As noted, my experience is that bleach products seem to cause
a temporary yellowing of white surfaces.





On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 11:39:34 -0400, "*JimH*" wrote:


"Real Name" wrote in message
...
Fantastic is a great cleaner for vinyl, and is recommended by many boat
builders. Bleach will degrade vinyl and the stitching thread.

Bleach will degrade fiberglass, but if it is only used once a year you
will probably not notice it.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00615.htm



According to your link bleach will only degrade fiberglass with long term
exposure, meaning leaving the bleach sit on the fiberglass for a long time
without rinsing.

According to your link "Short contact and thorough rinsing should not cause
damage..".

I take that to mean that even if you were to use bleach on the boat every
week, but did not leave it sitting long and flushed it with water thoroughly
there would be no harm to the fiberglass.

Myth busted IMO.

"*JimH*" wrote in message
...

"frank1492" wrote in message
...
May I have your recommendations for cleaning greasy
stains off the hull, general cleaning of vinyl upholstery,
and cleaning of salt off flexible clear plastic windows that
are part of the topset.
Obviously nothing can contain bleach. Some have
suggested Scrubbin' Bubbles for the hull stains (but that
now appears to contain bleach.) Lemon Pledge has been
suggested for the clear plastic windows.
Looking forward to your ideas!
Thank you.
Frank

I believe the idea of not using bleach on a fiberglass boat (because it
will
harm the fiberglass) is urban legend.

I believe it is an urban legend, yes.


Does anyone have solid proof that bleach is in fact harmful to gelcoat?
And
I am not just talking about the fact that it may take off the wax.

I don't believe that it won't even take off the wax (its not petro based).
Been using straight bleach on gel coated hot tubs, lawn furnature, and
row boats for years without issue. The only thing that I think will hurt
gelcoat (or any painted surface) is either an acetone, benzene, or
keytone (MEK etc) based products. I've used solvents like Naptha,
and mineral spirits for years to remove tar from painted surfaces
(base coat/clear coat), and fiberglass packing tape marks from
new hot tubs etc. Bleach is basically only good for black mold,
and green moss that gets in the pores of fiberglass. works great!.

"Real Name" wrote in message
...
Fantastic is a great cleaner for vinyl, and is recommended by many boat
builders. Bleach will degrade vinyl and the stitching thread.

Bleach will degrade fiberglass, but if it is only used once a year you
will
probably not notice it.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00615.htm

No offence, but I don't buy it. First off, he says bleach will
attack polyester fibers. Fiberglass is just that: fibers of "glass",
not 'esters' (or poly-esters). And I don't know of any resin
used on fiberglass that contains "polyester", but who knows.
Chlorine bleach is used in swimming pools, and swiming pool
related apparatus all the time. As I understand it, it will attack
cotton, paper products, and other "organic" matter, thus why
it is a good cleaner of mold, moss, blood, but bad on cotton,
cloth, paper, etc. BTW, the sticthing on boat upolostry isn't
cotton based, is it ? I'd want more, verifiable proof of what
this guy says before believing it. Maybe a materials safety
handling sheet on bleach will be more helpfull ?




"Ignoramus15786" wrote in message
...
I have had incredible success using fantastic on everything except I
have not tried using it on vinyl.

i

"*JimH*" wrote in message
...

"Real Name" wrote in message
...
Fantastic is a great cleaner for vinyl, and is recommended by many boat
builders. Bleach will degrade vinyl and the stitching thread.

Bleach will degrade fiberglass, but if it is only used once a year you
will probably not notice it.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00615.htm



According to your link bleach will only degrade fiberglass with long term
exposure, meaning leaving the bleach sit on the fiberglass for a long time
without rinsing.

According to your link "Short contact and thorough rinsing should not
cause
damage..".

I take that to mean that even if you were to use bleach on the boat every
week, but did not leave it sitting long and flushed it with water
thoroughly
there would be no harm to the fiberglass.

Myth busted IMO.

Agreed, but for different reasons. I don't buy that
bleach attacks fiberglass. Keytones, yes, bleach? no.

"frank1492" wrote in message
...
As noted, my experience is that bleach products seem to cause
a temporary yellowing of white surfaces.

What kind of "white surfaces" ?? Fiberglass ?
gelcoated fiberglass ? Plastic? vinyl ?





On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 11:39:34 -0400, "*JimH*" wrote:


"Real Name" wrote in message
...
Fantastic is a great cleaner for vinyl, and is recommended by many boat
builders. Bleach will degrade vinyl and the stitching thread.

Bleach will degrade fiberglass, but if it is only used once a year you
will probably not notice it.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00615.htm



According to your link bleach will only degrade fiberglass with long term
exposure, meaning leaving the bleach sit on the fiberglass for a long
time
without rinsing.

According to your link "Short contact and thorough rinsing should not
cause
damage..".

I take that to mean that even if you were to use bleach on the boat every
week, but did not leave it sitting long and flushed it with water
thoroughly
there would be no harm to the fiberglass.

Myth busted IMO.

Fiberglass term as used in boats is really Fiber reinforced Plastic (FRP).
And the plastic can be a polyester resin. But if bleach was that degrading,
most hottubs would be bad in 12 years, and my pool sweep would have to be
replaced a lot more often than 15 years

"Mr Wizzard" wrote in message
...

"Real Name" wrote in message
...
Fantastic is a great cleaner for vinyl, and is recommended by many boat
builders. Bleach will degrade vinyl and the stitching thread.

Bleach will degrade fiberglass, but if it is only used once a year you
will
probably not notice it.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00615.htm

No offence, but I don't buy it. First off, he says bleach will
attack polyester fibers. Fiberglass is just that: fibers of "glass",
not 'esters' (or poly-esters). And I don't know of any resin
used on fiberglass that contains "polyester", but who knows.
Chlorine bleach is used in swimming pools, and swiming pool
related apparatus all the time. As I understand it, it will attack
cotton, paper products, and other "organic" matter, thus why
it is a good cleaner of mold, moss, blood, but bad on cotton,
cloth, paper, etc. BTW, the sticthing on boat upolostry isn't
cotton based, is it ? I'd want more, verifiable proof of what
this guy says before believing it. Maybe a materials safety
handling sheet on bleach will be more helpfull ?




"Ignoramus15786" wrote in message
...
I have had incredible success using fantastic on everything except I
have not tried using it on vinyl.

i