The Complete Guide to Cleaning Your Jet Ski

After a thrilling day of riding waves and exploring the open waters on a personal watercraft (PWC), it’s not uncommon to find your machine covered in a layer of grime and debris.

Despite your best efforts to keep it spotless, they have a knack for accumulating dirt, salt, and residue over time, even after a single day of use!

In this post, we’ll uncover the reasons behind why they get so dirty despite your efforts, exploring the environmental factors, riding conditions, and maintenance challenges that contribute to this inevitable buildup.

Additionally, we’ll share tips and techniques to effectively clean and maintain it, ensuring it stays in top condition for count less future adventures on the water.

Why should you keep your jet ski clean?

It’s always a good idea to keep your machine spotless, but why do it in the first place? One of the biggest reasons is to keep fading down. Your watercraft will fade in the sun, and keeping it shiny and waxed will keep the fiberglass from fading away. Fiberglass that is fading is more likely to crack when you hit something or blister when long exposure to water. (Keeping a cover on helps too!)

The trickiest part is keeping the footwells free of gunk, as water likes to pool there. When water sits in the footwells, the fiberglass will blister and split. The sitting water also attracts bugs like mosquitos and other pests!

Lastly, a clean PWCs sells quicker than other ones. Even if you’re not selling anytime soon, the fading compounds over time. The plastics, spotting on the seats, and overall condition slowly get worse over time, but keeping them spotless and waxed dramatically slows this down.

Supplies Needed:

Below is a list of cleaners I suggest you use.

1. Simple Green (Amazon Link Ad).
2. Boat/marine wash (Amazon Link Ad).
3. Vinyl cleaner (Amazon Link Ad).
4. Spray wax (Amazon Link Ad).

The supplies you need besides the cleaners are:

• Wash rag.
• Wash bucket.
• Hose.
• Scrub brush.
• Drying cloth.

I prefer using a “wash rag” over a sponge because you can get in tighter spots. Using your finger with the rag or some kind of stick, you can get in tighter spots than a sponge could reach!

How To Clean Your Jet Ski

1. Chock the wheels of the trailer and raise the nose up, so water can flow out the footwells.
2. Thoroughly rinse everything with the garden hose. This helps knock any loose debris and salt that maybe sticking around.
3. Get a bucket and add some boat soap with water.
4. Wash it with a fresh rag with the boat wash.
5. For filthy areas, like the footwells, spray some Simple Green on it to help loosen up the dirt. Avoid putting simple green on the aluminum trailers.
6. Thoroughly rinse off the body.
7. Using a drying cloth, wipe dry the body, it’s not done until you dry it off.
8. Once dry, apply spray wax to protect it from the sun and water.

Cleaning the seats and other soft parts requires more steps that I cover here.

The video below not only shows a Sea-Doo getting washed, but also what to do on after-care riding in saltwater:

Why Won’t These Black Dots Come Off My Seat Or Handlebars?

Overtime you’ll see black dots on your handlebars, seats and other soft areas. These dots seem like mold, but bleach won’t remove them, so what are they? The best way to describe these black dots is that they’re like freckles on vinyl.

They can be removed, but often, I find it nearly impossible and not worth the effort. It’s just the nature of the beast, and they show up because you don’t keep your machine covered enough. Here lately, my go-to fix when nothing else works is to use vinyl spray paint. (If a magic eraser doesn’t work) This works very well on white seats and such, but it’s hard on multiple color seats.

Another option, and more costly, is to get the soft materials reskinned. Any vinyl shop can do it, and you can make the color and texture whatever you want. There are even companies that sell seat skins and if you have the time and a large stapler you can do it yourself.

Be Careful cleaning Shiny Plastic Parts as they scratch easy

Regular non-shiny plastic parts are easy to take care of, but if you come across anything that is shiny, glossy, or even worse, “black-gloss”, it’s going to be a battle.

If you wipe down a shiny black trim piece, you will scratch it, it’s that simple. You need to use a microfiber rag that doesn’t have anything in it. Even then, you’ll get micro-scratches.

If it doesn’t bother you, then you can leave it, as those scratches don’t affect anything on the trim and are only visible when the right light is shined on it. If the scratches got to go, then this video will show you the way to fix it. Just know, it’s an uphill battle to keep the scratches from coming back, just looking at glossy-black trim wrong will scratch it.

Even putting your cover on will scratch them. My best advice is to paint them flat or avoid ones with glossy-black trim.

Removing Water Spots?

After washing, you may notice some water spots even after drying. Those spots are easy to remove with a water spot remover or cleaner-wax and a microfiber rag. Avoid cleaner-wax on plastic parts, use a plastic cleaner instead. (See this video)

Safely Clean The Engine Compartment

To wash the engine compartment is different from the rest of the craft. Here are the steps I take to wash the engine area.

1. Remove drain plugs.
2. Lift the nose up, so water will drain out the drain plugs.
3. Remove the seats.
4. With the mist setting on your garden hose sprayer, lightly spray down the engine compartment.
5. Spray Simple Green on the engine and around the engine, let it sit 5 minutes.
6. Gently rinse off the engine compartment of the Simple Green.
7. Leave the seats off to air dry an hour.

It’s important you let the engine compartment dry out before putting the seats back on. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just not soaking wet!!!

How to Rinse The Jet Pump Area

Don’t forget to rinse the jet pump, as it takes the most abuse, especially if you ride in saltwater.

1. Thoroughly wet the jet pump area with lots of water.
2. Use Salt-Away Sprayer (Amazon Link Ad) and coat the pump.
3. Let it sit a few minutes and then rinse it off.
4. Let the jet pump dry out an hour.
5. Spray anything metal and shiny with a silicone spray lube.

Washing The Bottom Of The Hull Is A good Idea

To clean up the bottom of the hull requires more effort and more tools. I suggest you use a pressure washer, Simple Green, and a long handle scrub brush.

1. Get it tilted back on the trailer, so you can reach the underside. If you can, put the it on a stand, as it makes it easier, no need to tilt if on a stand.
2. Using the pressure washer, try to remove as much of the grime as you can. Avoid going too hard with the pressure washer as you can damage the fiberglass or plastic.
3. Spray Simple Green on the rest of the grime that is left and let it sit a few minutes.
4. Use the long handle scrub brush to work it in and loosen up the grime.
5. Pressure wash the underside of the hull again to remove any grime that was left.

What If Simple Green does not lift the grime off? Then you need to get a boat bottom cleaner (Amazon Link Ad).

Important: Wear eye, face protection and clothing you don’t mind getting stained!

Summing Up Jet Ski Cleaning Tips

After every ride, especially in saltwater, it’s a good idea to rinse off the whole craft.

The sun and the elements will make your jet ski dirty in no time, and keeping it clean is just a small task you must do as a new owner. A spotless machine is easier to resell and looking like new for years to come.