How to Wash Hockey Equipment at Home

After months of steady play hockey gear becomes ripe with the smell of the game. Pads soak up players' sweat and inevitably begin to smell, but there are ways to prevent and even remove most smells from your hockey gear. While there are ways to soak all your gear safely, you can save a great deal of time by focusing on the pads that smell the worst and not waiting for your gear to dry. The hard plastic parts of your gear do not acquire unfortunate smells, so you should focus on the porous, soft sections for cleaning.

Things You'll Need

  • Washing machine
  • Detergent
  • Dryer
  • Dryer sheets
  • Household fan
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Instructions

    • 1

      Spread your gear out as soon as you come home from a game or practice. Regular drying of your gear is the best way to keep your gear smelling fresher between washings. Remove all the plastic sections from your gear that you can; this often includes pieces of shin pads, jock straps and pants.

    • 2

      Place the soft, nonplastic portions of the equipment into your washing machine with detergent. Elbow pads, inside sections of shin pads, jock straps (minus the cup), hockey socks and detachable sections of your shoulder pads can safely go into your washing machine on a gentle cycle. Use a gentle or delicate cycle to wash your gear so that the equipment does not damage the basket of your machine.

    • 3

      Return to the remaining gear and place dryer sheets inside your gloves and skates. This soaks up much of the foul scent of the gear while releasing additional scented chemicals.

    • 4

      Use a mild cleaning detergent or spray on the inside of your shoulder pads, helmet, pants and shin pads to clean bacteria from the surface of equipment that cannot go into a washing machine. Make sure you spread out the cleansed gear well after wiping it down.

    • 5

      Remove your elbow pads from the washer and lay them out to dry with the rest of your gear. Place the remaining equipment from the washer into your dryer. You may add a dryer sheet if desired. Be sure to set the dryer to a low heat cycle to protect your equipment.

    • 6

      Set up a fan facing your drying gear. Increasing the rate at which your gear dries will prevent additional bacteria from growing. Use a fan to dry your gear if you are not washing it between uses to keep bad smells to a mininum.