Steve Sr.'s Thoughts on PPE Care and Maintenance
*The following guide is provided for the professional firefighter as maintenance instructions for the care and cleaning of protective clothing. Following these instructions in a regimented program should contribute to the reduction of hazardous contamination and increase the life expectancy of your protective clothing.
1994 - The year I cleaned my first set of turnouts. I believe I’ve seen it all when it pertains to care and maintenance of PPE…Like the time I saw a turnout pant come into our shop with its’ knee pad patched with a chunk of heavy split cow hide, sewn on with fishing leader.
Let’s start with a good money saving tip - All persons involved with putting garments into the washer/extractor should be instructed to check ALL pockets, including the one on the inside of the coat liner (Squeezing the outside of the pocket is NOT good enough! Stick your hand in there and feel around, make sure it is empty).It is amazing what will pass by the wash wheel and clog the washer drain valve. Keep in mind, maintenance service calls vary from $60.00 to $90.00 per hour plus travel time. The next tip is to lock away all Chlorine Bleach. I don’t even allow it in our facility, period. Chlorine bleach reacts to Kevlar and Nomex the same as Battery Acid does to Blue Jeans.
The next step is choosing a good, single phase detergent. Preferably one made specifically for Turnouts that will attack the type of soils & contamination that they run into. If you’re using a Detergent that also requires another chemical to be injected into the wash wheel just before the rinse cycle, red flags should go off. Allowable PH levels for cleaning turnouts and liner systems are between 6 and 10.5ph as it is being injected into the washer. 2 phase detergents (2 chemicals being injected during the wash cycle) more often than not means the chemical injected is over the 10.5ph max. This usually means they are on the heavy Alkali side of the scale, followed by a reducer (rinse) called a “sour” to bring the high PH levels back down to tolerable levels. Unfortunately, the damage has already begun. You can see examples of this in black fabrics that fade or turn purple, or when natural colored fabrics start looking fuzzy. The fuzziness is caused by the deteriorating pin fibers that hold the woven fabrics together. Commercial laundry services, like dry cleaners, use a 2 phase detergent combined with a very high water temperature to get whites whiter. Have you ever seen the stripes in a white striped Dress shirt fading and disappearing? It’s the same thing. Turnouts are not scrubs or dress shirts, they are a very tough, fragile piece of Safety gear.
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Start with separating the liners from the shells. Never wash the two together or you will increase your chance of damaging the moisture and thermal barrier. Besides, have you ever seen the hook side of Velcro after it cohabitated the same space as WL Gore’s RT7100 or Stedair 2000 moisture barriers in the wash wheel? If you have, the best way to clean the hook side of hook and loop is with a short wired dog grooming brush (I’ve been toldJ). In addition, you want to snap, zip and fasten all closures including pockets per NFPA 1851 7.3.7 (3).
I go one step further and turn the garments inside out. Just added protection for the garment and less noise from the Hook and D’s “clacking” on the machine window.
Note: Water Temperature at the wash wheel shall be 40degrees C or (105 degrees F) maximum NFPA1851 7.3.7(4) 2008 EDITION.
“The 3 things that cause shrinkage in fabrics are heat, moisture and agitation”. (IFI, International Fabricare Institute).
It doesn’t matter what size machine you have, you will get good results if you fill the wash wheel ¾ full, Dry, as seen through a front loader machine’s door window. This allows proper agitation for the garments to create friction between each other which is actually how things get cleaned.
A washer that is over filled does not allow agitation. The moisture re-loosens the soils and they redistribute themselves on the garment causing “redistribution of soils,” meaning the soils and grime you are trying to wash away never fully cleanse. Having too few garments in the wash wheel will not fully cleanse your turnouts as well. They need friction to rub against while agitating.
Extract speeds shall not exceed 100 G force “NFPA 1851 7.3.7 (6)
If you do not know the extract speed your machine is capable of here is a good formula
(RPM)X (RPM) (CYLINDER DIAMETER)
70,500 = G-FORCE
Here are wash formulas from a major manufacturer that are generally accepted industry wide. I also accept that every one, with a little experience, has their own secret formula that works for them.
For shells and liners:
*Flush 2 minutes with warm water
*Wash 10 minutes warm water and detergent
*Rinse 6 minutes cold water high level
*Rinse 5 minutes cold water high level
*Extract 4 to 4.5 minutes 100g
DRD’s may be washed with the outer shell if they are put in a mesh bag.
Hoods may be cleaned with liner elements if they are in a mesh bag.
Gloves should be hand cleaned and hang dried.
Boots and helmets can be hand cleaned and air dried.
Machine drying turnouts is acceptable @ 105 degrees or less
NOTE: I recommend hang drying as it is less obtrusive to the fabric.
Steve Lakey - Owner of Northwest Safety Clean in Portland Oregon
Vice President of VISPA (Verified Independent Service Providers Association)
And is 1 of 31 voting chairs on NFPA 1971/ 1851 Technical Committee for Structural and Proximity Firefighting.
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