What is the significance of washing the safety chaps from Stihl weekly? The only things I could think of is keeping the Kevlar soft or Keeping the weave loose. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Safety Chaps Care
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I never washed mine, ever. They looked so bad from all the saw nicks and stunk so bad that the wife threw them out. I don't know if frequent washing might unravel the ends of the weave or not. I imagine too much bleach could do them harm.
I think, from my reading that safety chaps are made out of the same stuff that horse blankets are made of. The "denier" thing, and the look of the fabric, makes me think the a horse blanket "wash" like this
http://www.sstack.com/shopping/prod...14&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=blanket+wash
(broken image removed)
http://www.sstack.com/index.jsp
http://www.sstack.com/shopping/prod...14&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=blanket+wash
(broken image removed)
http://www.sstack.com/index.jsp
Per the wash and care directions on the label, they should be washed on a regular basis - weekly if you wear them a lot, less often if you don't, but still every 5-10 cutting sessions or so. (Hint, if they start walking around on their own, you need to wash more often... %-P )
USE REGULAR DETERGENT - DO NOT USE BLEACH
Not sure whats in the stuff Dixie Hustle pointed at, but chaps do NOT use the same stuff that horse blankets and pads are made from, at least not for the padding which is the important part (they might both use cordura nylon for the shell, which is only there to protect the pads, it doesn't have any safety function) I would be hesitant to use it unless I was really sure that it had no bleach in it's ingredients, and possibly asked the manufacturer if it was OK for Kevlar / Engetex (the two materials the pads are made from) Looks like it might be good stuff otherwise, though I've found our normal laundry detergent works fine...
This keeps the saw jamming pads soft and loose so that they can disintegrate and jam the saw in case of a hit the way they are supposed to...
If you use bleach, you weaken the pad strands, so they will break instead of jamming the saw.
If you don't wash, the pad material gets all stuck together with sweat and dirt, and it won't work properly if you ever need it to.
Gooserider
USE REGULAR DETERGENT - DO NOT USE BLEACH
Not sure whats in the stuff Dixie Hustle pointed at, but chaps do NOT use the same stuff that horse blankets and pads are made from, at least not for the padding which is the important part (they might both use cordura nylon for the shell, which is only there to protect the pads, it doesn't have any safety function) I would be hesitant to use it unless I was really sure that it had no bleach in it's ingredients, and possibly asked the manufacturer if it was OK for Kevlar / Engetex (the two materials the pads are made from) Looks like it might be good stuff otherwise, though I've found our normal laundry detergent works fine...
This keeps the saw jamming pads soft and loose so that they can disintegrate and jam the saw in case of a hit the way they are supposed to...
If you use bleach, you weaken the pad strands, so they will break instead of jamming the saw.
If you don't wash, the pad material gets all stuck together with sweat and dirt, and it won't work properly if you ever need it to.
Gooserider
No wonder I never washed mine - the tag with the care instructions is torn off! ha. I prefer the "slightly used" look myself. As far as I can tell the more crud I accumulate on the chaps the more cut resistance they'll have, right? ha....
Bleach will weaken Kevlar and should not be used to launder it. I would think that other aramids (Nomex or generic Kevlar substitutes) would behave similarly. Exposure to light will also darken Kevlar. I don't know if this hurts the performance in any way but some type of change definitely takes place as the typical yellow becomes a muddy brown color. I would keep any Kevlar articles away from light as much as possible because even though they aren't exposed directly, you don't know how much light passes through the covering materials or what effect it may have.
1. I'd probably be inclined to replace chaps that were 13 years old just on general principles - even without any saw hits, they've probably taken a pretty fair amount of beating in general. I would also think the technology has gotten better since they were made.
2. More dirt on the chaps does NOT give them better protection ability. If it's in the pads and gluing them together, it will lower the protection.
3. Light may be an issue, but I'd be inclined to doubt it... The instructions warn about bleach, but I've never seen any mention of light being an issue - I'd think if it were, the instructions would have some sort of caution about it... Presumably they figure the chaps will have exceeded their useful lifespan before the light will have degraded them significantly.
Gooserider
2. More dirt on the chaps does NOT give them better protection ability. If it's in the pads and gluing them together, it will lower the protection.
3. Light may be an issue, but I'd be inclined to doubt it... The instructions warn about bleach, but I've never seen any mention of light being an issue - I'd think if it were, the instructions would have some sort of caution about it... Presumably they figure the chaps will have exceeded their useful lifespan before the light will have degraded them significantly.
Gooserider
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