Wetsuit/Boot Cleaner

[ththooft]

Hello-
I'm just curious what products people are using to get rid of wetsuit, boot, hood smell after diving. The main "funk" seems to come from inside the boots. While we always soak them in clean water after diving, they seem to develop a smell again quickly after another dive.
My goal is to keep the smell away from these things rather than try to beat it down when it's too late!

Thanks for the help!

 

[mack50md]

Hello-
I'm just curious what products people are using to get rid of wetsuit, boot, hood smell after diving. The main "funk" seems to come from inside the boots. While we always soak them in clean water after diving, they seem to develop a smell again quickly after another dive.
My goal is to keep the smell away from these things rather than try to beat it down when it's too late!

Thanks for the help!

Been trying Aqaseal's Wetsuit Shampoo. Cleans up the suits well after soaking in a tub overnight. It removes the boot stink. Not very good at controlling the boot stink after the next dive trip. But then again, walking around in them during surface intervals for hours in the hot summer heat can't be helping me.

There are a number of threads with home remedies for smelly neoprene including mouthwash in the soak water. Sink-the Stink product has a lot of followers. Try a thread search using "stink", "wetsuit cleaner".

Happy hunting for a cure.

 

[Charlie99]

A couple of times my boots have gotten so foul that MyraZyme and Sink-the-Stink didn't take care of it. It was a case of "fix it or throw them away".

Dilute bleach solution worked, and doesn't seem to have damaged anything.

 

[TXTED]

my friend had a bad case of one and used simple green solution and it worked

 

[Corigan]

Listerine in the soak, just a capful or two. Then get the boots out and put a fan on them to dry quickly.

Matt

 

[cmalinowski]

Listerine in the soak, just a capful or two. Then get the boots out and put a fan on them to dry quickly.

Matt

Yup, I do the listerine route as well.

 

[ththooft]

Thanks everyone! I tried the mouthwash and it seems to really help!

 

[abitton]

If you have a pool, just chuck the gear in it and let it soak a day or two.

It's pretty much the same as a previous poster suggested (bleach)... Chlorine in pool is basically diluted bleach.

Alex

 

[GrierHPharmD]

I use a mild dish detergent, an overnight soak then air-drying outside in the shade. I also try to minimize the amount of peeing I do in the suit, or at least try to flush out the post-pee contents with fresh water before leaving the water. On occasion, I've added a small amount of sodium hypochlorite bleach (clorox), but I usually add it to the water and mix well before putting my suit into the dunk tank.

BTW, I use a 24 gallon rubbermaid storage bin as a dunk tank. I keep my wet gear in it in the car, then move it to my porch and fill it with soapy water at the end of the dive.

Hope it helps,
Grier

 

[Bob3]

Vinegar is the magic bullet, it gets out skunk pee, so plain old toejam grunge doesn't stand a chance.