13hrs in the saddle on Monday. Damp shoes in bag till last night. Return from work and whole house stinks. Any product out there that can recover my shoes or are they destined for the bin?

Peroxide.

Not neat, like Vanish or denture disinfectant or something.

You can put some shoes on a cool wash in the machine. Worth a look.

Also, try a soak with Napisan. Seems to work wonders!

Washing machine, out in the sun?

UV light. So out in the sun- but not today- it’s raining all day!!

Some hiking shops have a machine that’ll blast them in ~20 mins. Only seen them I. The lakes though, nothing further south.

Stuff with newspaper to dry & then sprinkle bicarb of soda to neutralise.If still a bit pondy there are spray footwear deoderants that work for slight odour.

Take the insoles out and wash them.

washing the insoles and tried bicarb for the first time, which seemed to work

Cat litter is meant to work

Shoving them in the freezer is another option.

But basically don’t let wet shoes or any clothes sit in a bag for any length of time.

i just bang mine in the washing machine

microwave*

*no not really

Washing machine +1

And a soak in some sort of sanitiser, you can mix bleach and vinegar, about 1tsp of each in a bucket of water IIRC (google should help). Always add the chemicals to the water, never to each other (bleach + vinegar produces chlorine, what you want is a chlorine solution, not chlorine gas which would kill you rather than the nasties in the shoes).

Is it foot stink or shoe stink? I had a pair of Bontragers that stank of cat pee whenever they got damp. It was the adhesive apparently – couldn’t do much about it except exile them outside until they were dry!

you can mix bleach and vinegar

Why would you do that?!? Dude, that’s going to release chlorine gas!

After a few complaints in the office I’ve just done mine.

Bucket of very strong vanish oxi clean solution which I’ve soaked them in for a day, then dried out in the conservatory and the stink has gone. I bought some anti bacterial shoe spray and have to remember to wear socks! The bugs love damp humid warm conditions so try and avoid that.

Why would you do that?!? Dude, that’s going to release chlorine gas!

Read the post, only if you mix them neat. Do it in a bucket of water and you make a very effective sanitiser, it’s used a lot in brewing and won’t produce chlorine gas. As a sanitiser it’s about 100x more effective than a bleach solution, and is safe for use in food prep without rinsing, so you could actually just take the boots out and not rinse them (I’d rinse them, last thing you want is a rash on your feet on a walking trip!)

[edit] the correct amounts are apparently 1.7ml of each per liter of water (i.e. 1 5ml teaspoon in half a bucket (3l) of water).

I read your post. Especially the bit that says “bleach + vinegar produces chlorine”.

http://chemistry.about.com/b/2007/09/26/the-killing-power-of-bleach-and-vinegar.htm

etc

I really don’t think this is a good idea. Perhaps outside, but even so…

EDIT:

http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/cehsweb/bleach_fs.pdf
“Mixing bleach and acids:
When chlorine bleach is mixed with an acid, chlorine gas is given off.
Chlorine gas and water combine to make hydrochloric and hypochlorous acids.
Chlorine gas exposure, even at low levels, almost always irritates the mucous membranes (eyes,throat, and nose), and causes coughing and breathing problems, burning and watery eyes, and a runny nose. Higher levels of exposure can cause chest pain, more severe breathing difficulties, vomiting, pneumonia, and fluid in the lungs. Very high levels can cause death.

Chlorine can be absorbed through the skin, resulting in pain, inflammation, swelling, and blistering.

Hydrochloric acid also causes burns to the skin, eyes, nose, throat, mouth and lungs. ”

Do you want to copy and paste the MSDS’ for bleach, oxyclean, and the other chemicals mentioned in this thread for balance too?

From your link:
“You can get a lethal dose of chlorine by taking a few breaths of it at a concentration of 1 part per thousand in air.”

Ok it has nasty effects below that, but 1000ppm is a good starting point for working out how nasty 1tsp of each in a bucket is.

Assuming all the vinegar and bleach react.

Sodium perchlorate 3% solution (household bleach) molecular weight 122.5 (chlorine 35.5), so in the 3l bucket we have 0.043g of chlorine.

Assuming you mix it in the downstairs toilet as the smallest room in your house, say 1m wide, 2m tall, 2m long, 4m2 in total.

0.043g of chlorine (if it was a gas and not in the water) would give a concentration of 10ppm by weight, 1% of the toxic level, if it was a gas, and if you did it in the smallest confined space you could find.

You can kill yourself with it, but it’s not going to be by following those instructions.

You can also use phosphoric acid, sounds nasty, but it’s a great sanitiser at about 1/4 the concentration Coca-Cola use it as a flavoring.

I appreciate your chemical nouse, but I really don’t see the sense in advising to make a [potentially very] dangerous mixture when bleach or peroxide would just do the job…

Mostly ride in a hot humid environment so my shoes are usually humming after any 3 hour or more session and I find using my wife’s shampoo conditioner and a scrubbing brush does the job, wash the insole with the laundry.
Leave to dry with newspaper placed in a plastic bag in each shoe.

+1 washing machine. Don’t really need detergent and it may mess up any padding/lining or whatever. Though could try something for gentle wash stuff (detergent for woollens etc maybe).

The issue for me is always winter boots rather than shoes. Because they’re waterproof they take about a week to dry out if you soak them in anything.

I sprinkle a bit of tea tree and eucalyptus oil into them after each use. Which helps mask the smell. Not sure it’s really doing much in terms of anti-bacterial effect though.

Lavender and Tea Tree do help but may damage adhesive.

Any tips for stinky knee pads that have “do not wash” instructions on them?

Sulphuric acid?

[video]https://youtu.be/csvsYmdxxos[/video]

We have the whole family doing mtb / CX all year so have the same problem x4. Once dry, SPD shoes go in a roll top drybag (heavy duty PVC type). Nicely contains any stink. Same after a wet ride so they don’t pollute the car on the way home.

Welded PVC bag like this one:-

http://cpc.farnell.com/highlander/cs110-bk/drybag-tri-laminate-pvc-small/dp/LH03632?CMP=CPC-PLA

Chuck them in a bag in the freezer overnight to kill off the bacteria.

Also, disc brake cleaner is fantastic at killing stinkiness. My stepson has the smelliest feet in the universe, but a squirt of disc brake cleaner in his trainers renders them merely tolerable as opposed to being banished to the shed.

More preventative than a cure,…boot bananas

http://www.bootbananas.com/shop/

they work well for climbing shoe stinkt

PJM1974 – Member
Chuck them in a bag in the freezer overnight to kill off the bacteria.

Doesn’t kill it. Just slows their growth to near nothing. Defrost and they kick off again.

That’s why with food you freeze ASAP. But for shoes the result is probably what you want 😉

I do the same for my water bladder. Chuck in before bacteria can grow too much. Then it’s no different to having been sat out for a few hours, not days.

Bicarbonate works a treat