Comments on: Cat pee, and how to deal with it.

Question: Cat pee, and how to deal with it.

griffey — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:04:04 -0800

How can I eliminate cat pee smell without damaging the fibers of a nylon rope? There's a bunch...

So, our two cats decided to use my caving/climbing gear as a restroom. Probably for weeks, given the scope and amount...I had the gear stored in a canvas army backpack, inside was two other packs, 250 feet of climbing rope, aluminum and steel carabiners, two figure eight descenders, a Petzl descender, two mini-maglite flashlights....plus helmet,Petzl headlamp, and other random gear. It was all nearly completely soaked.

I've look around at other AskMeFi's on this sort of subject (get cat pee out of X), but the big question is: is the rope, especially, ever going to be safe to actually use again if I soak it in vinegar, or even one of the enzyme treatments?

Some of the carabiners are a lost cause...the urine ate the aluminum completely away. Can I expect the steel ones to be ok?

This is something upon which my life literally hangs....I'm concerned about getting rid of the smell (oh am I) but if it destroys the usefulness of the rope, I won't bother to clean it at all, and just toss it now. Same with the 'biners and descenders...any caving or climbing chemists out there want to take a guess at how to deal with this?

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:10:13 -0800

As one who has done some climbing here and there and trusted my life to ropes that I cared for very carefully, there is no way I would ever use those ropes again for climbing.

By: exogenous

exogenous — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:15:02 -0800

If you can believe it, Black Diamond has actually tested a cat pee rope! It performed pretty close to a regular rope.

By: hortense

hortense — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:56:56 -0800

Soak it in sparkling water the CO2 eats the pee smell.

By: griffey

griffey — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:04:30 -0800

The World Famous: when you put it that way, you're right. I will retire this one to "around the house" duty, and just buy another. Cheaper than dying.

By: Lyn Never

Lyn Never — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:20:08 -0800

I have seen cat pee damage synthetic fibers, so I think you're making the right choice. For "around the house" (I'm assuming that means not bearing significant weight) I would start with an enzyme soak and then a number of days drying in the sun. If there's no major metal bits on the ropes, you could put them in mesh sweater/lingerie bags and put them through the washer before you do the enzyme cleaner soak.