Keeping the fabrics of your Sunbrella clean is essential. Typically, Sunbrella fabrics are mildew resistant. Nonetheless, mud and dirt aren’t. Therefore, whenever you notice a patio sun umbrella having mildew, it is because the materials are dirty and muddy. To prevent accumulation of mildew, you should clean your Sunbrella.

Below are steps on how to clean an Offset tilt patio umbrella

 

Common All-Round Cleaning

• Use a cloth, preferably a towel, or a brush to brush off any mud or dirt in the surface
• Make a solution using ¼ cup of mild soap for every gallon of lukewarm water. By mild soap, we mean mild laundry soap such as Tide or Gain.
• Get a sponge or brush with VERY soft bristles to clean the Sunbrella. We recommend cleaning using circular motions. In areas with mud stains, apply more pressure on the sponge/brush.
• Let the soap soak the fabric
• Rinse the fabric thoroughly.
• Let the fabric to dry, preferably air-dry it. You can do this by opening the umbrella, and exposing it to wind or sun.

Machine washing

If the umbrella fabric of your Sunbrella is removable, then you can machine wash it. You should clean the covers in cold water, less than 38 degrees Celsius. The soap you use depends on the size of your cover. However, use standard amounts of soap.

After cleaning, air dries the fabric. We do NOT recommend drying the Sunbrella fabrics in a dryer. This is because Sunbrella fabrics are acrylic, and tumble drying this fabric may cause shrinking or wrinkling.

If after washing you choose to iron, you can. Set your iron box in synthetics setting.

 

Cleaning to remove spots and stains

Most of Sunbrella fabrics are stain resistant. As the materials are resistant to moisture, the majority of liquids that cause stains do not remain in the fibers long enough to become a stain.

Usually, a wet towel will remove spots and stains. In case there is a stubborn stain which doesn’t disappear after wiping, below are steps to help you remove it;

• Check the recommended soap to use on the Sunbrella
• Apply a little mist of the soap. You can use a sponge or spray bottle
• Scrub the area to feed the solution to the stain. When scrubbing, use a brush with extremely soft bristles, or use a sponge. Scrub more on the stained location.
• Rinse thoroughly to get rid of any soap residue. The particles causing the stain will cling to the soap. Therefore, rinsing thoroughly prevents creating a sizeable pale stain.
• Blemish excess moisture on the sunshade umbrella. You should use a clean sponge or towel to do this. Blotting the area should be strenuous
• You can choose to smudge excess water on the fabric or to wet vacuum it. Using a cloth to blot the excess water may be tedious, but the best option for those without a wet vacuum.
• Repeat the steps above till the stain fades away.

 

How to heavy clean your Sunbrella

If you are looking too massive clean the sun deck umbrella, follow the steps below;

• Make a solution using 1 cup of bleach, ¼ cup of little soap for each gallon of fresh water. Note that most Sunbrella` s do not react to bleach.
• Spray and leave the Sunbrella for some time to soak the fabric.
• Get a sponge or brush that has very soft bristles. Use either to scrub the fabric vigorously.
• Rinse extensively. Preferably, use a hosepipe, or several buckets of water. This prevents any bleach from settling in and `eating’ the sun umbrella patio.
• Let the fabric dry.
• If the stains remain, use more bleach next time during cleaning. However, this procedure is effective.

Always protect the area surrounding the Sunbrella fabric during heavy cleaning. Heavy cleaning uses a bleaching agent, which may discolor any non-Sunbrella fabrics. Also, rinse thoroughly, to remove the bleach. Usually, bleach settings are hazardous to the fibers.

 

Final words

We prefer air-drying not only because drying using a dryer may cause shrinkage. We recommend it because the fabric will dry faster. In case the fabric wrinkles after drying, you can use your iron to smoothen it. Always set the iron box in the synthetic setting.