moisture wicking clothes and fabric softeners

Heather73

posted: 7/26/2008 at 9:30 AM

I made a mistake the other day and washed some of my moisture wicking running clothes with a liquid fabric softener. My question is does anyone know if they are "ruined" forever or will they continue to wick?

RunCheffyRun

posted: 7/26/2008 at 9:48 AM

just wash them again, you should be okay.... Penguin Sport Wash ( orange bottle) is awesome stuff and " Claims" to restore the wicking properties to your clothes. We just started using it, as our running gear was putting a real hurtin on the oxyclean and regular soap supply... We got two bottles for around 20 bucks at REI.

" Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine" "Fat is like a Stray Dog, Stop Feeding it, and it will Leave"

2013 Mantra: Shut up and SWEAT...... It will NEVER be easy, but it will ALWAYS be WORTH IT......

dnephin

Hometown AG win.

posted: 7/26/2008 at 10:58 AM

I should think a couple washes would get out the fabric softener. Then again, where I am, it's so hot and humid, nothing is really wicking anyway.

DWARP
Marathon Madness Mob

Heather73

posted: 7/26/2008 at 4:39 PM
modified: 7/26/2008 at 4:40 PM

Thanks for the info. I hoped 1 wash would not hurt them!

thinbyxmas

Misinformation Officer

posted: 7/26/2008 at 5:54 PM

FWIW, Penguin is a LOT better than Win, as far as tech clothes specialty cleaners. It's so hot here that I still have to oxyclean and then Penguin sometimes, when the funk builds up.

This is what I do all day.

midwest runner

Giants Fan

posted: 7/27/2008 at 7:50 PM

Ok, so you aren't supposed to use liquid fabric softener with dry wick? What else aren't you supposed to use?

"I think I've discovered the secret of life- you just hang around until you get used to it."

Charles Schulz

Berner

posted: 7/28/2008 at 8:11 AM

Quote from midwest runner on 7/27/2008 at 7:50 PM:

Ok, so you aren't supposed to use liquid fabric softener with dry wick? What else aren't you supposed to use?

No dryer sheets either. Nothing that claims to make clothes "softer." These products work by depositing a waxy reside on the fabric. Although it makes normal fabrics feel nice and silky, it blocks the moisture pathways for technical fabrics preventing them from drawing sweat away from the skin.

How To Run a Marathon: Step 1 - start running. There is no Step 2.

RunB

posted: 7/28/2008 at 8:25 AM

Quote from Berner on 7/28/2008 at 8:11 AM:

No dryer sheets either. Nothing that claims to make clothes "softer." These products work by depositing a waxy reside on the fabric. Although it makes normal fabrics feel nice and silky, it blocks the moisture pathways for technical fabrics preventing them from drawing sweat away from the skin.

This is why you should not use fabric softeners on towels either if you want them to dry you. It's funny that most fabric softener commercials show towels. ;-) - R

girmann

Giant Flaming Dork

posted: 7/28/2008 at 12:10 PM

Quote from Berner on 7/28/2008 at 8:11 AM:

No dryer sheets either. Nothing that claims to make clothes "softer." These products work by depositing a waxy reside on the fabric. Although it makes normal fabrics feel nice and silky, it blocks the moisture pathways for technical fabrics preventing them from drawing sweat away from the skin.

Seriously? No Way! I never knew how that stuff worked...

http://xkcd.com/621/

Kerry1976

posted: 7/28/2008 at 12:52 PM

Are you even supposed to dry tech clothes at all or is it better to let them air dry?

Kerry

HF #1048

RunCheffyRun

posted: 7/28/2008 at 12:55 PM

I always air dry my Tech Clothes.... they dry so fast anyway!

" Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine" "Fat is like a Stray Dog, Stop Feeding it, and it will Leave"

2013 Mantra: Shut up and SWEAT...... It will NEVER be easy, but it will ALWAYS be WORTH IT......

thinbyxmas

Misinformation Officer

posted: 7/28/2008 at 1:17 PM

Re drying tech clothes, it depends. Some of them actually state "to restore tech properties, dry on low setting" esp. some of the waterproof/breathable materials.

This is what I do all day.

jgage

posted: 10/14/2012 at 9:54 PM
eric :) censored this post on 11/26/2012 at 2:35 PM.

spam

jgage

posted: 10/14/2012 at 9:56 PM
eric :) censored this post on 11/26/2012 at 2:35 PM.

spam

LedLincoln

Food

posted: 10/15/2012 at 10:59 AM

All this is news to me. I've just been washing my tech fabrics with everything else and hang dry. I'm happy, so I think I'll forget I saw this thread.

testing testing

moisture wicking clothes and fabric softeners (Read 2184 times)