Who's Idea For Low Wash Hull?

[TheQ]

2 minutes ago, CambridgeCabby said:

Will you recognise her next time you're down though ?

i thought green was the new white 

It certainly was on my boat until I discovered patio magic....

[WherryNice]

Patio magic? Do tell......

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[ChrisB]

Whilst Patio Magic is an excellent controller of algae it should be used with caution on a contained hard standing. Please see highlighted data sheet. It was what I had been advised to use when my boat had not been touched for 18 months but coming from the chemical industry I thought " just check the data sheet ". In the end I had her cleaned by the yard.

[TheQ]

Patio Magic is a chemical for cleaning the green off of concrete patios, it says on the bottle it's bio-degradeable.

I saw it on a forum somewhere it being recommended for cleaning boat covers, so I decided to try it on my decks and hull.

The north side of the boat used to go green within 3 months  of  washing, I've tried detergents  / bleach / expensive boat cleaning stuff. But none has worked as well as patio magic and I only used it at less than half the recommended strength.

 It's been over 9 months now and only the bits I think I may have missed are showing any sign of green...

 Next time down, I'm intending to take the fenders and their ropes off and washing them down with it...

[WherryNice]

Hmmm mixed opinions there, I shall give it a look and proceed with caution, mine seems to go green quite readily so could do with something, thank you both

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[TheQ]

Hmm, it didn't say that on the bottle I bought, But as I said I'll take the fenders off and once they've been cleaned, wash them off before returning them to the boat...

[Malanka]

The clue is in the name:

Hard surface Biocide. That means it is designed to Kill living things. BIO (living) and CIDE (kill)

It has ethoxylated alcohols with from 9 to 11 carbon molecules in them. These are  toxic in use (to humans) as well as the Benzalkonium Chloride (a cationic surfactant /quaternary ammonium compound) which has been used in low concentrations in Clean room wipes (used by operators) for decades. 

In higher concentrations such as patio cleaners they are both extremely toxic causing burns and other irrritations and DO NOT GET IT IN THE EYES. The good part for patios is that they are surface active agents that adsorb to the surfaces and will remain behind for a while preventing re growth of the green goopy stuff. Not something I would wish to drop into a river not at these concentrations.

 

Try caravan and boat wash , its completely biodegradeable non toxic and is a very effective cleaner. If you get rid of the green goop rather than try and kill it that's the best way forward. Power wash then clean. Using a Biocide to prevent green goop on boats is best kept to specialist chemicals under the water line. IMO of course.

 

M

[Poppy]

PLEASE keep ANYTHING containing Benzalkonium Chloride  away from pets - especially cats!!!!

[TheQ]

Which brings us to an interesting point there must be thousands of people in Norwich alone,  using this stuff to clean their driveways . From there it flow into the road drains which are often not connected to the sewerage works but straight to rivers and streams... 

[Viking23]

18 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Which brings us to an interesting point there must be thousands of people in Norwich alone,  using this stuff to clean their driveways . From there it flow into the road drains which are often not connected to the sewerage works but straight to rivers and streams... 

Often road and pavement run off is direct to sea, via river, stream, brook, broad or lake. 

Together with... brake dust, engine oil, antifreeze, brake fluid, diesel, grease, windscreen washer fluid, salt from gritting, rust, diesel particulates, tyre debris, when your tyres get down to 1.6 mm the rest has gone somewhere.... into the streams and rivers etc. This runoff also gets into the water table, aquifers so those extracting from bore holes and wells can reap the benefits from often untested and unfiltered and untreated water. 

Any accidental commercial leakage from trucks etc ... into the gutter, stream then river. hmmm.. some nasty chemicals travel by road.

None of ths is new, it has been going on for decades...

So here is a question...or two.

If you change your engine oil, we take the old to the tip for recycling. I think we are 95-100% compliant on this one.

What about brake fluid, it's only a pint, or antifreeze, just 10 litres?

down the sewer drain, into the street via a grid, into the hedge, or dig a hole and bury it, gets into the water table then. or at the recycling centre? if they have facilities!

Where do you tip yours? hmmm 

 

[ChrisB]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

Hmm, it didn't say that on the bottle I bought, But as I said I'll take the fenders off and once they've been cleaned, wash them off before returning them to the boat...

Exactly, the whole senario is not helped by there being a gulf between what goes on a container sold to the public and the statutory information that if you were commercial you would have to hold to satisfy your COSHH obligations.

[Malanka]

I remember spending hours classifying and assessing things in our lab when i was a technician when these COSHH rules came in. Tipex was on the list, ink and lots of other inoquous stuff and so was every reagent we had in the place (hundreds of them).

 

Pales into insignificance compared to a compatriot in the chem lab who had  pieces of radio-active glass pipette stuck in her elbow. Bits of it kept coming out at various times...Those were the days, youngsters today ... ha .