Carpet cleaner?

[voeller101]

On a related note, does anyone know of anything that will get spike it out of boat carpet? Had a little accident recently and, of course, no neutralizer!

[peter]

Not sure what Spike is. I currently use:

Oxly clean – let soak 20 minutes, keep wet – lightly brush with natural bristle brush – hose out – shop vac

Then peroxide diluted with water – lightly brush -hose out – shop vac

Then vinegar diluted with water – lightly brush – hose out – shop by
By now the boat is smelling like a pickle.

I also use a dog brush with the thin short stainless steel bristles. The brush opens up the carpet and can help get out the tougher stains because it separates the carpet fibers. A kind of brush against the grain and it will look new for a short while but it really does help get the globby stuff out. You can also use peroxide to get out localized stain like blood and some other things. It works real well.

I know all this may sound ridiculous but I have light tan carpet and I do this once a year. On my last boat it was dark blue and I never cleaned the carpet. I had convinced myself that if I let carpet/boat sit in the sun periodically it was sort of like dry cleaning it. And I think it does get the smelly stuff out but I wouldn't bet money on it.

[R19]

I have a carpet shampoo machine for the house. I use it once a year to shampoo my boat carpet. Whatever cleaner we use for the house is what I use on the boat. The shampoo machine has a detachable wand that comes in handy for tight spaces. I vacuum the carpet throughout the year as needed. My carpet is 18 years old. I have over 1000 motor hours run time on my boat and no telling how many thousands of hours fishing time and my carpet still looks decent...vacuum as needed and shampoo once per year.

[Moveon]

Step One:

I use a leaf blower to get the dry fluffy stuff out of the boat. Any leaves or dust is blown out with the 100 mph winds. I have some wood on the back deck but I think it's covered by very light thin aluminum metal. But the doors are not covered and one got wet a lot when we used the boat for water skiing and climbed back into the boat on the back deck all the time. Water would drip off us and land on the back deck. I had to take one of the doors off on the passenger side and remove the wood inside a metal trim around the edge of the wood and then replace that will some new wood. I use Thompsons Water Seal stain on the wood before I installed it back into the aluminum trim and re-installed the door back on the boat. I don't water ski in my boat anymore. Now I can safely stand on that door again and not fear falling though the wood. The front deck I just replaced the carpet myself. That's the best way to make the boat carpet new again.

Now if I had a lot of flat surface on my boat's carpet I'd probably try my Bissel Carpet Cleaner.

To be honest I very seldom have to clean my boat's carpet. The only thing that really gets it dirty and messy would be crappie nibbles (Chartreuse) as they show up and get stuck in the carpet. But if it rains they dissolve and are washed away by the rain. But I don't like fishing in the rain so the boat is not kept in the rain too much. I don't go if it's going to rain these days. But if I get caught out in the rain and it's not lightening then I'll just put on my frogg Toggs and keep on fishing if the winds not too high. Other wise I head in and go home and put the boat back in the garage.

I keep my boat in the garage. It's older that my truck but I take better care of my boat than the truck for some reason. My truck is left outside while the boat sits inside the garage. The past two years my neighbors didn't even know that I had a boat as I've not been taking it out of the garage. I only pull it out to clean the garage floor of leaves that blown into the garage when the door is opened. I use a leaf blower to do this again and then will clean the boat too.

I can't think of any time that I've actually cleaned the carpet on my boat. I let the sunlight do that for me too.

But I have the indoor/outdoor type carpet that's made from plastic not fibers. So it really doesn't get that dirty.

Now if I had a boat with fiber type carpet I'd probably take it to the car wash and high pressure spray the carpet with the soap turned on and then wash the soap off with clean water. Then I'd vacuum the carpet with a wet vacuum to get all the excess water out of the carpet. But that's just how I would think I'd do it. I've not done that because I don't have a boat with that type of carpet.

Too bad they don't make a little portable Bissel Carpet cleaner that you could use.

Now in the house I use the Bissel Pro Carpet Cleaner to make my carpet look almost new again. The only problem is that the carpet in my house is about 25 years old now. And when I clean it the fibers come out of the carpet and get wrapped around the spinning brushes on the bottom of the carpet cleaner and I have to take the brushes off and clean them ever 20 square feet to keep the carpet cleaner brushes spinning properly. The dirt that I get out of my carpet is awesome. I have to change the dirty water tank often and then it uses a lot of cleaner solution fast. I can only do a short section of my carpet before I have to empty the dirty water container. Which is an easy thing to do. And then I have to fill up the cleaner with new hot water and carpet cleaner solution mixed together. I have several type of carpet cleaning solutions. One for pets and then one with an orange color for some reason. Then there is the regular cleaner in the blue plastic container. I use the one that suppose to clean and kill mold and bacteria in the carpet and get rid of the allergens.

But when I do clean my carpet in the house it does a pretty good job. I'd like to see how the Stanley Steamer Carpet Cleaner works someday. You can rent those for a day at some of the local stores. Right now I can't remember which stores though. I'm getting older and the memory comes and goes. Heck just yesterday I was trying to remember how I tied a loop knot on the main fishing line and could not remember how I did it. I've not been fishing much in the last two years and I'm now two years older which really screws with the memory banks. But after two days of searching my brain's data banks I finally located the memory and now recall how to tie the loop knot. I remembered that it involved using a match stick to twist the line before I ran the loop part back though the middle of the twisted line. The match sticks help to keep the hole open and then to twist the lines. I start with an overhand knot in the line leaving a long tag line for the drop shot weight later after the knot is tied. I then have a loop hanging off my long main line with a long tag line under the loop. The loop can be big or small depending on how much or how big you make the over hand loop in the beginning. You stick the match in the overhand loop where the two lines are in contact with each other. Then you twist those two lines around each other using the match stick. I should make a u tube video on how to do that. But it's a great knot and it's very strong and works great for drop shot vertical fishing for crappie when they are deep or suspended in brush. Just need to get a thin wire crappie hook that will bend and let you get the hook back out of wood. A stout hook will make you have to break the main line in order to get out of the brush if you get snagged up. As the hook is tied to the main line with a double line. The loop is a closed loop made up of two lines. You have to stick the end of the loop though the eye of the hook and then loop it around the hook after it's passes though the eye of the hook a bit. It makes for an easy connection. And you can easily change hooks with this setup.

And always add a Chartreuse Crappie Nibble (Berkley) to the hook even if you are using live bait. Just don't drop the **** thing on the carpet. If you do then proceed to step one again at the top of the page.

Not sure what Spike is. I currently use:

Oxly clean – let soak 20 minutes, keep wet – lightly brush with natural bristle brush – hose out – shop vac

Then peroxide diluted with water – lightly brush -hose out – shop vac

Then vinegar diluted with water – lightly brush – hose out – shop by
By now the boat is smelling like a pickle.

I also use a dog brush with the thin short stainless steel bristles. The brush opens up the carpet and can help get out the tougher stains because it separates the carpet fibers. A kind of brush against the grain and it will look new for a short while but it really does help get the globby stuff out. You can also use peroxide to get out localized stain like blood and some other things. It works real well.

I know all this may sound ridiculous but I have light tan carpet and I do this once a year. On my last boat it was dark blue and I never cleaned the carpet. I had convinced myself that if I let carpet/boat sit in the sun periodically it was sort of like dry cleaning it. And I think it does get the smelly stuff out but I wouldn't bet money on it.

[bucky]

I too just pressure wash mine once a year or so but if I really want to clean it I vac it out and then spray a mixture of 50/50 water and vinegar and work it into the carpet with a brush. It makes the nap stand up and cleans pretty good. Bass Boat Saver sprayed on blood and other stains works pretty good also.

[jcclark]

I use the local self serve car wash.
Pressure wash then pressure rinse.

[Dobe Mejuwa]

I used a 2 step process:
1. Sell carpeted boat
2. Buy boat with vinyl decks 😊

What did work best was hitting a car wash coming right off the lake, and trailering home uncovered. On a warm day dry by the time home and ready to tarp.

[adriancretired]

[QUOTE=voeller101;560270]On a related note, does anyone know of anything that will get spike it out of boat carpet? Had a little accident recently and, of course, no neutralizer! the spike it will fade away with sun exposer

[Moveon]

[QUOTE=adriancretired;560347]

On a related note, does anyone know of anything that will get spike it out of boat carpet? Had a little accident recently and, of course, no neutralizer! the spike it will fade away with sun exposer

If you can find out what they use to make the Spike it Paint you might be able to use some kind of paint thinner or naphtha on the carpet. but test it on a small area that's hidden to see if it take the color out of the carpet fibers. Paint are another animal. Especially oil based paints. Alcohol, Acetone, or Toluene or Xylene are commonly used to thin glues and paints. But they can have side effects on a boat carpet. They also make a product that's similar to "lighter Fluid" and it suppose to help remove ink and bubble gum from stuff. It's called "Goof Off" which will lift off dried latex paint pigments.

Vinegar is a weak acid and can be used to clean stuff. Baking Soda is a weak base and also can be used to clean things. But they may not be able to remove dried on oil based paint on a boat carpet.

The company may know what to use to remove the paint from your boat carpet. Try calling them and seeing what they say. They know what's in the paint and what type of thinner they used and they must report the materials used on the Material Safety Data Sheet by law.

[voeller101]

[QUOTE=Moveon;560348]

If you can find out what they use to make the Spike it Paint you might be able to use some kind of paint thinner or naphtha on the carpet. but test it on a small area that's hidden to see if it take the color out of the carpet fibers. Paint are another animal. Especially oil based paints. Alcohol, Acetone, or Toluene or Xylene are commonly used to thin glues and paints. But they can have side effects on a boat carpet. They also make a product that's similar to "lighter Fluid" and it suppose to help remove ink and bubble gum from stuff. It's called "Goof Off" which will lift off dried latex paint pigments.

Vinegar is a weak acid and can be used to clean stuff. Baking Soda is a weak base and also can be used to clean things. But they may not be able to remove dried on oil based paint on a boat carpet.

The company may know what to use to remove the paint from your boat carpet. Try calling them and seeing what they say. They know what's in the paint and what type of thinner they used and they must report the materials used on the Material Safety Data Sheet by law.

Thanks! Don't know why I hadn't thought to contact the company!

[ryan_ekubass]

Spike it makes a bottle of neutralizer and it works good. If you ever get spike it on your fiberglass like I did. White fiberglass interior and purple spike it is a bad combo. I found that when using the spike it to also use a magic eraser bar on the gel coat and it works awesome. just pour the neutralizer on your carpet and it will take the stain out. as for just general cleaning of my boat carpet I use a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar and use a water house to wash it out. I have always been told that a pressure washer hurts your carpet and can damage the glue adhesion. I hope this helps.