Isider tips, oxalic acid, cheapest cleaner

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GrumpyOldGit

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Yes it is the cheapest cleaner and being ripped off by the manufacturers of Y10 should have had its day. check the ingredients of any hull cleaner and it will be 10% Oxalic Acid. £15.00 for a 250ml tub is quite expensive so get on ebay and find Oxalic Acid crystals for about £3.50/kilo. Mix with warm water at 10-1 ratio and you have 10 litres of dogs nuts hull cleaner, teak cleaner or stainless cleaner that really works !! Do not be misled by so called professionals telling you it is bad for the gelcoat/paint etc, they all use it themselves, as do I in my boat cleaning business. Nothing works like it and I for one am fed up with being told that only the proprietary brands are safe to use. Another brilliant one, Perspex windows that are a bit faded, polish with toothpaste till cleared and then finish with Brasso after wiping off the Brasso a decent car polish like Autoglym will protect them for a season.

I now await the howls of protest from the boat valeting fraternity for letting out some of the Trade's most secret secrets !!!
 
I buy oxalic acid as BKF (Bar Keepers Friend), as found in most supermarkets and DIY stores. Maybe not as cheap as ebay, but much cheaper than the 'marine' variants.

Recommended to me by the moulding manager for Sadler Yachts-might not have his title correct, it was a long time ago.

HTH
 
You're right, I bought 5 litres for £28ish from supplier on ebay, and added wallpaper paste (apparently flour does the job) for vertical surfaces - job was a good 'un :)
 
GrumpyOldGit said:
Yes it is the cheapest cleaner and being ripped off by the manufacturers of Y10 should have had its day. check the ingredients of any hull cleaner and it will be 10% Oxalic Acid. £15.00 for a 250ml tub is quite expensive so get on ebay and find Oxalic Acid crystals for about £3.50/kilo. Mix with warm water at 10-1 ratio and you have 10 litres of dogs nuts hull cleaner, teak cleaner or stainless cleaner that really works !! Do not be misled by so called professionals telling you it is bad for the gelcoat/paint etc, they all use it themselves, as do I in my boat cleaning business. Nothing works like it and I for one am fed up with being told that only the proprietary brands are safe to use. Another brilliant one, Perspex windows that are a bit faded, polish with toothpaste till cleared and then finish with Brasso after wiping off the Brasso a decent car polish like Autoglym will protect them for a season.

I now await the howls of protest from the boat valeting fraternity for letting out some of the Trade's most secret secrets !!!
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Sorry GOG to p--- on your parade but as good as they are trade secrets they are definately not .
 
How could you let out of the most secret of secrets...:eek:

I think you have to give the members of this parish a little more credit.

That said, I confess to using roughly 500g of Oxalic this year, it goes a very long way but there are much better cleaners out there, you are forgetting the other 90% of contents if "all hull cleaners contain 10% oxalic acid".

I don't think Y10 market themselves as being a cost effective solution to an entire hull sides deep clean, more a stain remover that absorbs stains from the surface into the gel.
Very good to have in the kit if you don't want it to run on a vertical surface further than the area it was intended for, without the hassle of mixing on site and getting the mix right, then adding an agent to thicken.

I have learned much from this forum as books and trial & error of one person will never replace the many, many combined years of experience the members provide. It also sort the chaff from the wheat so to speak.
 
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Oxalic Acid

I've been telling people about Oxalic acid for many years now and still find a reasonable number who hadn't heard about it. I suspect that most people on this forum will know but you'll always get a few who will appreciate the tip.

It might be worth mentioning that it is best to use it above 10 degrees C. If I remember correctly it's pretty much a waste of time using it below that temperature. I was a research chemist many (many..) years ago in a previous career and seem to remember that was about the temperature required to overcome the activation energy barrier. Terminology might have change now but the principle remains.

I suspect that most hull cleaning products use Oxalic acid as the effective agent with surfactants to reduce surface tension (i.e. let it wet out over the grp surface) and thickeners (probably alginate based) to make it stick to a sloping surface.

I usually tell people to mix Oxalic acid 5-10% with warm water, add a couple of drops of washing up liquid. Add some wallpaper paste if using on side of a hull.
 
Oxalic is citrus based, try using a lemon...
no , seriously I use it, mix with washingup liquid and rub or scrub leave for 15 mins and rinse off, sorted, 90% of marks gone including diesel and rust.
Then a good coating of Mer or Autogleam polish and no need to touch for the rest of the year.
 
ukmctc said:
Oxalic is citrus based, try using a lemon...
no , seriously I use it, mix with washingup liquid and rub or scrub leave for 15 mins and rinse off, sorted, 90% of marks gone including diesel and rust.
Then a good coating of Mer or Autogleam polish and no need to touch for the rest of the year.
Click to expand...

hardly citrus, its made from rubarb leaves.:D
 
After paying a lot for one of those proprietry brands of cleaner with oxalic acid in it, I started making my own too.

But I found that straight oxalic acid in water was a problem. Occasionally we sunshine in Scotland, and on those days the solution dried out too fast.

I now make a up a solution of about 10% oxalic acid, and add about another 10% fairy liquid (and detergent would probably do).
This has the advantage of 1) it foams and its easier to see where I've done, and it stays wet on account of the foam (apply with a scribbing brush).
2) the detergent cleans things the oxalic won't, like greasy oily gunk.

The combination works well, and I make it up in and keep the made solution in the original plastic screw top container the branded cleaner came in .
 
Sunshine in Scotland ??

MM5AHO said:
After paying a lot for one of those proprietry brands of cleaner with oxalic acid in it, I started making my own too.

But I found that straight oxalic acid in water was a problem. Occasionally we sunshine in Scotland, and on those days the solution dried out too fast.

I find that hard to believe Sir, I spent a year in Scotland one week and it did nothing but rain and blow for the entire time !!!

Seriously though, the Fairy liquid tip sounds very wise and I will try it with my next batch. thanks, GOG
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Not all claeners contain oxalic

Codeclean stain removers are not oxalic acid, as run off will contaminate waterways. Same with their washes, all usable on waterways, please take more care of the marine environment
 
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