Awning Cleaning Question

[Islandgirl]

Hi everyone! First time poster! We've been RV-ing for a little over a year now (5th wheel). I would like to clean my awning and don't know what to use. We have not been able to because we can't open it in our driveway & it's only now starting to get lines of mildew on the underside. This weekend I'll be camping and thought I would spray it with something once I set up, before I put out my patio furniture. Someone told me Windex, another told me a light bleach & water mixture - can you all suggest something easy that I can do in the campground?

 

[Grandview Trailer Sa]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

Welcome to the forum.

Reliable or Kor-Kay will clean your awning. Spray it on the awning while dry, let sit a minute and wash off with water mixed with car wash or something like Joy.

A lot of campgrounds will not let you wash in the campground. Ask before you start.

 

[dennis1949]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

1 part bleach and 3 parts water in a pump up sprayer. Soak awning with solution, then roll awning up for 5 minutes Unroll and then rinse well, will come out sparkling.

 

[Guest]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

I use the starbrite awning cleaner from camp world or any other rv supplier ,, i think even walmart has it but anyway, i use it 80% strength ,, but i also put it on a dry awning and then roll it up,,, then let it down and use a scrub brush on a handle with some joy and then rinse and let dry ,,, it works for me ,, and as Grandview said ck with the campground and see if it's ok to wash u'r rv while there ,, i have found some that say NO WASHING of rv's while on sight ,, but they kinda look the other way when u do ,, because after all u'r paying their bills,,,
Oh yea welcome to the forum

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

Dennis, your ratio of 1 to 3 to clean your awning is a really high concentration. Considering that typical household "Clorox" contains a 6% solution of Sodium Hypoclorite (NaOCl) your 1:3 mixture is about 20,000 ppm of the active ingredient. (They say 100 ppm to disinfect your water.)

Even a 1 to 10 solution results in about 5000 ppm of NaOCl. Putting 1 cup in 1 gallon of water results in about 3800 ppm.

If you used 1 cup of "bleach" in 4 gallons of water (about 1:500) you would get about 1000 ppm of the active ingredient.

That's why we say to put about 1 cup of "bleach" into a 40 gallon water tank (about 1:10000) to reach about 100 ppm killing power!

Just something to think about considering your eyes, health, MH metal parts, and how corrosive "bleach" is.

 

[Islandgirl]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

Thankxs everyone! I thought about cleaning while @ the RV Resort, but like you said - I figure they may look the other way, especially if I do it quickly.

 

[Islandgirl]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

Evening fellow RV-ers! My awning is clean, clean, clean now! I decided not to risk cleaning it at the RV resort and pulled that baby out to my street at the crack of dawn. My husband used a proper mix of bleach and water and it lightened the mildew by about half - so then he used a gross amount of bleach w/water and watched the mildew dissappear before our eyes. Followed that with a long fresh water rinse and dried completly - - good as new now! Thankxs!

 

[djwill5]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

I have never tried this, but I was told that the "magic erasers" can clean your awnings. A friend of mine used it on his and said it worked well and looked like new, (I'm not sure how much elbow grease was involved).

 

[Guest]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

If it was the magic eraser ,, then expect to use alot of elbow grease ,, i myself would use a commercial cleaner and roll up the awning and then hose off ,, i'm getting lazy in my old age (42) but hey i like to do stuff the easyway as so many others do ,, we have enough to keep the RV up ,, so all seems to help... :approve:

 

[DL Rupper]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

The RV Parks that allow the washing of your RV usually charge around $10 for RV's and $5 for vehicles. Well worth it if you are full-timing. We happened on a little overnight dumpy RV Park behind a Motel just off the Interstate that allows free washing, so we are staying 2 extra days to get the RV washed and waxed. My arms are killing me from all the waxing.

 

[Grandview Trailer Sa]

Re: Awning Cleaning Question

DL,
Put some of that Reliable on your awning. Works on anything you need cleaning.