Cleaning a Racing Suit

Did you remove the tag with the washing instructions on them?

These days everything has washing instructions tags on 'em.

(If you're the sort to push the envelope on track, the washing instructions are the first thing you ask about. )

 

Most new suit manufactures are now asking the owners to stay away from Dry cleaning of their products, they can not guarantee that the chemicals that your local cleaners are using are not flammable. A gentle hand washing in woolite should do the trick.

 

Cold water wash, hang dry. Woolite if you're paranoid...<grin> I've dry-cleaned my customer's Stand 21. I machine wash my Sparco.

-Peter (my suits never stay clean 'cause I'm always working in them!)

 

I have always dry cleaned mine. I have had three different brands, all with patches and never had a problem.

 

I was told years ago NEVER dry clean them as that breaks down the flame-retardent materials in the threads.

But if you google up 'cleaning nomex', that seems to be an approved method now, but go search for yourself.

 

Is that after you have a off track moment in them. No onley joking i was at a mates place and all what he dose with his is cold rince in the washing mashine
then a light spin cycle and hang them in an area that has a draft going through it.

 

Ah. Try wetting a white rag and dabbing the patches.
If they're going to run, the color should come off on the rag first.

 

Earlier this year, I was advised by a top-end suit manufacturer not to dry clean my suit.

Light detergent, light wash, hang to dry.

 

Me too- dry clean mine after every weekend of use for years and it still looks good (see profile photo, at which time that particular suit was a year or two old). As for washing, I was told that it would fade the color so I've never tried it.

 

I had a similar experience with my Simpson suit. However afer 3 years the red banding started to fade a little bit but the other colors were fine.

 

It might look good, but is it still as fire-retardant as it once was ?
I don't give a dang about looking good, if I did I'd drive in a 3-piece Brooks Brothers suit, I want a few extra seconds to get out of a fire situation, that's the whole point of a driving suit. Sorry, I'm not ranting, fire safety is very dear to me as I had a close friend burn to death in a racing accident 6 years ago.

 

EXACTLY! Thank you for hitting the nail on the head.

 

I'm certainly no authority on the subject, but can tell you that the manufacturer (in this case, RaceQuip) affirmatively recommended dry cleaning, and said that washing could cause fading. I'd like to assume that they wouldn't tell customers to dry clean if they were concerned about the integrity of the fire protection being impaired, but what do I know?

 

Wash in cold water and use Woolite dark color detergent, hang dry, some dry cleaners use chemicals that do not retard flames. Simpson has done reasearch on this, check their web site.

 

Alot of conflicting information here, and part of the problem might be that everyone is saying "racing suit" like they are all the same. My bet is that cleaning instructions vary depending on what the suit is made of. Nomex, CarbonX, Proban. Also it depends on the age, new Proban suits have a different bonding agent than old Proban suits (and are not as affected by washing). If you have an old Proban suit you probably should not clean it at all.

 

the first time I took it to the dry cleaners then after that I washed it at home and air dry it; no dryer. it comes out perfect.

 

I haven't seen a Proban suit in years! <grin>

Pretty much all the current sanctioning bodies require SFI labels for certification.

3.2A-5 is the generally the minimum acceptable, FIA and SCCA, at least. The equicalent of a two-layer, one-piece suit. The last Proban suit I saw was a single-layer 3.2A-1...

Carbon-X is bad! It feels really good and is cool, wicks moisture well. The material of the future...

 

There are definitely SFI 3.2-5 (with tpp of 26) proban suits. They just scare me, although the new ones supposedly dont wash away as quickly. I see way too many of the old ones still being used.

Everyone should at least get a set of CarbonX underwear. I use UnderX brand (shirt, pants, balaclava) under my double layer nomex suit.

Also practice getting out quickly while wearing full gear and strapped in, you don't want to fumble if you are engulfed in flames. My dad was over helping me get my car ready one day before my first race, saw me doing this and asked what was going on, when I told him practicing getting out on fire, he said, "don't you need to do that with the car upside down?"

 

Most important carbon-x wicking moisture so you don't get steam burns in a fire from your own sweat turning to steam! Yup crazy thing like that does happen.