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SkeeterPee
05-04-2017, 00:23
How often to you wash your backpack? I only have about 120 miles of trail use on my pack, but i try to make sure i am in shape for it by walking with it filled with rice and towels. I probalby have at least 300 miles walking around on day hikes and around town. It is starting to smell of sweat, pobably the straps especially.

From what i read, you should wash a couple times a year with warm water and mlid soap.

So how often do you wash your pack?

Dogwood
05-04-2017, 02:15
Bout every 300 miles or every third resupply if not sooner, usually just rinsing inside and out well.

I don't want to be hauling extra grudge wt, don't want the odors attracting wildlife and domesticated animals on trail to my pack(just the salt and trace minerals in sweat will get some critters gnawing at it), no need to get rash or any smellier from a grimy pack), no need to make my $$$ merino shirts any more funky, no need to decrease pack lifespan, and no need to impair function of the pack. Ive found all sorts of things - salts, food, bug juice, moisturizer, suntan lotions, etc can possibly impaired various pack fabrics, pack stitching, buckles, Tri Glides, zippers etc

elray
05-04-2017, 07:44
Power washed mine at the local self serve car wash, made a mess of me but sure cleaned up the pack, smells fresh as a daisy!

lonehiker
05-04-2017, 09:32
Spray your straps with Lysol periodically.

C-shell
05-04-2017, 11:02
We (myself, D.No and Bonbon) would wash our packs in the bathtub at hotels with a little soap (whatever was available), rinse really well, then hang them up to dry outside. This had to be done on a"zero" so they could dry totally. We started about 500 miles into the trip but then did it as often as possible. Packs, especially the straps, start smelling really bad after a while.

Time Zone
05-04-2017, 12:39
in my experience, hotel shampoo makes a decent substitute for laundry detergent when you need to clean something in the sink or tub.
Soapy tub soak is good, so is just rinsing off. If you have say a showerhead on a hose, that makes it easier to rinse off soapy water, or just rinse off pack to wash off the encrusted salt.

BuckeyeBill
05-04-2017, 13:50
I have been using this Gear Aid (https://www.rei.com/product/694530/gear-aid-mirazyme-odor-eliminator) (https://www.rei.com/product/694530/gear-aid-mirazyme-odor-eliminator) (https://www.rei.com/product/694530/gear-aid-mirazyme-odor-eliminator) (https://www.rei.com/product/694530/gear-aid-mirazyme-odor-eliminator)MiraZyme Odor Eliminator (https://www.rei.com/product/694530/gear-aid-mirazyme-odor-eliminator). Highly concentrated, just 1/2 oz. for every twenty gallons of water. It also doesn't remove any permethrin you have previously applied.

Harrison Bergeron
05-04-2017, 17:56
Well, this won't work for everyone, but here in Texas lots of people have pools. When I got back from my month-long section hike a couple of years ago, I hosed off all my gear that couldn't go in the wash machine and then threw it all in the pool over night. The chlorine took care of the "stank".

Time Zone
05-04-2017, 20:33
... I hosed off all my gear that couldn't go in the wash machine and then threw it all in the pool over night. The chlorine took care of the "stank".

Did you also have a more lightly colored pack by morning?

saltysack
05-04-2017, 20:51
I damn sure wouldn't put my pack in a heavy chlorinated pool....I see what it does to my baggies....each is too own...we have a salt water pool though....


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JansportD2
05-04-2017, 20:58
After each section I soak mine in a very dilute bleach solution. It's a 6 year old Golite Jam, and it hasn't fallen apart yet.

cmoulder
05-04-2017, 20:59
Try athlete's foot liquid spray (tolnaftate). Totally amazing.

Feral Bill
05-04-2017, 21:10
never.....

Dogwood
05-04-2017, 21:20
I have been using this Gear Aid (https://www.rei.com/product/694530/gear-aid-mirazyme-odor-eliminator)MiraZyme Odor Eliminator (https://www.rei.com/product/694530/gear-aid-mirazyme-odor-eliminator). Highly concentrated, just 1/2 oz. for every twenty gallons of water. It also doesn't remove any permethrin you have previously applied.

I've been using McNetts Mira Zyme for sometime but never heard it didn't remove permethrin. That's good to know. How and from where did you get this info?

cmoulder
05-04-2017, 21:31
Try athlete's foot liquid spray (tolnaftate). Totally amazing.


never.....

It's just another chemical, for crying out loud... what do you think it would hurt by trying it??

Sheesh, why must people be total slaves to convention?...:o

Been using it on stanky stuff for years with no problems.

saltysack
05-04-2017, 21:46
Try athlete's foot liquid spray (tolnaftate). Totally amazing.

You got real problems if your pack has jock itch!


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cmoulder
05-04-2017, 21:54
Well if it can stop jock itch... hmmmm? :D

Be the first on your block to discover the magic! :)

Must be liquid tolnaftate or lotrimin.

MuddyWaters
05-04-2017, 22:56
How often to you wash your backpack?


When its really dirty or smelly.

Packs with zippers, zippers quit working in dusty arid environment in as little as a week. Needs periodic rinsing even on trail.

Sarcasm the elf
05-04-2017, 23:29
I give mine a proper washing once, maybe twice a year. In addition to this I also spray it down thoroughly with a garden hose after every warm weather section hike to get the sweat salts out of the shoulder straps and webbing.

According to the folks at my local outfitter, storing sweat soaked gear without washing out the salts is a bad idea as it will slowly destroy many synthetic materials.

BuckeyeBill
05-05-2017, 06:10
I've been using McNetts Mira Zyme for sometime but never heard it didn't remove permethrin. That's good to know. How and from where did you get this info?

Well I talked with Chris at ULA and he recommended the spray on permethrin treatment and only on the outside. I gave mine a good soaking and let it dry for about 10 days before using it. I have washed with MiraZyme several times since and watched as bugs still fall off of it, so I am using my personal research on this. I haven't had to re-treat my pack yet.

Deadeye
05-05-2017, 09:49
It's just another chemical, for crying out loud... what do you think it would hurt by trying it??

Sheesh, why must people be total slaves to convention?...:o

Been using it on stanky stuff for years with no problems.

I thought Feral Bill was just sayin' he never washes his pack... not never use foot spray

dudeijuststarted
05-05-2017, 10:20
never. wear your stink like a badge of honor. plenty of time to smell pretty in the real world.

Smithereens
05-06-2017, 04:28
never. wear your stink like a badge of honor. plenty of time to smell pretty in the real world.
Maybe up to a point, but when your pack begins to smell like barf it's time for some soap and water.

Harrison Bergeron
05-07-2017, 18:47
I damn sure wouldn't put my pack in a heavy chlorinated pool....I see what it does to my baggies....each is too own...we have a salt water pool though....
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A properly chlorinated pool should not have much more more chlorine than tap water. 3 ppm would need days of soaking to significantly bleach a pack.

saltysack
05-07-2017, 20:50
Yea I've seen what chlorine does to stuff I'll keep my expensive pack out...I'll pass


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Bansko
05-08-2017, 07:43
As some others do, I utilize a moteel bathtub and whatever shampoo may have been provided. I try to pre-rinse to get the crud out, and then soak / manually agitate with the shampoo for a while before a final rinse and hang dry. Definitely for zero days only.

Wyoming
05-08-2017, 23:25
Wash a pack with soap?

Well I have been hiking for 55 years and that is a new one to me. I personally have never washed a pack ever. When I get home from a trip I shake them out and hose them down until the water is not dirt colored and hang them in the garage until the next use. Even after I have been off trail for a month or so and the nose is back to normal smelling status I have never noticed that the packs smell much at all. I have had packs which were used for more than 10 years this way and smell was never an issue. They get white from salt but the rain washes that away or the hose as the case may be.

I have also use sleeping bags for years and never washed them with soap. Even after an entire thru hike I just usually hang them in the garage for a few weeks and then hang them in a loose bag in the closet until next trip (and trust me if they smelled really bad my wife would let me know to get them out of the closest). Air your bags out in the fresh air and inside out in the sun for a few hours. Should be just fine.

Maybe I'm just not stinky? Hmm .... I always thought other hikers smelled worse than me...now I have proof :)

Smithereens
05-09-2017, 00:34
If ya just hafta' wash your pack with soap, I'd vote for Dawn dishwashing liquid. (Hey, they use it to clean crude oil off of those poor marine critters, so it must be good stuff!)

And really, I use it around the house... walls, floors, toilets, shower... Cleans better than Pine-Sol and doesn't have that funky odor. Cleans windows better than anything I've seen too.

The trick is that it takes much, much less than you think it will, about a tablespoon or so per quart of water, weaker for glass.

Tipi Walter
05-09-2017, 01:00
I try to wash my pack in the Fall after all my sweaty summer trips are finished as the thing is saturated in dirt and salt. Last time I did it I used Dawn dish soap in the tub---

https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpack-2016-Trips-171/19-Days-in-a-Rattlesnake/i-7WTd2KJ/0/49624156/XL/June%202016%20021-XL.jpg

Leo L.
05-11-2017, 07:12
I've never washed my packs for decades.
But once it happened that I've used one of my bigger Lowe packs to carry the stuff for logging out to the forest, and it happened that I cut a tree right across the pack.
The gas canister survived, but the oil canister broke, so several liters of biogredable chainsaw oil soaked the pack.
The pack developed an extreme smell soon after and kept it whatever I tried to wash it out.
Finally I brought it on one of my desert trips to finally maybe thrash it - and it happened that the strong sun, high UV exposure, dry air, strong winds, or whatever else, took the odor off the pack.
So now I'm still using it.