Mildew on a cave suit

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Mildew on a cave suit

Postby Scott Shaw » Feb 18, 2006 12:07 pm

I don't know how I did it, I don't think I ever put it away wet, but I pulled out my Lost Creek coveralls to find splotches of mildew on the inside. How's the best way to kill it without ruining the coveralls?

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Re: Mildew on a cave suit

Postby cob » Feb 18, 2006 12:28 pm

Scott Shaw wrote:I don't know how I did it, I don't think I ever put it away wet, but I pulled out my Lost Creek coveralls to find splotches of mildew on the inside. How's the best way to kill it without ruining the coveralls?

Scott


Wash it as you normally would with the recommended amount of bleach. Bleach kills mildew every time.
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Re: Mildew on a cave suit

Postby randojl » Feb 20, 2006 11:46 pm

Scott Shaw wrote:...How's the best way to kill it without ruining the coveralls? Scott

Hey, Scott. I'm skeptical about mixing chlorine bleach and nylon coveralls. Here's a site about removing mildew from sails:
http://www.northsails.com/north_america ... Agents.htm
that you might find helpful. They specifically recommend not using chlorine bleach on nylon (although it's apparently OK with polyester and some others) and discuss Lysol and even salt water.

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oops

Postby Scott Shaw » Feb 21, 2006 8:22 am

Guess I should have looked into it more. I've already bleached it. Used a very weak solution of bleach.
No apparent harm done. Guess I'll have to wait and see the long-term effects.
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Postby Cheryl Jones » Feb 21, 2006 12:10 pm

Soaking your suit in a vinegar-water solution would also work well to kill mildew.

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Postby bsignorelli » Feb 21, 2006 5:26 pm

How long did you leave it stored? My wet caving suit tends to stay in my rubbermaid container for 1-6 weeks depending on how forgetful I am about taking it into the spare shower.

I've had some icky looking white fuzzies gorw on it...but you just close the lid and come back in another week or two and the fuzzies are dead and gone :-)

I'm curious what time frame I need to be wary of to avoid the black/dark mold/mildew you ran into ;)
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Re: Mildew on a cave suit

Postby cob » Feb 21, 2006 8:38 pm

randojl wrote:
Scott Shaw wrote:...How's the best way to kill it without ruining the coveralls? Scott

Hey, Scott. I'm skeptical about mixing chlorine bleach and nylon coveralls. Here's a site about removing mildew from sails:
http://www.northsails.com/north_america ... Agents.htm
that you might find helpful. They specifically recommend not using chlorine bleach on nylon (although it's apparently OK with polyester and some others) and discuss Lysol and even salt water.

Buddy


Scott, I hope I didn't ruin your day.

Randojl, what are the supposed bad effects of bleach on nylon. Done it before. never noticed anything... yet.

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Postby Scott Shaw » Feb 22, 2006 11:12 am

Tom,
Not too worried about it. Doesn't appear to have harmed it.

Bryan, It was stored for about 9 months in a rubbermaid container. I go hot and cold on using it, sometimes not for a year, though I go caving almost every week.
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Postby cob » Feb 22, 2006 10:03 pm

Scott Shaw wrote:Tom,
Not too worried about it. Doesn't appear to have harmed it.



cool.
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Re: Mildew on a cave suit

Postby randojl » Feb 23, 2006 1:03 am

cob wrote:...Randojl, what are the supposed bad effects of bleach on nylon. Done it before. never noticed anything... yet. tom

Beats me, Tom. I found this admonition on several websites. I went to the Clorox site for an authoritative answer and didn't find it. Probably a lot of variables: type of nylon, concentration of bleach solution, contact time, temperature, frequency. FWIW, chlorine bleach would be my first choice for dealing with mildew if the material can take it. --Buddy
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Postby bsignorelli » Feb 24, 2006 12:03 am

Scott Shaw wrote:It was stored for about 9 months in a rubbermaid container.


<wipes forehead> Sounds like I'm well under that even in my worst moments :-)
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Postby abdon » Mar 19, 2006 4:37 am

Too much bleach destroys fabric. Put a chunk of jeans on 100% bleach for five minutes; it will come out white but more importantly, you will be able to pull it on the sides and break it like paper. How much damage a weak bleach solution will have on fabric is for somebody else to figure out. I would venture to say not much if at all.

Still, mildew and fungus will be destroyed with a mild vinegar (acetic acid) solution with no damage to the fabric. Bleaching is akin to killing a fly with a baseball bat.
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