I’ve been wanting to wash my pads (Kona arm guards and Fox knee/shin guards) for several weeks now but am afraid of doing anything that will damage the rubber / foam / elastic
I’d like to use some sort of detergent so they stop smelling like some homeless guy has been sleeping in them for months. What do you use to get the funk out of your pads?
I wash my 661 and Roach armour in the bath tub with liquid dish washing soap. Then I rince them in clean water and let them drip dry.
You’re not going to damage the foam, fabric, or elastic by washing the pads in warm water and regular dish soap.
If you have a front loading washing machine you could even throw the pads in the machine. I’d avoid using a top loading machine with an agitator because the agitator could get a bit rough on the pads. The front loading machines are just fine.
Putting the pads in a dryer on high heat might damage the foam. If you must dry them in a dryer I’d use medium heat.
If you don’t have the time to do a full wash down as JC described, you could try using febreze. I used to use it for my soccer shin guards and it seemed to work pretty well.
Daniel
yea scrub brush, some soap ( I normally go with a stain stick to get my pads back to yellow) and go at them for a while then spray some other crap in them when they are dry. I havent found anything that totally gets the smell out, but I’ve come close.
Mike
I stick all of the velcro to itself and then put them in the wash.
I use normal detergent as well as liquid soap and let it soak.
That gets the smell out, and so far, it doesn’t seem to have hurt the pads.
Re: Get the funk out (of your pads)
On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 23:52:19 -0500, “john_childs” wrote:
>If you have a front loading washing machine you could even throw the
>pads in the machine.
Word of warning: I wash my pads like that, including the foam strips
in my helmet that are velcroed in there. They are strips of open cell
foam with a black layer glued onto it on both sides. One of said black
layers acts as counter-velcro, the other sits against your head. Last
time, one of the black layers came undone in the washing machine.
Apparently the glue couldn’t stand the about one-hour long combination
of water, 40 deg C, detergent and mild washing movements.
“The more you think, the less you have to do. - Leo Vandewoestijne”
I just finished cleaning my pads 2 nights ago with a new method, given to me by my nephew. I soaked the pads in water with baking soda in it. Left them soak overnight in baking soda solution, rinsed them quickly, and hung them to drip dry. They (661 leg and arm armor, padded bicycle gloves and harbinger wrist guards) have no odor to them. Worked great!
I don’t have specifics on how much baking soda to use, I just dumped some in the water and mixed it up.
I found that a cooler is a great size for soaking the pads. Just about the right length and the rectangular shape works well for the leg pads.
Bill
I throw my pad/gloves/etc in the washing machine on the gentle cycle all the time…no problems yet. And they come out bounty fresh!!! 
just shower with them. seriously. take them into the shower with you, soap them up, rinse them off, hang froma towel bar to dry. WHen i did a cross country bike trip, we’d wash our gear that way. just start showering with it on. scrub it a bit on and off your body, then wash your body. none of my gear has been damaged this way yet.