One more thing, do you do anything special with the straps and buckles when they go in to the machine?
I don’t. Just make sure they aren’t buckled to themselves because sometimes that makes the blanket not turn in the drum properly. However, my washer doesn’t do a high spin speed when I set it to bulky load.
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Oh, also for blanket soap. I use both the Rambo blanket wash or free and clear human soap. I much prefer the way the blankets look and smell after the free and clear. I give my clients the choice of either. I don’t find the free and clear strips the waterproofing.
Is this the orange cap spray thing? I don’t want to traipse our local Walmart and guess…
I am not a pro, but this works for me and my blankets stay waterproof, UNLIKE the ones done professionally local to me, which always lose their waterproofing.
I throw my blanket down on the concrete driveway, hose down to wet and get rid of mud clumps, then take a scrubbing brush and a bucket of warm water with a mild soap in it (Dr Bronner’s for example) and scrub away. Turn over and repeat. Hose to rinse. Then hang to dry.
I can do a blanket in 20 mins and it saves them being off at the cleaner’s for a week, plus a lot of $. I do this a couple of times thru the winter season.
I do put liners, fly sheets, coolers and the like in my front load machine, and it works like a charm. I fasten buckles, safety pin a sock over anything very clanky to protect the drum, and kinda bunch up the blanket so the clanky bits are folded inside. You drum inevitably gets dents though.
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BRILLIANT!!!
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Back in the day when I used to wash my own blankets I thought I washed out all the manufacture waterproofing in my machine… could never figure out why when I sent the blankets away they came back waterproofed but when I did them myself they were no good anymore… is it because of the agitator or something? Now if I can’t send my blankets away to be washed, I just scrub scrub scrub on the fence with soap and water and they are fine…what was i doing wrong that you do differently?
ditto here, and that applies to both top and side load (both with no agitators). Then I just did them with no soap, which did not remove the waterproofing. It also did not really remove the dirt either. So now I send them out to be cleaned at the end of the season, although I will wash (w/o soap) the sheets throughout the winter just to keep the stink at a dull roar.
It’s more than likely two factors; your soap and what kind of blanket you are buying. If a blanket looses all the waterproofing after washing it’s usually that the manufacturer isn’t using very good waterproofer in the first place. And if you use harsh soap, it’s usually going to strip any waterproofing faster.
Oh, and by the way saying it the manufacturer not using great waterproofing isn’t saying you are purchasing cheap blankets. Being in this business has taught me some interesting things. Like the old riders international blankets are waterproof till the day they die. Schneider’s almost always loose their waterproofing within a year. Rambos stain and fade terribly, but stay waterproof for 3-5 years after purchase.
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Yes, I noticed that about Schneider’s with the last 2 blankets I bought from them, although for about 15 years before that, the blankets were unbelievably tough and waterproof.
They are really good blankets for if you have a horse that isn’t a traditional fit. Just grab a can of tent waterproofing and spray it down really well before you use it, and reapply every other year or so.
I was totally loyal to them for the longest time, and had that system down pat, but there’s nothing like a few consecutive massive failures of waterproofing in a Georgia winter (all rain, all the time) to end that loyalty. Over the next few years everything got switched over to horseware. Fortunately one was a new and different size equine, so that was mostly all new stuff anyway and the other one has moved to the not clipped retiree side of life, so he only needs protection from rain (ok, that’s all the damn time, but at least 3 - 4 different layers aren’t his problem).
And it was, I’m sure, just one really bad blanket and I never followed up with them, so at least part of it was I was obviously ready for a change
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Stopped by to say that I tried the Dry Guy nontoxic spray on waterproofing last year for some older blankets, and that did NOT work. I got some improvement from wash-in Nikwax but a couple of the blankets needed multiple applications and never got back up to handling horse who loves to be out and get soaked so long as he has his jacket on. Now, he didn’t get soaked all the way through, but it was enough that last winter in the south it took DAYS to dry his blankets. I bought a new Rambo Duo shell to use in more wet conditions and will baby that. I try to be good about always using blanket wash, but sometimes I would just use my normal “free” detergent, but even that I think is rough on the waterproofing unfortunately.
I can’t really handle the fumes of some of these orange cap type sprays.
How waterproof a rug remains is due to both the water repellant coating on the outside (which can be refreshed), but also, more importantly, the laminated backing on the inside of the outer fabric. The quality of this lamination method varies greatly by brand. Once the backing breaks down you can never reproof the rug to get it reliably waterproof again, as you are only relying on the water repellant coating on the outside of the rug to keep the water beading up. This may keep out enough water to remain dry during light showers, but once there is heavy rain the fabric just gets waterlogged and seeps through.
This lamination method is why Rambos don’t stay waterproof for 20 years like they used to. Back then they were made with a 3 layer construction, similar to how goretex is made. They used to have a separate waterproof layer sandwiched between the outer fabric and the inner lining. These days they just have the laminated backing - which is the same as almost every other rug on the market. The ballistic nylon used by Rambo is strong and lasts well, but the waterproofing is no better than many other brands. Yes you can top up and refresh the repellant coating, but you can’t get them fully waterproof again to the point that you can rely on them in really heavy rain (if it is the backing that has failed, and not just the DWR).
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I can wash fleece coolers, rain sheets and the 100 gram turnout in my home top load machine. I have to send out the heavier turnouts.
I was the waterproof blankets in plain water which gets them clean enough. Sometimes I use a can of waterproofing especially on seams. I have one old turnout with a seam down the back. The newer ones don’t.
