I hear you, sister....lol! It's a universal problem.

Here's what I have adopted as my laundry routine for my performance fabrics:

• Cold water vinegar soak. I do this in my larger laundry room sink.
• Turn the clothing inside out.
• Use a specialty detergent in warm or cool water. I like WIN Sports detergent or Nathan's Sports Wash, but there are others.
• NO FABRIC SOFTENER

I know what you mean about the comfort of these garments. Be sure to collect a number of these pieces so that you can wear them frequently but have enough to do a full load on laundry day. I visit my fitness center several times a week, but also love to wear some of the garments at other times, too.

I wash my running clothes the same as the rest of my laundry. But I never put them in the dryer. Air drying is supposed to prevent the embedded sweat smell, and those that have never been heat dried have no odor. Old ones that went through the dryer, they do smell once they get sweaty again.

+1 to the comfort. I wear sports bras 99% of the time. I'm active in general, so no straps falling down, comfortable no matter what I'm doing.

Rhizo, can you please specify your vinegar to water ratio? I've read the vinegar advice so often I'm going to try it. I checked out the sports detergents you mentioned. I'm going to try Nathan's Sports Wash, I found a good deal on it at REI.com.

AOK, yes I air dry sports clothes, Ive heard that dryer s do a lot of damage to those fabrics.

I wear lots of sports clothing, but my method might not fit you. I take my bike clothes in the shower with me, as in I am still wearing them. ;) I let them get rinsed in my shampoo water, and then take them off, and stomp around on them. Scoot them over, while I shower, and then use a bar soap on the crotch of my bike shorts, and at the underarm areas of my shirts, and all over the bra. All this is done in the bathtub. Wash it all well, and rinse well, and transfer to the washing machine for spinning, after I get dried off. I hang my clothes outside, or inside depending on the weather for drying.

While I am touring I don't do this much different, except the tossing on the floor and stomping.. cause sometimes, I wonder about the shower where I am, such as in campgrounds. I take a walmart bag in the shower with me, and put the clothes in there, and then proceed to wash them after I shower, in the sink.

My bike shorts last a long time, since I quit tossing them in the washing machine, back in the early 90's.

I never wear the same shorts day in a row, I rotate, just like I do my bras. I was told, bras last longer, if you give them a rest day to recoup their stretch. Good bike shorts are very expensive now a days, and I want them to last.

Moni

Vinegar is a very mild acidic. Which means it could act as a *laundry sour*. A laundry sour is generally used in the next to last rinse cycle to neutrilize carbonate residue. It will not remove sweat, oils, on textiles.

Cold or lukewarm water also can not remove oils. Using these temps cause the oils to harden in the fibers building up over time. Causing textiles to become dingy and develope odors.

Best advice for washing this type of clothing is wash in very warm to hot and use a good TOL detergent. Always air dry.

Have you ever seen bed sheets/pillowcases that turned yellow and had an odor...that's the body oils in the fibers mostly caused from wash water not being hot enough.

I don't recommend a sanitize wash for those that have this cycle, that's too hot for these wicking fabrics but 125 F should be fine.

Think about this....you had a fried chicken for dinner, loaded your dishwasher with all the greasy dishes and ran the cycle on cool/lukewarm...are the dishes squeeky clean...nope.

textiles are even harder to remove the oils from as it gets down deep into the fibers.

Oils arnt the only problem....sweat develops odors quickly and that's caused from the bacteria that grows in sweat. So if the clothes have odors, the oils are there and so is the sweat growing bacteria.

Hot or very warm washes are needed to remove these.

Super hot makes sense to me, because bacteria causes odor. I could be wrong, but intuitively, that makes sense.

Lucille, I use a cup to about three gallons of water in the sink....soak for at least 30 minutes.

Rob, these newer synthetics should not be laundered in hot water.

Dang. I'd have to avoid those. Just like the new "memory foam" shoes. I hate those suckers.

I cannot fault y'all's logic/intuition about bacteria and oil and hot water. But this is a two part deal, you want the sweat and bacteria gone, yet you want to be careful with the fabric.

I just went and looked at the tags on my new sports crops and it says 'machine wash cold/gentle'.

Moni, the machine is easier, but I could consider hand washing. But my grandmother died of complications after a slip and fall, I try to be careful in the tub and on wet floors because my Meniere's predisposes me to balance problems sometimes, so I think shower washing is out although otherwise I might try it.

What if you had a bag like Moni's walmart bag and you put it in that when you were done? That is, it hangs up at all times? It could be a mesh bag so it didn't get moldy.

I just realized, it'd put a strain on your balance to undress in a shower. That might not work. It's a thought if you can overcome that.

I wash mine in warm (not hot) water and cold rinse. I sometimes add a small amount of borax to the laundry as a booster. I do the same with towels. I never dry any of my running/workout clothing in the dryer. It lasts a lot longer if not dried in the dryer. And never use fabric softener. Of course I hardly ever use fabric softener anyway, but occasionally use a half-sheet (I cut them in half) with socks, etc in the dryer to cut down on static.

I have read about rebloom, and that is a problem with these synthetics as they wick away moisture and oils which are not easily then accessible to detergent, so it is very relevant here, thank you.

Most labels say wash in cold nowdays..even cotton. Its to protect the manufacturer.

Almost all bed sheets now say wash in cold, but I bet none of you would wash sheets in cold.

Rob I like super hot, but for synthetics I'd stick to 125 F. As higher temps can ruin elastic. These temps are not going to damage the fabric any more than soils left in the fibers.

I also want to touch on washing with soap which by the way is different than synthetic detergent. Soap will clean your clothes after all this is what was used many years ago but it requires special practices because soap also does not rinse well..it clogs the fibers so than the fibers are trapped with soil/oils/ and soap scum. Laundering with soap requires very very hot water, boiling or near boiling and either very soft water or chemically softened. It also requires a series of rinses also in very hot water in order to get the soap scum out of the fibers. there's a reason folks why our grandmothers were so happy when synthetic detergent came along.

If you wash these clothes and they get wet and have an odor than they are not clean. Not to mention eventually they are going to also turn dingy.

Ammonia in the wash cycle along with detergent may be helpful.

I'm by no means any expert, but when it comes to laundry I have read and studied practices a lot. But in the end we all have to do what works for us.

I work out almost every day at a boot camp style gym and sweat a lot. I usually hang my sweaty clothes to air dry after wearing (instead of throwing them in a hamper or basket while damp), and then do small loads twice weekly with regular detergent, and sometimes add a bit of Borax. I would save them up and do it all at once, but feel like I run the risk of rebloom or not getting the odor out if I wait too long to wash. About half the time I wash on hot, and half the time I wash on warm; everything is hung to dry. I do my stretchy pants, tops and bras the same. I hope by using hot water only some of the time to prolong the life of my clothing. I've been doing this since May and haven't noticed that I've lost elasticity or color has faded at all, and I have not had a rebloom problem. My bottoms and bras are a variety of brands (Champion, Kohl's Tek Gear, Adidas, etc.), and my tops are all Under Armor. The tops especially have worn like iron.

My detergent is in Utah :( Apparently some weather is slowing down the ground delivery process. That's OK, I want my delivery people safe.

"any wash temp below body temp is going to cause the body oils to remain and harden in the fibers regardless of what detergents is used." (From the laundry forum)

It seems like cold water wash would never be effective then.

"Cold" are temps that go all the way up to 85. If that won't clean, it seems somewhat a bad idea to put instructions to wash in cold water on labels.

I find my synthetics absorb dirt. I can't put any of it in the machine, it gets hand washed. Moni's stomping and hanging to dry is akin to what I do. I also have Under Armor, Champion, North Face...

Synthetics are hydrophobic, meaning they resist water. The sweat/ muck rub into the fibers and can't be released because of this...if the water and chemical solution is unable to get into the fibers than the soils remain there to cause odors and dinginess. So how to penetrate these fibers... use at least very warm water

First I want to say synthetics are designed to handle temps up to 140F.

These synthetics need very warm water and lots of it, in other words they need room in the washer to move around freely, don't over load the machine, instead under load. They also benefit from a longer cycle, don't chose quick wash. They need a good TOL detergent so bring out the big guns.

Wash in very warm water, cold/cool can not get into the fibers

Under load the washer

Use a good detergent

Hang to dry, after all synthetics were nic named drip dry for a reason.

Don't forget to lower your spin speed as fast spinning can cause permanent wrinkling in synthetics.