank you! I don’t think it’s mold, but I’ll try the washing machine first @aero3113 (so glad to know that’s possible!) and if that fails, I’ll do again with a little bleach @Black_Diamond. Thanks to you both!