Dry Ice Cleaning

[Marjorie]

Does anyone have any experience of dry ice cleaning of fibreglass hulls? I am of the understanding that once this has been done all that is required is a light sanding prior to applying anti foul paint. Have I got this right or will I still have to chip of shellfish etc?

 

[William_H]

I notice no one else has replied.... Fools rush in etc....
I have never heard of it and wonder if it is a wind up. Dry ice is by nature lumps of solid which would be hard to apply to a hull in a way that would get good contact. I suppose if it did get a good contact it could freeze the water and especially the water in weed and shellfish. What then do you scrape it off or does it just fall off? I dunno....How do you stop the dry ice from melting/ evaporating quickly anyway?
I have always found the Armstrong method the best, after using a power spray if one is available.

Actually I reckon hull cleanliness is next to Godliness and would never let much build up on my hull. This by frequent in water scrubbing. olewill

 

[oldsaltoz]

Any shells left can be blasted, however you run a high risk of damage due to blast miss, bypass or deflection, a bit like over spray gone mad.

This process is very expensive compared to other blast mediums, we tyred to remove calcium on stainless steel close to a circuit board and thought dry ice blasting would remove the risk of water damage, it did; however the cost was too high.

The primary use of Dry Ice Blasting is cleaning electrical items and avoiding water contamination.

Hope this helps.

 

[Marjorie]

Thanks for your comments. As for the Armstrong method well I was just looking for an easier option. (Ever hopeful)

 

[Heckler]

There was an article in one of the comics quite a few years ago, worked ok, specialist contractor etc
Stu

 

[DannyB]

I hear some of the councils are using it to remove chewing gum residue from pavements. Never heard of it being used on boats though.

 

[Pasarell]

Only time I've seen dry ice cleaning used in anger was a German shipyard where they build new cruise liners. A lot of chalk is used to mark up shop primed steel and they clean it off with dry ice before painting as there is virtually no debris to remove. Expecially useful in internal spaces.
The process works but is really quite slow just for removing the chalk marks so wouldn't expect great speed with fouling.