putrid boots!

[pickens_46929]

Soak your boots in water with double strength Sink-the-Stink or Odo-ban (walmart / sam's club). Use weights to hold them under water. Soak for a good long time -- like over night... when done run through the spin cycle of the washing machine to squish out as much water as possible.

Then stuff with newspapers... stuff full... takes 3+ pages per boot... wait an hour or two... pull out the wet newspaper.... replace with new dry newspaper... repeat... couple times more... leave last set in overnight... ta-dah!

That's all there is to it. If you want to the to smell good... once they are dry... use a bar of Irish Spring... still in the box... stick it in the booty... leave for a while

 

[BigWhiteSquare]

... is listerine ok for my boots?!

Yes. Listerine works great.

 

[pickens_46929]

Oh, if they are really really really bad... run them through the washing machine after soaking them over night with double strength Odo-ban / Sink-the-stink... follow newspaper directions as above.

 

[glcoley]

for wet suits and boots - Pine-Sol and Woollite mix for washing and my PVC tree/rack for drying, a vacum hose or other type blower/fan pushing air through the PVC speeds the drying up quite a bit

 

[LeFlaneur]

A guy at a dive shop recommended simple green. I tried filling the booties with a diluted solution and leaving them over night. It worked well.

 

[bolantej]

yeah, thats what i have been doing, but they now smell horrendous.

Thanks for the warning.

 

[Charlie99]

If your boots are getting really funky, it's probably that the recent high humidity kept them from drying, and some sort of mildew has taken up residence.

Once mildew starts, Sink-the-Stink or Myrazyme might help a bit, but what's really needed is a soaking in diluted bleach to kill the mildew. It probably is rough on the neoprene and shortens its life, but its what I've done several times when the only other alternative was to throw away the boots.

----

Alternative 2 is to find an air conditioner and put them where the hot exhaust blows across them. (This works when diving out of cheap hotels with wall A/Cs).

------------

Third alternative is to pray for good weather. It looks like tomorrow will finally be a day in RI / SE Mass. that is low enough dew point that things will actually dry out! Unfortunately, my experience is that once boots have gone putrid and mildew or whatever has taken over, that even a good drying just temporarily takes care of things and the smell will be back as soon as you go diving again.

 

[ThatsSomeBadHatHarry]

well, im going out tomorrow, so the stink will hold its gound until i give some of these methods a shot. time will tell

 

[charlieo]

For drying boots/drysuit I use this product.http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...s&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=dryer&noImage=0
Completely drys the item to stop any growth in there.

 

[bradshsi]

You guys have it easy Try drying heavy boots that attached to a drysuit...(sadly necessary if your neck seal leaks)

Quickest way for me is to get a shopvac, connect the hose to the blower side of the vac and then stuff the hose down into the boot.

Turn it on and voila in 15 minutes your boot is dry