need cleaning advice

[hillbilly.tim85]

I own a pattoon boat that i leave in the water i am tring to clean the scaling off the pattoons with no avail i have pressure washed used pattoon cleaner with a wire brush please help if you can thanks
Hillbilly

 

[Chris]

Welcome to the forums Tim.

What are the pontoons made of? I assume metal? Do you know what kind of metal? Does the manufacturer recommed any particular type of cleaner?

Most of the Fiberglass bottom cleaners that remove that really icky stuff have an acid content to them. I know some people just use a home brew mix or muriatic acid and water to clean their hulls.

I guess the other product that comes to mind is CLR.

What I'm not sure is whether any of those would effect the finish on your pontoons or not.

-Chris

 

[hillbilly.tim85]

thanks chris i have also posted in the aluminium section as that is the material of the pattoons

 

[Chris]

Well if they're welded Aluminum, I would imagine you would have to be careful using strong acid type products. The acid could dis-color the welds and might also put a white haze on the aluminum itself.

What brand of 'Toon is it? Perhaps we can do some checking with the manufacturer and see if they make any recommendations, or warn of products they don't recommend.

-Chris

 

[Chris]

I was poking around and a few truckers seem to be swearing by this Alumi-Bright product for cleaning aluminum trucks trailers and parts. On a few other sites, people had said it works pretty well for aluminum pontoons as well.

The main concerns seems to be avoiding products which etch the metal which in turns starts to discolour it and also turn the welds black.

I guess the best course of action is to check with the manufacturer of the pontoon and the cleaner in advance.

You'll also want to make sure you read up on any of the precautions of these types of products by reading the MSDS sheets.

Here's a link to the Alumi-Bright product I found.

http://arco-chem.com/en/products/49-alumibrite.html

-Chris