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Foundation Findings #44 - Boarding Ladders

Cleaner Performance

To a boater, cleaning performance is very important. When buying a product you want to know if it will get the job done and leave you with a shiny clean boat. To evaluate each cleaner’s performance we lined up 3 boats: a well cared for boat with a wax finish and minimal dirt, a boat with some mildew and an oxidized finish, and a boat that had been stored under trees, uncovered and untouched for two years. We marked off 20 one-foot segments along the hull of each boat, mixed and applied the cleaners per the instructions on each bottle. 

We started cleaning first with a plain sponge.  If that was not sufficient we moved on to a medium grade scrubbing pad, and if the boat was still not cleaned sufficiently we moved on to a course bristled scrub brush.  Rating each cleaning method helped us determine the cleaning performance score. 

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One-foot wide sections were marked off on each boat to allow testing of 20 different cleaning products.
One-foot wide sections were marked off on each boat to allow testing of 20 different cleaning products.
Foundation staff inspect cleaner performance.
Foundation staff inspect cleaner performance.
The cleaners performed well, overall, removing 2 years worth of dirt that had accumulated on this boat.
The cleaners performed well, overall, removing 2 years worth of dirt that had accumulated on this boat.
 
©2010-2011, BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water