Your boat fenders aren’t just there to protect your boat. They
also influence the quality and appearance of the entire boat itself. If you
want your boat to look and perform its best, you’ll need healthy, clean boat fenders.
Here’s everything you need to know to keep your fenders in great shape.
Understanding Boat
Fenders
Your boat fenders are there to protect your boat. As such,
they’ll likely get scuffed, marked up with debris, and maybe even discolored in
the course of normal boat activity. That’s to be expected. The good news is
that there’s plenty you can do to keep your boat fenders looking their best.
It starts with understanding your fenders’ construction. In
many cases, fenders are made with an exterior of marine-grade vinyl. This vinyl
is highly durable—and has to be—but it also means that you’ll want to make sure
you use the appropriate cleaner.
Make sure that the cleaner you use is appropriate for vinyl
and is approved for marine use. For example, VinyLife
Vinyl Cleaner & Protectant is appropriate for boat fenders,
which means that it will do a great job of removing all the debris you need to
remove without harming the rest of the marine environment.
Once you know the best ways to clean these
fenders—especially the proper tools for the job—then it’s time to better
understand the process.
Cleaning Your Boat
Fenders
Boat fenders can be surprisingly simple to clean. Here are
some strategies to make the overall process easier on yourself:
- Clean
your boat fenders as part of your usual vinyl cleaning process, or when you
clean the entire boat. If you keep a bottle of VinyLIFE
handy, you should have no problem doing this along with the rest of your
routine boat cleaning. Just include the boat fenders in the process and you
won’t have to spend too much extra time. - Get the
boat fenders out of the water. Your boat fenders are designed for use in
water, of course, because they have to be out there if they’re going to protect
your boat. But to clean them, you’ll want to use fresh water to ensure that you
clean them out thoroughly and let the water wash out any debris and grime in
the way. Make sure you have an adequate place to drain and rinse the fenders as
well.
Other Boat Cleaning
Needs
If you keep a handy boat cleaning kit full of the
appropriate boat cleaning
products, you’ll be able to clean items like your fenders with no
problem. We recommend constructing a checklist of everything on your boat that
requires routine cleaning. Once you cross every item off your list and dry the
boat off, it’s ready for use once again. And because you used the right
products, you’ll know that you won’t do any damage to your boat or the marine
environment.
Don’t forget to keep browsing our boat cleaning and repair products
to keep your boat in the best shape possible.
