Forums >General Running>my tech shirt stinks!
Eh, I've never really understood Febreze. It is my experience that it doesn't remove stink. It doesn't really even HIDE stink. It just makes stuff smell like stink+TheFebrezeSmell. Bleh.
I learned this the hard way when I bought a truck that had previously belonged to a smoker. I bought "Febreze for autos". Two years later, the truck still smelled like cigs and TheFebrezeSmell.
I agree about Febreze. I hate the stuff. The smell is terrible... HOWEVER, that is the regular febreze. The stuff you spray on your clothes is a lot different, in my opinion. I tried the Tide sports wash with Febreze and didn't like it at all. YMMV.
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Oh roo roooo!
Yes, as others have mentioned, it does seem to make a difference if the clothes are hung up to dry after wearing and/or rinsed out after wearing also. I do the same as ultracassie does regarding getting in the shower w/my running clothes on (well, not usually the shoes) and then after I am done, I hang everything in there until it stops dripping, then move it to a drying rack. I do wear my stuff more than once, as I run alone and there is really no one to offend, so this works really well for that--keeps stuff clean enough to get a few uses out of before it needs the "Big Wash"......
Yes, rinsing out the clothes right after running goes a long way toward avoiding permastink (and tempstink, too).
I hang everything to dry before it goes in the hamper. I usually just wash in warm water and it comes out smelling freshly laundered. I have never heard of permastink until this discussion. It sounds to me like if it is still smelling maybe you need to wash in hot water to kill the bacteria causing the stink.
Andy
"Any idiot can run a marathon. It takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultramarathon." - Alan Cabelly
Another thing that works really good is a mid-wash soak in our favorite detergent with warm/hot water in the wash. Stop the wash cycle for about 30 min to allow it to soak.
We use Rockin Green (ordered from a SAHM online), which is made to wash cloth diapers, and works AWESOME. If I can sniff a diaper after washing, and go "ahhhh", I know the stuff is truly magic. The diapers stuffers are made of microfiber, kinda like a tech fabric. I like Rockin Green most because it's made with safe ingredients,no phosphate or enzymes, and the scents don't smell like they are just covering up the ick.
http://rockingreensoap.com/
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2012 goals: Under 30 minutes 5K, over 20 miles/week
old woman w/hobby
i just use more laundry detergent than usual. a small load of running clothes with 2 caps full of
detergent. it works for both mine and dh's clothes. i usually use all detergent.
steph
The weird thing with tech fabric stink is that I can have 10 different tops and 8 of them won't ever get stinky...but the 2 that do...OMG, BAD! One of my current stinky tops is my favorite bike jersey. All of them are 100% polyester, but there is something "unique" about that one.
There are different forms of polyester used in garment fibers.
FWIW, I noticed a faint permastink a couple years back. Switched from Seventh Generation tree-huggin organic detergent to Tide ... which really just infuses a scent into the laundry. So I tehn switched to Penguin, and I've never noticed a stink since. I also lay running clothes out post-run to air-dry before they get tossed in the technical apparel hamper (separate hamper, separate laundering).
If anyone cares, there are complex chemistries applied to the material to confer/enhance moisture transport, wicking, softness ("hand"), and so on. Washing clothes of this sort in hot water, or with bleach, or soaking them in vinegar may well disrupt those chemistries and strip the fabric of one or more of its performance features. Not saying you'll tear the very fabric of space and time, just sayin'.
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A Saucy Wench
I gotta say I have always used woolite and cold water and air dry and I dont think I ever have gotten permastink (except in the shirts that dh washed in hot and stuck in the dryer)
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"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
Once I followed Ennay's advice I never got it again either. Listen to Ennay.
Oh good, I was thinking maybe my lack of permastink here was because it is never really really hot.
MTA: and I detest Febreze. But thats partially because my dad in his later years thought walking around with a spray bottle of febreze meant he could skip the adult diapers that he really needed.
Soaking the clothes in OxyClean (or something similar) before washing seems to do the trick quite nicely. Or maybe my friends are just polite.
------------------------------------- 5K - 18:25 - 3/19/11 10K - 39:38 - 12/13/09 1/2 - 1:29:38 - 5/30/10 Full - 3:45:40 - 5/27/07
Wow that was definatley TMI! I don't want to get old.
2014 Goals: (Yeah I suck)
Seems to me that the cheaper the shirt, the unsalvagable they become. Lesson learned. And I run solo.
I appreciate everyones tips
>> Is it a good idea to dry tech fabric in a dryer? No, and that's one way to 'set' stink forever and ever.
>> Is it a good idea to dry tech fabric in a dryer?
No, and that's one way to 'set' stink forever and ever.
holy crap, so I basically need to throw them all out and start again?