303 protectant for vinyl siding?

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I've used 303 for everything on my vehicles, and shined my shoes with it too.Great stuff. I just had new dark brown siding installed on my house and garage last summer, and I am tempted to wipe it all down with 303 to make it look better and protect it. Good idea, or is there something better?
 
I have a feeling the constant exposure to the elements will make it wear off pretty quickly.

Also, not sure I would be applying that stuff to shoes -- it's going to damage the leather in the long run because it won't let the leather breathe.
 
If you have real leather shoes, don't use silicone based protectants if you want them to last. Silicone tends to cause leather to crack over time.

Vinyl siding is made to last years and years even when exposed to sunlight. Plus if your vinyl fades you can always just paint it. Or paint it now and know it'll last even longer.

You'd really be wasting a lot of protectant, and 303 is already too expensive as it is, trying to protect your house with a spray like that. Not to mention it'll just wash off when it rains and so will need very frequent reapplication.
 
So, I guess I shouldn't use it on my car or anything, or any wax either. I don't see where the vinyl on the house would be any different from the car exposed to sunlight, and rain. And ,a gallon of 303 doesn't cost much more than water based latex paint. If I painted the inside of my car now, it would last longer.
 
I`d think it would be a waste of money and time on vinyl siding. Back when I tried it on my car,it was gone after the very first rain. I found Formula F21 to be superior to 303.
 
Originally Posted By: qwertydude
If you have real leather shoes, don't use silicone based protectants if you want them to last. Silicone tends to cause leather to crack over time.

303 isn't silicone based, is it?

With that said, I find 303 to be a dust magnet when used anywhere on the outside of the car. For that reason, I would certainly not use it on my shoes.
 
I barely use 303 on the exterior of the car, and when I do, it seems to wear off after a few days of rain or a car wash. I use it for the dashboard, mostly.
 
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So, I guess I shouldn't use it on my car or anything, or any wax either. I don't see where the vinyl on the house would be any different from the car exposed to sunlight, and rain. And ,a gallon of 303 doesn't cost much more than water based latex paint. If I painted the inside of my car now, it would last longer.


The difference between car vinyl and housing vinyl can be extreme. Just because it's vinyl doesn't mean they can't add tons of UV inhibitors for house siding and layer on a thin ultra high UV resistant top layer. A process which would make the vinyl difficult to near impossible to injection mold. But extruded and formed sheets are a much easier material to mold in terms of vinyl and plastic layering.

Take a look at your run of the mill plastic lawn chair. It's going to be made of vinyl too, and yet it won't last 20 years in the sun like a quality siding. If vinyl was vinyl was vinyl, Your lawn chair would last as long as your siding would last as long as your car molding. But car molding generally has less intricate shapes than chairs, which would make it more conducive to adding more UV inhibitors. And vinyl sheeting like siding which is the simplest form which would enable some of the most durable additives and multilayer forming techniques to be used.

And guess what the order of UV resistance tends to be? Yeah lawn chairs, car molding, house siding.
 
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The economics squashes the idea anyway.

2 gallon 303 @ $80 applied 6 times/year x 10 years = $4,800.

You could replace your siding every 10 to 15 years for the cost of the 303, more or less.
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
The economics squashes the idea anyway.

2 gallon 303 @ $80 applied 6 times/year x 10 years = $4,800.

You could replace your siding every 10 to 15 years for the cost of the 303, more or less.



Nevermind the hours of work it would likely take. I don't know about you guys, but spending four hours on a hot July day doing this is not exactly my idea of fun.
 
I agree that it would be a total waste of time and money. To correct some incorrect assumptions here:

Aerospace Protectant™ and 303 ® Cleaners FAQs
What is 303 ® Aerospace Protectant™?

303® Aerospace Protectant™ is a water-based proprietary formula that contains no petroleum distillates, alcohol, mineral oil or harmful silicone oils.

Does 303 ® Aerospace Protectant™ contain silicone?

303® Aerospace Protectant™ does not contain any harmful silicone oils.


I have used 303 on leather for many years with not one single problem. The 6 year old couch I'm sitting on has 303 on it and the leather is just fine. Mind you this is not raw leather I've used it on but vinyl encased leather. It would not be the way to go on a Ford King Ranch.
 
It may not contain "harmful" silicones but that's debatable. Harmless for plastics for sure but leather, maybe it won't ruin it outright but any sort of silicones will shorten the leather's life. Considering well cared for quality leather can last decades silicone treatments can shorten it to 10-15 years.

Leather that's used a lot will most definitely show faster deterioration when treated with these "less harmful" silicones.

6 years is nothing for decent leather.

IMGP6399_zps86a5ce13.jpg


This is my leather jacket I use for riding, it's 8 years old and still looks and feels like the day I bought it, except the zippers are actually finally broken in. It is 100% full grain leather, no plastic top coats, no nothing. Just all leather. It's been cleaned with saddle soap every year, treated with nothing but Lexol afterwards, and waterproofed with Johnson Paste Wax.

Some of the really greasy treatments I've seen tend to oversoften leather, in particular Leather Honey when used too much or too often, not good when you depend on the toughness of the leather to protect you. Any silicones will tend to exacerbate the wrinkles and cause the top surface to crack within a few years. Even the "non harmful silicones" when it comes to leather, there are no harmless silicones.

Leather jackets like when I ride will show deterioration much faster when used in leather motorcycle jackets because of all the hours exposed to intense sunlight, baking hot desert heat, freezing cold mountains, constant wind buffeting, bug splatters, bird poop, sweat, rain, and even snow on occasions.

And yet take care of the leather properly and even after 8 years it will still look new.

You might know that I'm a proponent of Armor All for plastics and heck I have tried it with leather too with less than satisfactory results and I'm talking in the very long term. But considering how my riding jacket has withstood so much and still comes out looking like new. I'd rather not risk any silicones when I have had similar jackets deteriorate from Armor All.

And if you think Aerospace 303 is a special different formula, the silicones they use are the exact same MSDS CAS number as Armor All. Just before the reformulation Armor All did include alcohol and propelyne glycol. But so do many leather specific conditioners like Lexol, so you can eliminate those from the list of stuff harmful to leather. But Armor All never included the "harmful silicones" that Aerospace 303 seems to imply in their grouping of characteristics of "the competition"
 
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I like 303 for INTERIOR surfaces, but whenever I've used it for exterior surfaces, I seems to act like a dirt/dust magnet...
 
I never said or even implied that 303 was to be used on raw leather so??????? It is for vinyl/rubber and the leather I've used it on, including the sofa, is vinyl encased. Good to know that the new formulation of Armor All is similar. If my gallon of 303 ever runs out, I'll try the AA.
 
Vinyl encased leather is still leather. You might think it's plastic coated and therefore sealed from all the elements but if it was completely sealed then when you sit on it it wouldn't breathe and it would feel no different than cheap vinyl, ie sweaty and clammy.

So still putting silicones on coated leather doesn't maker sense as it still soaks into the leather and causes deterioration. Over time you'll still see it crack more than if you used proper leather conditioner and when treating just let it soak longer or even put in the sun to let the heat open up the micro pores in the vinyl.
 
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Vinyl covered leather like on many of the cars is still leather but needs treated and much different. It needs to be small enough molecules to get down through the "pores" to the leather. Something like a thick creme could sit there till the rapture and not do much good. A soft natural hair nail brush can help work it in if needed with vinether. 303 Could work on vinyl siding but would be crazy expensive and still only last a short time maybe a few weeks depending on weather and temp like on the exterior of a car.
 
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