Hi,
Getting ready to hand wash our many brushes. What do you like? Are some products too harsh (damage brushes?). My choices that I have on hand are Simple Green, Dawn Dish Soap, Lysol something or other, Spic and Span, Ivory Dish soap. Thanks!
We throw ours in the washing machine with some chlorhexadine (Nolvasan). Air dry bristles down. For fancy brushes like leather back or straps, just some dish soap in shallow water, swish and rinse.
Just whatever is around usually a bucket of sudsy liquid hand soap and then air dry in the sun. A comb to scrub the fur out of the bristle brushes is useful. I’ve never had to disinfect brushes for skin infections though.
Soak in Dawn and a bit of bleach. Air dry.
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We do ours in (diluted) Lysol. They got done every Monday, and all have held up fine.
I soaked mine in diluted bleach when I thought my horse might have had a skin infection (it wasn’t anyway) and they cleaned up pretty well. Air dried in the sun. Not real horsehair though.
Dish soap or mild horse shampoo with a generous pour of chlorhexadine. I only used them for two personal horses, tops, so they only got done once or twice a year. Air dry out of the sun with good ventilation.
I dilute Dawn in a bucket of warm water. Soak plastic items in bucket. The brushes are out in only up to the handles. I don’t soak wooden handles. Use a curry to scrub the bristles a bit under the water. Rinse and air dry.
Dawn dish soap or dr. Bronners magic soap. Rinse very well to get the residue out, otherwise it will just attract more grime.
If you need to sanitize, bleach or alcohol.
Simple Green Pro 3 - it’s anti-bacterial, -fungicidal and -virucidal. Gentle on skin, but effective on the cruds.
I clean my whole house with it.
Also amazing on thrush.
Highly concentrated, so a gallon goes a very long way.
Bottom shelf of the cleaning product aisle at Home Depot.
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I use lavender Dr Bronner liquid castile soap. Smells amazing, gets brushes clean. I keep a bottle on the front of my stall and always use it when something is grungy and needs scrubbing.
I always used betadine soap and sun dried
Oxiclean.
I do like @keysfins Washer with whatever laundry detergent I am using & a load of barn towels.
Air dry, bristles down in the sun if we have it.
I have El Cheapo brushes, both horsehair & synthetic, some over 20yrs old & they have all survived this treatment.
If I needed to disinfect I’d also use something like the Nolvasan/Chlorhexidine.
My brushes are all natural hair or fiber so I’ve always used a horse shampoo with a curry to loosen any dirt, rinsed, and then dried bristle down. I try to wash mine 2-3 times from March-November. I don’t wash in winter unless I think the brushes can totally dry out in a few hours since I don’t want to have damp brushes harboring funk. Since I only use my brushes on 1-2 horses at a time with no skin issues I’m not super concerned about disinfecting.
Sudsy Ammonia, rinse and dry with bristles down. Cuts grease like nothing else.
A friend of mine gave me a little packet of Brush Therapy and it works really well. It seems to dissolve all the dirt quickly. Unfortunately, I am not sure where she got it.
I have many different types of brushes and cannot kill them. I wash them whenever in whatever - laundry detergent, horse shampoo, Mr. Clean, etc. I’ve had some of them for 20 years. I’ve never spread a disease from horse to horse by using nondisinfecting soap.
Usually dawn dish detergent. After reading this maybe I’ll try adding some ammonia to the mix. Air dry.
