Mildew and mold

[RandDT]

I opened up our pop up yesterday to check things out and discovered water had gotten in. So, now I have mildew on the inside and outside of the cover and on the curtains. Any suggestions on the best way to clean it?

[secal48]

Iossa mold and mildew remover. I got mine on Amazon and it helped a lot when we had a roof leak in our old pup.

[DocBrown]

You can take the curtains out and wash them. They slide out of the channel. If that doesn't work you can easily make new curtains. The slide tabs sewed into the tops are really cheap.

[bankr63]

Curtains are dry clean only. They are treated with a fire retardant, so let the dry cleaner know so they can preserve the treatment. Ours looked great after dry cleaning, but the mesh section on the bunk curtains actually shrunk a little bit in comparison to the solid panel.

Mildew was always my nemesis, and never found anything that cleaned it 100%. But a combo of an eco mildew remover, alcohol (rubbing for the mildew, not drinking for me; well okay maybe a little for me too - it's tough work), and lots of elbow grease can pretty much erase the marks.

[The Kroc]

I am not aware of flame retardant fabrics used in pop ups. I used to work for a company that made 45 inch wide fabric for the rv industry, it was a lightweight polyester that was washable. I've always wondered why FR fabrics were not required in all RV's, I suspect the extra cost was the reason. The best FR fabrics are "inherently FR" , the fabrics that are "treated" will use a saline solution that will wear off whether you dryclean or wash.

[bankr63]

I was going by what it said in the Jayco manual for our 1007. I was considering washing before I checked. When I took to the dry cleaners, they had me contact the specialist at head office before they would take them. Sent him one panel first, he indicated that they were indeed fire retardant (have no idea how he would know), and that they should last about 3-4 cleanings before I should re-treat them. Great guy (fellow RV'er), gave me a really good deal on the cleaning vs. their posted rates for draperies. All 8 panels plus the 35 feet of pleated fabric from around the ceiling for about $45 IIRC. Considering they had absorbed 6 years of camp smoke and dust by then, I thought that was a great deal, and they looked much improved on return.

[The Kroc]

a simple FR test is to snip off a small piece of the fabric and light a match to it. Even a loose thread will work. FR (Flame Retardant) fabric will only smolder and not combust. I am not aware of any RV company that uses FR fabric, the higher cost is prohibitive. In pop ups, the valance material was 100% polyester. The fabric over the bunks is a rayon/acetate blend and is very combustible. Even the foam used in the bunk area is not FR and indeed, very toxic if burned. Remember, the RV industry is not regulated and the safety of it's customers not well defined in it's final product

[bankr63]

Well then Jayco is lying in the manual (2008 Select/Jay Series/Baja Camping Trailer, p.68)

Window treatments and curtains


Dust occasionally with a vacuum and soft brush attachment. Due to fire retardant chemicals, they should be professionally cleaned only. The professional cleaner should be made aware that these items have been treated with a fire retardant.

Thought maybe this was one of those Canadian Edition CSA certification extras, but that is the regular manual on the Jayco site.


OP - Jayco has manuals online back to 2003 with instructions for cleaning of the materials in your PUP, take a look and see what they say. Try that first, and if it doesn't work, then use more drastic measures.

[Jayco96]

We just bought our pop up at the end of January and the inside was pretty loaded down with mildew. 6 bottles of Bass Pro Shops Mildew Stain Remover, 2 long handled, soft scrub brushes and about 6 hours of scrubbing later, the mildew is pretty much gone. Pretty amazing stuff!