Washing Fire Suits?

Are there any special instructions I need to follow for washing a fire suit and the nomex undergarments?

Last time I looked I couldn't find a definitive answer on whether washing them at home would damage any kind of coatings that were applied when they were made. I'd like for them not to start smelling, but also save my butt if I every end up in a firey wreck.

Nomex is naturally fireproof, there are no fireproofing chemicals to wash off. Proban is treated cotton, it's the one you have to be careful with.

Check the manufacturer's web site for washing instructions, but generally speaking you want to do stuff like wash it on gentle, don't mix it with flammable stuff in the washer (so it doesn't get flammable lint stuck in it) and be careful when drying it. Bleach is probably a bad idea too. :)

We usually wash ours by themselves on the gentle cycle with woolite, low speed spin, then hang to dry

Nomex thread doesn't hold color well, so if you have flashy red patches on to the epaulettes / shoulder extraction loops, you'll end up with a pink coolshirt if you wash it all together.

G-Force say use "ALL-FREE" no dyes no scent, so that's all I ever used. Now I see "kits" offered with soap and pre treater.

Molecule

Molecule is designed for racing suits. I've used it on my son's kart suits for years and it works really well and really not that expensive. Although his suit isn't fire proof, it's designed for all suits.

Gentle wash, warm water and air dry.

I never understood the guys who would never wash their suits. Besides looking gross I can only imagine what the smell was like.....

-Rob

My wife washes it in the machine by itself on the gentlest cycle it has, then we air dry it. Works great...or at least as good as can be expected. With the amount I sweat in the race car, even with a good functioning cool shirt, my suit it gonna smell no matter how well we wash it.

My helmet probably stinks worse than my uniform. Thankfully I have a brand new helmet I'll be breaking in this weekend, so instead of stinky sweat, I get that "new helmet" smell for at least a lap or two. Gave the old one to my oldest son, and his first comment was "Damn dad, it smells."

We store helmets with some dryer sheets in them, makes a big difference.

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that with the new one. Since I've got no hair, all my sweat goes right to the helmet padding.

rob_lewis wrote: I never understood the guys who would never wash their suits. Besides looking gross I can only imagine what the smell was like.....

Apparently, some of the treated cotton suits have a limited number of washings before they lose their treated part.

I've successfully washed out helmets with plain old hair shampoo. You do have to rinse the heck out of them to get rid of all the suds, and then it takes a long time for them to dry.

Sonic wrote: We store helmets with some dryer sheets in them, makes a big difference.

I do this as well.

On fire suits, first, avoid washing when you can get away with it. If you haven't sweated the suit up much, hang them inside-out and spray Febreze on them.

When they do need washing, if you can't afford anything fancier than a machine wash, wash with simple "baby" laundry soap and air-dry them in the shade. NEVER put it in a dryer!

helmets I normal spray with helmet fresh or motorex cleaner then place on a 15 inch fan until dry. I do just the fan between rounds at the track.