I was about to throw out my favorite chores coat because washing it no longer gets the smell out. Oxyclean doesn’t work. Its older but it stil works. One last chance…
Any ideas before I chuck it?
Embrace the smell? 
Nature’s Miracle
Place 1/2 cup (at least) of baking soda in with the laundry soap.
I don’t see the point. Why wash it when it’s just going to get dirty and smelly again?
Just kidding! I wash mine in All Plus liquid from Costco. Many are same coats I’ve had for 8+ years and they still come out fresh. All are down or soft shell and are all black in color. I use cold water (well water) and put it on a 28 min cycle. Then drain and spin again.
Get a bucket or tub big enough to fit it into and dissolve a good amount of baking soda in some hot water, and soak it at least overnight, if not a couple days. Put something on it to hold it under the water. Then throw it in the wash.
I’m guessing your coat is canvas - like Carhartt.
Eventually the smell becomes almost a part of the fabric.
Aside from washing multiple times & drying with a scented softener < which may just make it smell like Flowery Barn - why bother?
Like COL said: it’s a barn coat.
My current chore coat is a microfiber shell with button-in fleece liner I got from Goodwill for $7.
It is going on Year 4 & washes beautifully - no residual smell.
I’ve even worn it in public & never gotten the (literal) Stinkeye.
If you use or have ever used liquid softener on the coat that is the root of your problem. It will take a LOT of hot water vinegar washes to get the nasty ass waxy residue that traps the odour out of the fabric. If you can get it to that point, and you never use that guck again, the smell should come out with regular washing from that point on.
I was actually getting nauseous when I got a little warm at work. Took me a while to figure out it was the combined odours of cattle muck and liquid softener guck that was making me queasy. My work clothes and towels get washed at work without liquid softener. Every once in a while one of “my” towels (NO SOFTENER!!!) accidentally gets dryed with someone else’s laundry that has had softener. Even that amount of transferred guck and smell is enough to gross me out totally. You might not smell it when the towel is dry, but put that sucker to a wet face and ewwww.
I always use some Arm & Hammer Washing Soda or 20 Mule Team Borax on all my barn clothes. Never had an odor problem washing this way.
I would try the Nature’s Miracle route.
But I just have to throw in that this thread reminds me of the time I went to the post office, and as I stood inline with about a dozen people, I was wondering just who the bleep smelled so strongly of cat urine.
Wasn’t until I got out to the car that I realized it was me …
At the time, I had a cat with Renal failure, and he was very good 90% of the time but would have accidents. Didn’t notice the smell putting the coat on because the it was completely dry. But going from the car into the post office, I’d crossed a parking lot in a downpour, and the smell came out with a vengeance.
Good thing I wasn’t dumb enough to say, “who the heck stinks around here?!?”
I have had all the types/norms of barn coats we all have. One day, my husband brought home a men’s leather jacket from goodwill. You know, kinda the original ‘bomber’ style. But of course older, and starting to show wear on the leather…I’ll never go back. Large enough to go over all the ‘washable’ layers underneath, holds no hay, horse hair, odors, (for the most part) on the exterior. I’ll find a worn out old leather man’s jacket from now on for my barn jacket!
Febreze has an odor remover that actually works!
A few considerations…
How much soap are you using? Dirt and oils use up soap fast. You want to put more in for a heavier soiled load.
Not all soaps are created equal. I’m a die hard powdered Tide fan.
Do you have a small top loader that maybe isn’t handling the agitation of a heavy coat well? Try running it through a front loader at the laundromat.
Front loadoor He washer. Always use powder, generally tide or oxyclean. Yesterday I added Borax to the wash and other think it really helped!
Soak in diluted vinegar for 24 hours, use hot water in the washer, and try the “sport” detergent. The Tide sport detergent really helps with my sun shirts.
You guys are probably “nose blind” - I always travel to Europe to my family with a suitcase of fresh-washed clothes, and the first thing my grandson says is I smell of Langley - it is not manure, pee, dog, etc…just a country smell, whatever that is - Very embarrassing for me as they are city folks!
Don’t worry about it - you are lucky to have a barn smell coat…means you have h.o.r.s.e.s!
where are you wearing it that it matters? That’s what city coats are for
Someone told me she always used vinegar to wash extremely smelly teenage football clothing. Seems counterproductive to put something smelly (I think vinegar smells gross) in with smelly clothing, but she said it totally neutralizes it and the clothing comes out clean. Maybe something to try?
Try getting the smell out of a hockey bag, or a man’s fencing bag - there is a product for that!
My husband actually proposed having multiple coats. I keep my horses at home, so I’m thinking I’ll wear one coat to walk out to the barn, and then change in my tack room into the barn chore coat, and then change back, because it is just nasty, and I wash it! We don’t have a huge house (new property, renovations projected) so my poor husband has to keep some of his sporting equipment in the closet I use for my barn clothes! It’s BAD! I wonder if you could do something similar - have a barn coat you put with your tack and change at the barn into the offensive smelling outer layer:) Sigh. But I’m one of those that gets a headache from perfume!
