How do I clean a fiberglass birdbath properly?
Question:The summer before last, I bought an attractive fiberglass birdbath. I really love it but I don't know how to clean it properly. I tried just using water and the brown stain/scum remained. The stain is a brown circular stain almost exactly the height or a little less than the water level. I can't remove it. I tried various cleaners such as Mr. Clean and maybe something with bleach and a hard plastic brush, but nothing will remove it. Am I missing something? Any tricks?
P.S. after using all these cleaners I rinsed out the birdbath millions of times, so don't worry. Also I was pregnant last summer and was too tired to clean it out so I just stored it in the garage somewhat dirty, but empty over the winter.
Answers:
wipe with white distilled vinegar and then with soda. Rinse clean with water. also sprinkle some vinegar near the birdbath that will keep the cats away.
You may want to go to Home Depot, for instance and see if there is an actual cleaner for fiberglass. I imagine there would be since hot tubs are fiberglass based as well.
When I cleaned my fiberglass hot tub, I used just a sponge and ajax. It cleaned it pretty good. You just want to watch that you don't scratch up the birdbath too much with a harsh brush.
It's good that you rinse out the birdbath really well so the birds that drink out of it don't get sick.
Good luck with it. I am sure the wild birds miss it in your garden!
Try a boat dealer. They sell all sorts of products for cleaning fiberglass.
At work we clean out our fiberglass fountain with vinegar. We spray it with vinegar and scrub it with a scrub brush. Sometimes there are difficult stains and we use a paste of baking soda and vinegar or baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Let it sit for 10 minutes then we scrub and rinse.
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