Washing a California Sunbounce “Mini Sun-Bounce Kit” Screen in a Washing Machine — How to

© 2013 Peter Free

 

17 May 2013

 

 

Result first

 

Yes, apparently you can wash a Mini Sun-Bounce screen in a washing machine without wrecking it.

 

 

Why do this? — Sunbounce “Mini-Sunbounce Kit” screens do get dirty, especially the white ones

 

I bought one of these kits used on eBay.  The white side was dirty and had some expansive black marks, which looked analogously similar to scuffs that black rubber shoe soles might leave on a light colored surface.

 

The marks looked as if they had come from the assembled screen having been transported, while sandwiched between other pieces of photo “grip” equipment on a truck.  Lending credence to this hypothesis was that fact that there was one prominent abraded spot, where both the white and silver surfaces (of the same screen) had been eroded away to uncolored translucence.

 

I decided to see whether I could clean the reflector up, without wrecking its light bouncing property.

 

 

Spot clean first

 

I began by leaving the screen on its assembled frame and laying it flat.

 

Sprayed Woolite® Oxy Deep + Bissell Stain Fighters (“spot and stain carpet cleaner”) on the worst of the marks.

 

Note

 

According to Woolite® Carpet’s website, this product no longer exists by that name.

 

After a minute or two, I wiped up the excess.

 

Much, but not all of the black residue, came with it.

 

Not surprisingly, the Woolite® appeared to have slightly altered the white color of the screen.  Rather than take a chance on the discoloration setting, I removed the screen from the Mini Sun-Bounce frame and put it into our Fisher&Paykel EcoSmart™ ultra high speed spin washer:

 

Settings — wool cycle agitation, warmish water, and medium end cycle spin speed.

 

Detergent — a tablespoon or two of All Free Clear Oxi-Active®.

 

 

Drying

 

I reassembled the screen on the frame and stood it upright (indoors, due to the wind outside) to let it air dry.

 

The moral? — Machine washing the Sunbounce worked for me

 

I noticed that only a very small bit of the white reflective grit came off the screen during the washing process.  It felt granular between my wet skin and the aluminum of the frame.  But the lost amount seems to have been trivial, and the reflectivity of the (now clean) screen is apparently unaltered.