Cleaning & Protecting your Inflatable

What products do you recommend for cleaning and protecting an Apex inflatable. Also what psi should it be inflated to, if living in hot climate?
Thanks for all your suggestions. Capt Mike

For cleaning, any commercial inflatable cleaner for has been as good as any other. We haven't found any stand outs.

For protection, have a set of dinghy chaps made.

Talk to the manufacturer about inflation. We do deflate our RIB when it sits for awhile. The guys who fix them have said, "Why stress the fabric if you aren't using it"?

I've always used 303 Protectant avaialble always everywhere. Spray it on and wipe it off.

Ron

Larry M said:

For cleaning, any commercial inflatable cleaner for has been as good as any other. We haven't found any stand outs.

For protection, have a set of dinghy chaps made.

Talk to the manufacturer about inflation. We do deflate our RIB when it sits for awhile. The guys who fix them have said, "Why stress the fabric if you aren't using it"?

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Thanks

windmist said:

I've always used 303 Protectant avaialble always everywhere. Spray it on and wipe it off.

Ron

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Thanks

I've got age spots on my rubber duckie from sitt'in on top of the cabin.
What is a good cleaner that won't harm the dink?
Used car washing soap and that helped a little.
Tempted to try Chris's mould on the cap rail stuff. Baking soda, apple cider vinegar and bleach .. I think.

It makes me miss Ron to see his past posts brought up in this thread.

Eric, the guy in the slip next to me has OCD. He owns a 50' go fast boat that always looks like it was just dropped in from a showroom floor. His inflatable is the same. He and I had the exact same dink, same model, same age. Mine looked old, his looked brand new.

I watched him clean his dink one day. He first used boat soap and a brush, then he used bleach on any spots, then he washed again and then treated with some type of treatment like the 303 that Ron mentioned above.

Thanks Dave,
I don't know what OCD is so I must not have it .. good as it's probably bad.

I think I'll use 15 or 20% bleach w apple cider vineger and perhaps some baking soda. I guess silicone is or can be a problem as in Armor All so I'll pass on that. Good I can duck at least one pitfall.

Thanks again,
By the way I admire your boat in the avatar and glad you choose that one. Nice business-like wheelhouse.

dhays said:

It makes me miss Ron to see his past posts brought up in this thread.

Eric, the guy in the slip next to me has OCD. He owns a 50' go fast boat that always looks like it was just dropped in from a showroom floor. His inflatable is the same. He and I had the exact same dink, same model, same age. Mine looked old, his looked brand new.

I watched him clean his dink one day. He first used boat soap and a brush, then he used bleach on any spots, then he washed again and then treated with some type of treatment like the 303 that Ron mentioned above.

Click to expand...

Hello,

what is bleach, this is like Clorox ?

Hugues

drmnj said:

What products do you recommend for cleaning and protecting an Apex inflatable. Also what psi should it be inflated to, if living in hot climate?
Thanks for all your suggestions. Capt Mike

Click to expand...

During a white water raft trip I observed the guides pay careful attention to inflation pressures - they deflated after removing from cool / cold water when storing ashore at the end of the days travel and reinflated next AM to avoid heating & over inflating in afternoon sun... made me think about inflating mine hard when in cool water and then tipping up on Weaver davits (or hoisting onto a deck) for storage.

What every you use to treat the fabric, be sure that it is intended for inflatable boats. Do not ever use armour all. It has silicons in it. If it is applied to an inflatable, then the tubes cannot be patched. Glue won't stick. The tubes are supposed to be inflated to about 3.5 PSI. at that pressure you can push your thumb in about 1/4" if you can push in more than 1/2" you need to add air. Yes it is a good idea to let off the pressure when it is hot, particularly if the dinghy is just in storage. PVC dinghies with welded seams are much more tolerant of over pressure in hot weather than a glued seam hypalon fabric boat.

I just did this a few weekends ago. My inflatable is hypalon. I used the two part inflatable boat cleaner from West Marine. One bottle of cleaner and one of protectant. My kind of work. Wipe the cleaner on, wipe it off, wipe the protectant on, wipe it off. I put a followup coat of 303 Protectant on as well for no other reason than I had it handy.

Nomad Willy said:

Thanks Dave,
I don't know what OCD is so I must not have it .. good as it's probably bad.

I think I'll use 15 or 20% bleach w apple cider vineger and perhaps some baking soda. I guess silicone is or can be a problem as in Armor All so I'll pass on that. Good I can duck at least one pitfall.

Thanks again,
By the way I admire your boat in the avatar and glad you choose that one. Nice business-like wheelhouse.

Click to expand...

When I should that dinghy (to a guy my OCD neighbor knew), I cleaned it up really well. I took a page from my neighbor and washed with boat soap, scrubbed using a spray bottle with a 10% bleach solution, but did follow up with the 303. My neighbor sit he was impressed, but when he and his biddy took the dink to my neighbors house where he installed Weaver pads on it for hi buddy, he cleaned the whole boat again as well as buff and wax the hull.

OCD is Obsessive, Compulsive Disorder.

101TUG said:

Hello,

what is bleach, this is like Clorox ?

Hugues

Click to expand...

Clorox is a brand name for a household bleach.

dhays said:

When I should that dinghy (to a guy my OCD neighbor knew), I cleaned it up really well. I took a page from my neighbor and washed with boat soap, scrubbed using a spray bottle with a 10% bleach solution, but did follow up with the 303. My neighbor sit he was impressed, but when he and his biddy took the dink to my neighbors house where he installed Weaver pads on it for hi buddy, he cleaned the whole boat again as well as buff and wax the hull.

OCD is Obsessive, Compulsive Disorder.



Clorox is a brand name for a household bleach.

Click to expand...

ok thanks not all time easy for a Froggy

windmist said:

I've always used 303 Protectant avaialble always everywhere. Spray it on and wipe it off.

Ron

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303 Protectant that has the BLUE label. There is a Green label 303 that is made for Sunbrella and should not be used on inflatables. But the 303 Blue is great stuff for inflatables.