Worried about BDU wash fading, 1st soak in vinegar?

[Fudoshin77]

Im been involved in brazilian jiu-jitsu and its very common to soak our coloured "Gi's"(martial arts uniforms - black, blue, etc, and yes there are camo gi's out now) in vinegar for a day before the first wash to colour lock our gi's to counter fade wash.

Does anyone in airsoft soak their BDU's in vinegar before the first wash?

PS. I'm new to airsoft and I've read and researched ALOT (wife raises eyebrow. I tent to get hardcore with all my hobbies). I was aiming that my first post would be a contribution to the community and not a one liner rant or rave. I have no gear what so ever at the moment but my first purchase will be on a multicam BDU, eye/face protection and boots (wife's nephew will be lending me his extra guns to play until I buy my own).

And YES I will make sure I get aged verified (im 33) once I go out to my first game.

[ShelledPants]

I've never had to do any special washes for my BDU's, following the manufacturer's wash instructions (especially for real gear) is important to preserve the color AND the infrared signature of the cloth. Good gear does not reflect IR, but good gear washed or treated improperly will reflect IR. This is really bad if you're playing any night games and don't want to show up on someone's night vision goggles like a white hot target. Thus, I'm not sure of what would happen to your BDU if you soak them in vinegar for a day.

Having said this, if you don't play night games with NVG's, then maybe it's a moot point, and vinegar will preserve the colors for fighting in the day.

[ex]

Welcome and thanks for the tip. This sport can use some maturity injected into it.

[DarkAngel]

The vinegar trick is recommended with BDU's that tend to fade easily.

IE. 1st and 2nd gen Issue Cadpat, Multicamo (Fake Multicam) etc.

My Gen 3's dont fade easily as they have improved it. I havent used vinegar at all on my Cadpats, been wearing em for the last 4-5 years now. Almost no fading.

Multicamo and other multicam knockoffs DO fade.. and quick. Truspec is much better, but most of the Truspec is Garrison Grade, and will eventually start to fade, though not as fast as the knockoff clones. The Op-Grade Truspec stuff lasts a LONG time. But good luck finding em lol, they pretty much are backordered MONTHS in advance lol.

You get what you pay for, and while vinegar will slow down the degredation of the patterns, you wont have that kind of issue if your getting good quality BDU's to begin with.

Cheers, and welcome to the sport

[The Chad]

Vinegar will only help dye take to fabrics. If you are not dying the clothing, I don't see how the vinegar will help.

[Frozen Tex]

I like the faded look, with some patterns anyway (Woodland, for instance).
I used vinegar when I tea-dyed an old white shirt, and the colour stayed...

I recently got a UV/blacklight flashlight, and when shining it on my different uniforms, I noticed some were glowing; I think we were washing laundry at the time with some old detergent that was full of dye and likely phosphates, so I need to rewash some of my gear to get that out. But now, I might take that UV light with me to our next night game, and see if any of our guys glow in the dark...

[FOX_111]

If you are using a milspec BDU, as in, not a reproduction, then I'd say just washing it alone with a small amount of detergeant will do.

I have one of the first, I think it's a Gen2 Frontenac Cadpat BDU that required special washing attention. To keep it in good colour shape, I washed it in only water for several years. Never had any fading and it came out clean and fresh. No smell, if anyone is wondering.

Now I run genuine BDU and I wash them seperatly, with a little detergeant and fabric softener. They get more confy and they stay in good shape.

[EagleDriver]

Not sure if it is available in Canada, but Dropps does not contain optical brighteners:

http://www.dropps.com/

I started using it when I bought a set of China made BDU's (Tibetan) that I was told would fade easily. But basically, it is best to wash them without the optical brighteners.

Here is a good chart:

http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.co...entchoices.htm

And I have a toddler daughter, so I'm allowed to look at a web site for laundering diapers!

[Ozone06]

A little bit of Thread hijacking here!

And it's a stupid question so prep the flamethrowers!!

I'm coming up to the first time of washing my Propper Multicam BDU's and I was thinking on using Zero or Zero dark and hand washing them, or should I just use tide by them selves?

Thanks!

Shayne

[Frozen Tex]

Seriously, though... Zero Dark is exactly what I was using when I noticed that my camo glowed under black light... Find a no-dyes, no-perfumes, no-phosphates detergent... Presidents Choice makes a good one, also made for cold-water washing...

"In the field, that April-Fresh scent'll give away your position, get you killed!"

Benny-Ray Riddle, SOF Inc.

[Ozone06]

lol

Nice quote!

I guess I'll be heading down to No frills looking for that detergent

Thanks a bunch!