Winter damp problems

[betty boop]

Magic sponge with caution, they are very abrasive.

REALLY? oops I did wonder how they were magical, thanks for the warning

[Ianfs]

The technology of the Magic Sponge is Melamine open cell foam apparently. We had a discussion on the old forum about this sort of thing and did all agree that it had an abrasive action which is why it works so well. And it does.

I've used it on my boat for years now and it hasn't yet worn through the upholstery. Consequently I was puzzled as to why it hadn't damaged it, my rhetorical question was, the structure of the sponge is like glass and very hard, so it doesn't make sense.

So I checked it out with the manufacturer and some chemist types at my sons Uni.

Water helps it slide over the surface its cleaning, the foam structure scrapes at the stain with a few wipes, the stain has already come away and is absorbed in the micro porous cells . So why doesn't it abrade the soft upholstery surface and wear it away? The generic answer seems to be that if you were to rub and rub and rub, eventually it would wear a hole, but in a similar way that wire wool will eventually do the same this stuff is several hundred times softer in terms of movement . So if you just wipe it over the surface without scrubbing and use plenty of water, it has a similar effect to a normal sponge rubbed over the surface several times.

That's what I know at the moment, but I would only recommend using it lightly and carefully on stubborn stains.

[ColinR]

Ian is right but .....
My daughter tried it on some dead flies on her bonnet. Car not head. Took me ages to polish out the fine scratches.