Teak cleaner - not worth it?

[cliveb]

We have a garden bench make of Iroko (known as "poor man's teak").
It had become quite dirty and stained, so I wanted to have a go at cleaning it up, and bought some teak cleaner.
Before using that, decided to try and get the worst off just by scrubbing with water.
After the initial scrubbing, the bench came up quite nice, so I was eagerly anticipating how it would look after using the teak cleaner.
And after using the teak cleaner on part of the bench, so I could compare its effect on against the other part - no difference!

Anyone else tried using teak cleaner, and if so, what was your experience?
As far as I'm concerned, scrubbing and a bit of elbow grease seems to do just as good a job.

 

[jim8flog]

I just used a standard wood cleaner on my hardwood garden furniture and was happy with the result.

 

[Foxholer]

...
As far as I'm concerned, scrubbing and a bit of elbow grease seems to do just as good a job.

That's my experience too!
And while Teak is definitely the most durable, I've always gone for Eucalyptus - which is almost as durable and is by no means 'endangered' (rarity/limitation of supply being the major contributor to the cost of Teak). In fact, Eucalyptus is considered a 'weed' tree in many parts of Aus!

 

[PIng]

We have a garden bench make of Iroko (known as "poor man's teak").
It had become quite dirty and stained, so I wanted to have a go at cleaning it up, and bought some teak cleaner.
Before using that, decided to try and get the worst off just by scrubbing with water.
After the initial scrubbing, the bench came up quite nice, so I was eagerly anticipating how it would look after using the teak cleaner.
And after using the teak cleaner on part of the bench, so I could compare its effect on against the other part - no difference!

Anyone else tried using teak cleaner, and if so, what was your experience?
As far as I'm concerned, scrubbing and a bit of elbow grease seems to do just as good a job.

I'd be interested to know how long you've had the bench and whether you treat the wood with any sort of preservative (teak oil?). I've just replaced all of the slats on my mother's bench with iroko - it looks great now but I'm wondering whether I need to protect it over the winter.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Danish Oil works well for me and.......it is also very cheap.

 

[cliveb]

I'd be interested to know how long you've had the bench and whether you treat the wood with any sort of preservative (teak oil?). I've just replaced all of the slats on my mother's bench with iroko - it looks great now but I'm wondering whether I need to protect it over the winter.

Iroko is a very resilient wood and doesn't rot. The bench is several years old and hadn't been treated at all. Now it's cleaned up it looks quite good, so I intend to give it some teak oil to see if that helps.

Doon mentioned Danish oil - I've used that on oak and it gives a lovely finish, but it's messy stuff and you need to put on several layers. I also don't think it's cheaper than teak oil.

 

[rulefan]

I pressure jet every few years and treat with linseed oil every year. Two seats, one teak the other iroko.
I made the second as a straight copy of the first and now have to look closely to see which is which.

But if working with iroko, take care, some people have allergic reactions to the dust.