Can You Use Wet and Forget On Awnings? (What You Need To Know)

Throwing some awnings, even if they’re small and only fit for your windows, is a great relief for patios and window areas that catch a lot of light from the sun. Unfortunately, if you don’t practice some preventative maintenance on them, they’ll get ugly pretty quickly. Especially if mold or mildew sets in.

Wet and Forget is perfect for the job and will effectively clean the mold, mildew, algae, and/or moss build-ups that frustratingly accumulate over the summer months, when it’s warm, humid, and otherwise conducive to all of them.

Wet and Forget is manufactured to clean a variety of surfaces, including most of your outdoor surfaces, such as concrete, brick, vinyl, wood, fabrics, and roof work. It also comes in several deployment methods for the smallest jobs to the biggest ones.

What Are Awnings Made Of?

Wet and Forget clearly states that it is an effective cleaning formula for cloth. However, awnings, despite being a soft material, don’t feel like they are made of cloth, but a more solid and tough substance.

Acrylic is the primary material that goes into awning manufacturing, although the framework that the material is connected to is mostly stainless steel (in the case of permanent awnings), or aluminum for retractable awnings.

Although some awnings made be made of other materials that exclude acrylic, they are then coated in acrylic so you will find a bit of acrylic in all awnings. Acrylic doesn’t react or resist Wet and Forget in any way, so it’s an excellent formula for cleaning your acrylic or acrylic coated awnings.

The more uncommon materials for awning manufacturing are polyester and sometimes cotton, both of which are coated in acrylic, with the occasional offshoot coated in vinyl. Although the cheaper, vinyl-coated awnings don’t have much in the way of acrylic, they clean the same way.

The biggest selling point for acrylic or acrylic coated awnings is the fact that it resists fading, whereas all of the others do not and will fade over time, regardless of your aesthetic color choices.

How to Use Wet and Forget to Clean Your Awnings

Besides Wet and Forget’s cleaning capabilities, it will also serve as a protective coating, keeping the algae, mold, mildew, and more off of your awning for up to a year. Knowing this, you should apply Wet and Forget as an annual routine, after every summer.

Wet and Forget is easy to use on your awnings because the formula is designed to do exactly what its name implies it will do.

Mix one part Wet and Forget with five parts water
Place the mixture in a garden sprayer
Set up to say first thing in the morning
Pump the sprayer up and apply it to every square inch of your awning, both underneath and across the top
Let your awning remain extended for the remainder of the day or 6 hours minimum

Wet and Forget also comes in a bottle that can attach to your water hose. There’s nothing wrong with using this method. However, you should ensure that it is applied to every exposed part of the awning, both underneath and above the awning and on any side sections as well.

What is Wet and Forget Made Of?

The active ingredient in Wet and Forget is Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride, which is quite a mouthful on its own, but what does it do?

This is the exact same formula that you will find in many of your household cleaning wipes, but it is a bleach-free formula when it applies to Wet and Forget. Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride is ammonia-based and ammonia is anathema to mold, mildew, algae, and similar plant life.

Ammonia essentially dries up algae, moss, and mildew, depriving it of water and killing it on the spot. That’s why coating the awning with Wet and Forget does its damage to these plant invaders over time.

What if Your Awning is Seriously Covered in Algae?

If you have an awning that is significantly covered in algae, moss, mildew, or mold, Wet and Forget will kill it and turn it brown, however, it won’t effectively remove the stuff from your awning.

The best way to handle this is not to turn to Wet and Forget first, but to a pressure washer instead. When it comes to small amounts of these organisms invading your awning, Wet and Forget is more than enough.

But even though it is an effective remedy for killing it, removing the dead stuff is a different matter, especially if it is layered in algae or a similar material. If that is the case that you are dealing with, it’s important to remove the stuff first, then apply the Wet and Forget.

In this scenario, Wet and Forget would serve as more of a preventative than a removal mechanism. Use a pressure washer to remove all of the mold, mildew, algae, or moss, and allow the awning to dry out over 24 hours.

Once everything is good and dry, come back and apply the Wet and Forget. As you would for a lighter infestation of mold, ensure that you apply the Wet and Forget to every square foot of the awning, paying special attention to areas that retain moisture or don’t receive much in the way of sunlight.

Since Wet and Forget adds a layer of resistance to your awning that will fight back mold and mildew over a year, adding it behind a pressure washer will cover you and ensure that you’re not wasting your time.

You should never apply Wet and Forget when your awnings or surrounding materials have a significant amount of growth on them. It’s a tool, after all, but it can’t do everything.

Final Thoughts

Wet and Forget is perfectly fine for applying to awnings, regardless of the material that it’s made of. Since Wet and Forget doesn’t contain any bleach, you don’t have to worry about residual discoloration or bleach spots over time.

If the problem is really bad, bring in the pressure washer and apply Wet and Forget afterward, which will protect your awning for up to a year after application.

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Can You Use Wet and Forget On Awnings? (What You Need To Know)