How to wash plastic pants?

OfficialPastelPoppet

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I've had my pair of plastic pants for while now (a couple months) and they are starting to smell a bit hamster cagey. I don't know if I should put them in the washing machine because the plastic bit might melt if heated. I can't just wipe them because they are fabric backed and that wouldn't clean the fabric. How do I wash them so that the fabric and plastic are both cleaned without damaging them?
 
Wait, are they plastic or PUL? With plastic pants you need to hand wash them in the sink. With pul you can put them in the washing machine. Both kinds need to hung up to dry though.
 
Do they have a tag on them? .................. *wink*
 
I wash mine in the machine with mild soap (along with the diapers). I use a high speed spin cyle on my machine and then hang them up to dry (the diapers go in the drier).
 
I wash mine in the shower with just water, cleaning the inside as well as the outside then hang them dry
 
I've machine washed, hand-washed, washed in the shower, and soaked in bleach to bring back to full brightness... unless they're expensive or delicate I'd suggest they're likely to be designed to be washed and be pretty resilient.

Your washing machine can't get hot enough to melt plastic - the dangers would be the chemicals in the soap or physical damage from an aggressive wash cycle, but your regular clothes contain a lot of plastic fibre and survive ok.
 
There's a type of vinyl that very soft but also quite thin. They resemble the old Gerber plastic pants. I've used those for years but they don't last very long as they quickly turn brittle. For those, I've washed them in the shower with only water. Any kind of soap will quickly deteriorate them.
 
I wash mine in shower with baby shampoo they last me a long time .
But I buy the thickest I can get .
Six or seven mil
 
Wash it by hand in the sink with a tiny bit of soap or detergent and hang dry
 
Sheepies said:
Wash it by hand in the sink with a tiny bit of soap or detergent and hang dry
After every wearing.
 
If they have simply been wet, I wash on a short cold cycle with normaul washing powder then hang to dyr - I don't seem to find any odour apart from plastic.

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Yes - after every wearing
 
I wash mine in the sink with mild laundry detergent with out any dyes. I hang dry them inside out and upside down using a baby hanger thru one leg. This helps keep water from gathering in the crotch.
 
a good way to hang plastic pants: Cut the bottom rung of a plastic hanger into, this will allow you to open the bottom of the hanger enough to insert the leg holes of your plastic pants and hang them complete upside down.
 
I wait till I have about a week's worth of used ones. Then I wash them in the washing machine--extra delicate cycle with a small amount of laundry detergent. When they are clean, I take them out and put them in the dryer. I put 3 large bath towels in the dryer with them and dry them on low heat for 10 minutes. They always come out clean and fresh.
 
Slomo said:
Wait, are they plastic or PUL? With plastic pants you need to hand wash them in the sink. With pul you can put them in the washing machine. Both kinds need to hung up to dry though.

They are plastic pants with fabric on the outside. Whats PUL??

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Cottontail said:
Do they have a tag on them? .................. *wink*

What? Not as far as I can see. Do you mean like a clothing label?

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dogboy said:
There's a type of vinyl that very soft but also quite thin. They resemble the old Gerber plastic pants. I've used those for years but they don't last very long as they quickly turn brittle. For those, I've washed them in the shower with only water. Any kind of soap will quickly deteriorate them.

I don't know what kind of plastic they are. Only the inside is plastic. It is soft and doesn't make any noise

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foxkits said:
I wash mine in shower with baby shampoo they last me a long time .
But I buy the thickest I can get .
Six or seven mil

Mine aren't think. Just a plastic inside and a fabric layer on the outside. No padding

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chuck said:
I wait till I have about a week's worth of used ones. Then I wash them in the washing machine--extra delicate cycle with a small amount of laundry detergent. When they are clean, I take them out and put them in the dryer. I put 3 large bath towels in the dryer with them and dry them on low heat for 10 minutes. They always come out clean and fresh.

I only have one pair. I put them over disposables when out so they don't normally get wet. I just use them in case of leaks, but that doesn't often happen
 
I never wash mine. I just rinse them under the tap and hang them out to dry.
 
OfficialPastelPoppet said:
They are plastic pants with fabric on the outside. Whats PUL??

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What? Not as far as I can see. Do you mean like a clothing label?

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I don't know what kind of plastic they are. Only the inside is plastic. It is soft and doesn't make any noise

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Mine aren't think. Just a plastic inside and a fabric layer on the outside. No padding

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I only have one pair. I put them over disposables when out so they don't normally get wet. I just use them in case of leaks, but that doesn't often happen

PUL is poly urethane laminate. It is a type of "plastic" that is laminated onto a nylon fabric outer layer. The most popular type is the Gary activewear PUL pants.

Standard plastic pants don't have an outer fabric layer, but by default pul does. That's why I asked. Do you know what kind yours is, or where you got it from?
 
To my knowledge.. and i do not profess to be an expert, but i have researched quite a bit; one should not use soap on plastic. The problems with washing plastic panties in the washer is not the temperature, it's using detergent. Soaps, oils, creams, urine and feces all leach plastisizers out of vinyl, leaving them stiff and brittle which leads to cracks which for me happen mostly in the crotch and legs elastics. I have been just rinsing my plastic panties in the shower and letting them air dry for a while now, and have had much less issue with them cracking and becoming brittle.

For diaper covers that are fabric and plastic like yours i would try doing what i do and just rinsing them, if that does not do the trick use a very mild soap that does not contain any moisturizers like Ivory, and only sparingly spot soap them where they are dirty and rinse them well.
 
randy1959 said:
To my knowledge.. and i do not profess to be an expert, but i have researched quite a bit; one should not use soap on plastic. The problems with washing plastic panties in the washer is not the temperature, it's using detergent. Soaps, oils, creams, urine and feces all leach plastisizers out of vinyl, leaving them stiff and brittle which leads to cracks which for me happen mostly in the crotch and legs elastics. I have been just rinsing my plastic panties in the shower and letting them air dry for a while now, and have had much less issue with them cracking and becoming brittle.

For diaper covers that are fabric and plastic like yours i would try doing what i do and just rinsing them, if that does not do the trick use a very mild soap that does not contain any moisturizers like Ivory, and only sparingly spot soap them where they are dirty and rinse them well.

There isn't any actual urine or feces on it. Just "hamster tray" smell, because i've worn them a lot. I've only ever leaked a tiny bit of pee on them, which I wipe off with a wet wipe. I have never ever got poop on them

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Slomo said:
PUL is poly urethane laminate. It is a type of "plastic" that is laminated onto a nylon fabric outer layer. The most popular type is the Gary activewear PUL pants.

Standard plastic pants don't have an outer fabric layer, but by default pul does. That's why I asked. Do you know what kind yours is, or where you got it from?

Mine are plastic inside with blue hello kitty fabric outside. The fabric isn't laminated on as there is a space inbetween the 2 layers (obviously sewn up at the edges). If you were to un-stitch the sewing, the plastic and fabric would be 2 different pieces.

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randy1959 said:
To my knowledge.. and i do not profess to be an expert, but i have researched quite a bit; one should not use soap on plastic. The problems with washing plastic panties in the washer is not the temperature, it's using detergent. Soaps, oils, creams, urine and feces all leach plastisizers out of vinyl, leaving them stiff and brittle which leads to cracks which for me happen mostly in the crotch and legs elastics. I have been just rinsing my plastic panties in the shower and letting them air dry for a while now, and have had much less issue with them cracking and becoming brittle.

For diaper covers that are fabric and plastic like yours i would try doing what i do and just rinsing them, if that does not do the trick use a very mild soap that does not contain any moisturizers like Ivory, and only sparingly spot soap them where they are dirty and rinse them well.

They are not stiff or hard. The texture/flexibility is the same as when I got them

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ST50 said:
I never wash mine. I just rinse them under the tap and hang them out to dry.

This would be ok if they were just plastic, but the fabric outside needs a proper washing
 
Hand wash them if you're worried. Probably with either just water or super-mild detergent.

I have 'special' laundry detergent that I use on my bedding and PUL pants. I use Ivory Snow on them because it's mild AND it smells freakin' fantastic.
 
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