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Can someone tell me how to remove the general smells from cycling kit. I must excrete a fair amount of urea (!) and it is making my kit stink, Persil and a fabric softner won't touch it?! White vinegar or bicarbonate of soda?
Anyone with a proven method as my new kit is being ruined.
Tub of oxy action... removes stains from white shirts etc etc a treat!
Wash, dry, then put in the freezer for a few days
Stop washing thing at silly low temps 40º etc - use 60º at least
I was doing my bit for the environment!
Ok so it will be a 60 degree wash and some Oxy. My kit pongs to high heaven.
Freezing your kit every now and then for a good while kills the bacteria in just the same way a hot wash does
Dry it on the line outside now the fine weather is coming. UV is the best disinfectant there is.
Sunlight as m'learned colleague says is a top, cheap destinkifier. If the weather isn't cooperating, I soak all my gear once in a while in water with a few drops of tea tree oil in it. Then wash it as usual.
If you wash some expensive synthetic wicky gear too hot, it kills the material but washing at low temps doesn't kill the bacteria.
Tea tree is a mild disinfectant that only smells slightly wierd.
snowslave - Member
Freezing your kit every now and then for a good while kills the bacteria in just the same way a hot wash does
says who?! it just slows the metabolic rate of the bugs to zero. they're still there and will come back on the thaw
seriously?
your kit is so smelly that washing it doesn't remove the smell?
bin it!
Set fire to it.
Use tekwash or soak in miltons steriliser stuff. My running stuff was potent but is now a managable smell.
Dry on the line, or go to your local shop and pick up some http://www.zoflora.co.uk/home/
and add a few drops of it in the washing machine where you'd normally put conditioner, seems to work for mine. I HATE the horrible slightly musty smell when clothes havent dried properly, I seem to be super-sensitive to it.
My kit never smelt in the old days when well-weathered ugly women used to wash it on a rock in the river. Damn those pesky washine machines, hotpoint have a lot to answer for imo 👿
Assos detergent. You'll choke at how expensive it is but you only need a tiny bit, and you can just add half a cap to normal detergent. It's brilliant at killing smells.
Beware of using sunlight, as the UV could degrade the fibres in the fabric, being synthetic.