Mom was right!

[Mike Hood]

Mine is a Kenmore top loader. The safety latch that the door activates broke. It was caused by the drum wildly spinning.

I've taken a vow to be more careful washing wetsuits.

When I had a wetsuit, I just put it on a convenient fence and hosed it down, then dried them out of the sun.

Coveralls also get hosed down, inside and outside, until the water is no longer muddy. Then they get washed, usually at a laundromat.

I do the same thing with my coveralls. It's the only way my wife will let me put them in the washing machine.

[NZcaver]

I like using the wand at the car wash myself.

Cecile (B&C Wunderwear) recommends against using a high pressure hose when cleaning your cave suit. The pressure pushes the dirt/grit into the fibers and causes premature wear. She does recommend occasional cleaning...not every time you cave.

Phew! Glad my suit isn't made by B&C then.

Seriously, if spraying the suit with the pressure washer causes significant premature wear I'd hate to think what regular caving does to it. I guess if you hold the jet close-up in one place for a while, that's probably not too smart. But this reminds me a little of the Old Wives Tale about not cleaning your ropes with a pressure washer, because it forces all those nasty particles deep into the rope and degrades them from the inside out leaving a trail of dead bodies in its wake. (Which it really doesn't, of course.) Until the evidence suggests otherwise, I'm happy to stick with cleaning my gear using a high pressure washer and/or the good old washing machine.

I don't like the aspect of using a Car Wash to wash any of my gear. I know a lot of caver's use a Car Wash to wash off their ropes and other gear. Reason being that I don't like washing my gear at one is that all the soap and car wax that goes through that sprayer there. As much as you run water through there before using it, I don't think you can ever get out all the stuff that runs through there on a daily bases out.

You do make a good point about the wax, and plus there may be contaminants on the ground at the wash to consider as well. Using your very own pressure washer outside at home would be a better way I think, but that option is not available to all of us. Some of us don't even have a simple hose available, so we're forced to use what we can. For me, it seems pretty safe as far a calculated risks go - our gear is built for caving after all. Sure we should take care of it, but in my opinion if it really needs to be treated with kid gloves it's probably not the most practical piece of kit for the job.

[incavenow]

Evan said it first...Front loader!