Water resistance vs. strong soap
December 28, 2008 7:37 AM   Subscribe

What's the best way to get ground-in dirt out of a water-resistant coat?

The coat is nylon and polyester. Washing it with a double dose of ordinary detergent didn't do much for the grunge around the cuffs. I've got heavy duty hard-surface cleaning soap which does a great job of cutting through bicycle chain grease, but I don't want to risk stripping the water resistance off the coat.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (3 answers total)
 
They make special detergents for cleaning waterproof-breathable clothing, which I am sure wouldn't harm your water-resistant coat and may be better at cleaning.
posted by ssg at 8:08 AM on December 28, 2008


try naphtha soap -- it generally takes a grease-based soap to get out greasy stains. And it's grease acting on grease, so it should not affect water-repellant treatments. Good luck.
posted by jfwlucy at 8:54 AM on December 28, 2008


You can't have both.
If you wash your waterproof jacket it will lose some of its resistance to water.
You'll have to reimpregnate with something after the wash.
Usually I just soak the grungy areas of my gore-tex jackets in liquid detergent for a few hours and then wash with Nixwax, the stuff ssg linked to above.
Then another go in the washing machine with this stuff to reimpregnate.
posted by Thug at 9:20 AM on December 28, 2008


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