Holy Crap, my booties stink!!!!

[ryssyr]

just use your washing machine. its the easiest and works very well. just like the above advice, cold cycle (although I use warm sometimes too) and then let air dry. Just like new. I use the same laundry detergent as my regular laundry and Ive had booties for 3 years now that are still A-OK.

 

[Brewski]

I use cheap baby shampoo in my suit soak tub. It has a nice smell and costs 99 cents at the 99 cent store.
Also before you pack to go home get some newspaper and stuff the booties with the paper overnight, leave some exposed out the top to wick the moisture away. it works.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

With the exception of my drysuit, about once or twice a season (summer that is) I dunk all my gear in my pool for a couple of minutes and then rinse in fresh water. The Chlorene in the pool kills pretty much everything and then the fresh water rinses off the chlorene. I have not noticed any undo fading or other negative effect and it's faster that "sink the stink."

So if you have a pool or other source of water with chlorene handy, that might help.

The fact is, gear will occasionally smell bad and that's just part of the elegance, majesty and charm of diving.

Jeff

 

[willgr1]

I too tried everything to get my booties smelling better. Sink-the-stink didn't work, mouthwash only made them have a minty-nasty smell. The thing I found helped was regular anti-bacterial dish soap. I soaked all my gear in the bathtub with dish soap for about 8 hours after my last trip, let everything drip dry, and behold, my booties smelled significantly better! I'm sure it doesn't help my booties take about a week to dry normally indoors, but for some reason the cheapest method seemed to work the best.

 

[Doc]

For the record - no wetsuit, thus no peeing.

Didn't think so. You're the one that used the phrase, "Holy Crap".

How about that? Are you a minister with IBS or something?

I am searching the DSM IV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders) as we speak for references to people who compulsively sniff their socks. I am finding references of documented cases of "shoe sniffers", but I'm not sure if scuba booties would fit into that classification or if we have entered an as of yet unexplored realm of clinical psychotherapy. I must have my graduate students write papers on this! "Bootie Sniffing: Just another Shoe, or are Socks an anomaly/analogous subgroup ?"

I can not personally embrace your situation because my crap smells like Petunias (kust ask my friends!), and my wife, like many similar size 2's, simply does not crap, at least that I have been able to determine. She has, however, mastered the required art of peeing while diving, and we are currently working on the PADI Specialty Certification for this.

For now, my best advice is to simply refrain from crapping in your scuba booties or failing that, quit sniffing them.

Crap in the booties of that guy on the boat over there with the wallet full of C-Cards.

 

[fppf]

Best way to prevent the stink is to dry them out ASAP.
I made a nice boot, glove, and hood drier from an old furnace exhaust blower and some PVC pipe. It will dry my stuff in about 2 hours.

After long trips, if you dive like us, you will NEVER get your gear dry before the flight out. When you get home, I use a rubber maid garbage can, fill with warm water and some Listerine. Let soak for a good few hours, then dry ASAP, leaves a nice minty fresh smell too.

You should have smelled the rental car after a week of Maui shore diving. I'm still shocked they did not charge us extra for the smell, LOL.

 

[ONESPEED]

For the record - no wetsuit, thus no peeing.

What makes you so certain somebody else didn't pee in your booties?

 

[letterboy]

What makes you so certain somebody else didn't pee in your booties?

SHHHHHHHH :d

 

[cruiser]

For those of you drying your boots in the sun, doesn't the UV speed up their degredation?

The booties I have now haven't degraded since being hung out in the sun (even though I was hesitant to try it at first, thinking the sun would make them fall apart).

Sometimes after a trip to blue water, I'm so busy when I get back that I don't unpack for 3 or 4 days, and everything was wet when I packed it. Talk about funky! Out in the sun it goes and it's fresh as a daisy when it dries. I also no longer wash or rinse my neoprene stuff (wetsuit and booties) after a dive, just hang it in the sun.

 

[BettyRubble]

Didn't think so. You're the one that used the phrase, "Holy Crap".

How about that? Are you a minister with IBS or something?

I am searching the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) as we speak for references to people who compulsively sniff their socks. I am finding references of documented cases of "shoe sniffers", but I'm not sure if scuba booties would fit into that classification or if we have entered an as of yet unexplored realm of clinical psychotherapy. I must have my graduate students write papers on this! "Bootie Sniffing: Just another Shoe, or are Socks an anomaly/analogous subgroup ?"

I can not personally embrace your situation because my crap smells like Petunias (kust ask my friends!), and my wife, like many similar size 2's, simply does not crap, at least that I have been able to determine. She has, however, mastered the required art of peeing while diving, and we are currently working on the PADI Specialty Certification for this.

For now, my best advice is to simply refrain from crapping in your scuba booties or failing that, quit sniffing them.

Crap in the booties of that guy on the boat over there with the wallet full of C-Cards.