Equipment Cleaners/Treatments

Featured review by Wade In The Water

The best protection available for rubber and plastic.

Formula 303 Protectant was originally developed by NASA for use on the Space Shuttle. It looks like milk and has a very slight smell that reminds me of Elmer's glue. It can be quite expensive if you purchase it in the small spray bottles, but is quite reasonably priced by the gallon. It's advertised as sunscreen for your plastic, and I can attest to its effectiveness. Used regularly it will keep your plastic and rubber products free of sun damage and looking new. It will not repair or reverse existing damage, nor will it cause any damage.

Read more: 303 Aerospace Protectant reviews (2)

Reviewed by Ianw

The easy way to wash your clothes without a washing machine.

The Scrubba Wash Bag is a rare thing, a real innovation, not just a variation on a well-worn idea. Basically, the Scrubba lets you wash your clothes without a washing machine or having to hand wash over a tub or in a stream. It gets better results than hand washing and with a lot less effort. While only the most obsessive washers are likely to take a Scrubba on a multi-day hike, it is great for base camp, hut, or vehicle based day hiking and for travelling generally. The Scrubba Wash Bag is like a sturdy version of the familiar roll-top dry bag but with some additions.

Read more: Scrubba Wash Bag review (1)

Reviewed by Andrew F.

The Guppyfriend helps prevent your fleece gear from spewing micro fibers into the water supply. The concept is pretty simple—a bag with pores too fine to allow micro fibers out, but water gets in during a normal wash cycle to clean your fleece. Cleaning micro fibers out of the bag is a bit of a chore. I have used this a number of times, and it seems durable.

March 2022 update: I continue to use this bag to launder fleece. It's effective for washing two medium weight or one thicker/heavier fleece. I washed a fleece top (baselayer-weight) and bottom in it today. I run extra rinse to ensure detergent gets fully removed, and I have been running each fleece 12 minutes in a dryer to damp dry them, then hang them to fully dry.  To clean the bag, I wait until it dries, turn it inside out, and either shake the lint/residue off or dustbust it. I have used it at least 20 times since the original review, and the bag is in great shape.  xxxxx original review: I read a few articles recently about how detrimental nylon and polyester micro fibers are to fish and other organisms that live in the water, and about...

Read more: Guppyfriend Washing Bag review (1)

Reviewed by Gary Leatham

Ever been desperate to get a zipper open on a backpack, tent, or clothing item and it sticks ... even jams shut? Ever have physical connector/connection problems with outing gear? Brings up a memory or two for some of us? I've tried different things over the years, and the best most permanent fix I've found is the cork grease used for lubricating critical moving parts on brass and woodwind musical instruments. Get it at any music store or online.

Any one else have trouble with Zippers, plastic or metal on backpacks, tents, clothing, fuel tanks, cooking gear connection etc?  Ever have a squeaky hinge pin on a backpack? Salts and grit get onto the teeth of essentially all kinds or zippers, then slow and may freeze the action. On my backpack waist belt pockets zippers tend to seize up. I can't get out a snack bar, lip balm, sunscreen, insect repellent, etc fast enough, and sometimes not at all on a hike.  I've also seen hikers with fuel connectors that are hard to remove from cooking stoves, or even leaking fuel (= potentially cold dinners or explosive flaming hiker experiences).

Read more: Berkeley Premium Cork Grease review (1)

Reviewed by Sean Van Cleve

Efferdent is the simplest, easiest way to clean hydration bladders, water bottles, and other hard to clean items that don't easily fit into a dishwasher. Drop in a tablet, and let it do the work!

These easy to use tablets do an excellent job killing bacteria, and removing stubborn odors that eventually get into Nalgene bottles, hydration bladders, and the like. I can't remember where I found this tip, but it has been effectively keeping my stuff clean for about three years now. I still regularly scrub my bladders, bottles, etc. Efferdent now boasts a product called 'Power Clean Crystals' that would even prove to be easier to maintain gear on the trail, perhaps good for thru-hikers. They are individually wrapped packets similar to Starbucks Via.  Being that the primary use for this product is to clean dentures, one can be assured that this is safe to use for cleaning plastic based reservoirs and bottles.

Read more: Efferdent Cleanser review (1)

Reviewed by Allison Richardson

This is a product that you can spray on your clothes to remove odors.

Let's face it, there are just some fabrics that hold onto the smell of perspiration. As a triathlete I have several synthetic technical fabric shirts and even after washing them, they still smell. I have tried a variety of special detergents: Penguin Wash, Win, Sport Suds, and a few others. They do better than regular detergent, but there are always a few shirts that still reek even after multiple washes. So I tried the Mirazyme.   You can either add a capful to a bucket of water and dip the clothes or you can mix it with water in a spray bottle and spray it on.

Read more: McNett MiraZyme Odor Eliminator review (1)