upholstery cleaning suggestions?

[chachere]

Looking for suggestions for spring cleaning of cabin cushions. We don't have originals, but these are fabric with what seems to be a vinyl portion on the underside.
A few minor stains, but mostly looking for a way to remove boat odors and freshen them up. Dry cleaning? Renting an upholstery shampoo machine? Toss 'em in the washing machine?

[QuickMick]

while this may sound silly i pull all mine in the spring and beat them.

[MarkSF]

All those should work but the least drastic would be some fabric spot removal spray on the stains, followed by some of that spray foam you can get for car interiors. You spray it on, and rub it off with a damp cloth.

[treilley]

Remove the covers from the foam. Look for any washing instructions inside.

It is usually pretty safe to wash on gentle cycle with woolite. Air dry.

[chachere]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

All those should work but the least drastic would be some fabric spot removal spray on the stains, followed by some of that spray foam you can get for car interiors. You spray it on, and rub it off with a damp cloth.

Tried that. Didn't quite remove the musty, diesel-ly boat odor....

[SlowButSteady]

Try taking off the covers (as Tim said, above) and washing them. If the cushions appear to be one source of the smell, try putting them in the bathtub (one or two at a time) with some Woolite and warm water and walking on them. You'll probably be amazed at how grey the water looks after a few minutes. Rinse each cushion several times, squeeze out as much water as possible and let them dry on some sort of frame, preferably tipped up on end to let gravity help drain, so air can circulate around all the surfaces.

[CLucas]

For fear of never quite getting the covers back over the foam (or having the zippers disintegrate), I used an upholstery shampoo-er (Hoover carpet steam cleaner with upholstery attachment) followed by Febreeze and air drying. Big difference -- maybe not like new, but pretty darn good.

[arf145]

I've washed the synthetic covers of our boat cushions a couple of times, even in the washing machine, with no problems. However, it didn't get rid of the 20-year-old diesel smell in the cushions. That was contained nicely in the millions of pores of the open-cell foam. This winter I washed all the foam in the bathtub in a solution of Kids N Pets odor remover (did the covers in it too). Not a small undertaking, but a huge improvement.