Many industries that deal with hazardous working environments require workers to wear fire-resistant (FR) clothing while on the job. If you work in one of these industries, then you must ensure that you keep your uniform clean so that you don’t put yourself at risk. Here are the top five tips for washing your fire-resistant clothes.
Separate FR Clothing Items Before Washing Them
To maintain longevity and protect your clothes from getting damaged, you should wash your FR clothing separately. FR clothing manufacturers use different materials for various garments, so you can’t wash all of them at once.
Additionally, manufacturers use different chemicals to give FR clothing items fire-resistant properties. Washing these items separately ensures that these chemicals don’t come into contact with each other and that the clothes don’t get contaminated.
Clean Your Clothes Right After They Become Dirty
If your FR clothing stays dirty for too long, it can have its stains settle in with its flammable materials. For this reason, you’ll want to wash your clothes as soon as they get dirty.
Your FR clothing might lose its ability to resist flames if flammable materials become attached to the fibers, rendering it useless. Therefore, you should get into a regular cleaning routine for your FR shirts and pants to ensure that this never happens.
Hot Water With Laundry Detergent Eliminates Grease Stains
As you know, you should wash your clothes right when they get dirty, especially if your FR clothing gets grease stains. In this case, you can eliminate grease stains by filling a tub with hot water and rubbing liquid detergent vigorously on the stain.
Then, let your clothes sit in the water for five minutes and rinse them off. The tags on your FR clothing items will tell you the right temperature for washing your clothes.
Turn Your Clothes Inside Out Before Washing
An easy way to avoid normal wear and tear on your FR clothes is simply to turn them inside out before washing them. However, if your clothes have stains, you don’t want them to be facing away from you while you wash them. Also, you should avoid drying your clothes too much because they might shrink.
Avoid Using Bleach
Bleach is a harsh chemical, and although you might use it on your normal clothes once in a while, you don’t want to use it on FR clothing. Bleach removes the fire-resistant properties from your clothes, so avoid using bleach or any detergent that contains bleach when washing your gear.
Keeping your fire-resistant clothing clean isn’t too difficult if you know the correct steps to take. Now that you know the top five tips for washing your fire-resistant clothes, you can take better care of your work gear.