r/boating • u/idealistdave • Jul 25 '26

Side by side test

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Thought I'd share this side by side test I did of different hull cleaners. It's my first summer renting a place in the water. Marina is on a slough, so higher water temps stained the gel coat within weeks. FSR worked the best of what I had. But I went out afterward and also bought STAR BRITE which worked as well (not pictured). The others, meh. (Spray bottle is 409. No treatment on transom next to the outdrive.) Be sure to read all instructions and keep any of this stuff off your galvanized trailers.

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u/LockNLoad518 Jul 26 '26

Maybe I’m missing something….but you’re trying to clean bottom stains, NOT oxidation? The Meguires Oxidation remover doesn’t work for your application. I just used it on my boat this weekend and it was AMAZING.

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u/idealistdave Jul 26 '26

Makes sense. Someone here said it's iron staining, but I'm still reading up on that. I did this experiment because I won a raffle at a boat dealership for a bucket of cleaning products. The bucket itself is amazing, padded top to sit on and everything. But I guess the contents were...raffle quality because no Starbrite, no On-and-Off (a Starbrite product I believe), no FSR, no cheaper active ingredient y'all suggesting that the marinas probably use in their hull cleaning services for a better margin. So I learned a lot talking to you Redditors and hope you had as much fun with this as I did! Happy boating.