Smelly cushions

[Karyon]

Our V birth cushions have a bit of that musty smell from being wet. I was thinking of taking the covers off, and dunk the foam in a kiddy pool with some detergent. Would that get rid of the smell? once it is dried? Or how would you get rid of the smell.

 

[bobtigar]

Its probably mildew. pull them off the boat and lay in the hot sun for an hour. Then flip them over for another hour.
Might work...or pull off the covers and do the same thing for cushions and foam separately. Bob

 

[Chief RA]

Like Bob said but if still smelly: wash sponge with good detergent and then wash ifabric nside of vinyl. Spray with a deodorant/freshner and let dry thouroughly in sun. Chief

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Our V birth cushions have a bit of that musty smell from being wet. I was thinking of taking the covers off, and dunk the foam in a kiddy pool with some detergent. Would that get rid of the smell? once it is dried? Or how would you get rid of the smell.

Detergent doesn't kill mildew spores, and besides...you'd have a very hard job flushing all the soapy water out of the foam!

I'd pull the covers off and put them out in sun for a day. Spray the foam from both sides with enough PureAyre PureAyre (available from Amazon...the "household" or "pet" formula will work for this and costs less than the "marine" version) to penetrate all the way to the middle of the cushion and put the foam out in the sun for a day.

 

[Johnb]

I once tried to wash/totally rinse cushions and
1 A 6 foot by 5 foot by 6" cushion/mattress absorbs a HUGE weight of water. Very difficult to move without ripping it apart.
2 Even where I was doing it - summer heat and dry area it stayed wet for weeks.
3 Eventually gave up and abandoned it

FWIW we have a small plastic stool to help climb up into the V berth. Whenever we leave the boat we put it under the mattress toward the head end and that has ended the problem of damp under the mattress.