Stinking Goretex Boots

MurrayMinchin

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Ahhhhhhhh, the scent of 'cat piss' ammonia exuding bacterial hoards wafting from my expensive Goretex boots, mmmmmm...

Sound familiar? Did you wage war and defeat the stinking throng? How did you get rid of it?

After these wear out I'm going back to leather

Murray
 

jovo

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No Gore-Tex boot stories, but I did have an enlarger ruined in a somewhat similar way. I had stored my Opemus enlarger in a ground floor closet in a house I lived in for about 10 years. When I finally retrieved it to set up a make-shift darkroom, there were weird pellets in the condenser housing. Those turned out to be dry cat-food kibbles that a mouse had stored for him/herself. But the bad part was that several years worth of mouse urine had rusted and destroyed much of the enlarger. The good part was that that gave me an excuse to get a Beseler 23CIII, so things sorta came out well in the end anyway.
 

Terence

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Take the foot beds (not sure you guys call them the same thing) out and launder them. Use a little carpet/rug deodorizer in the boot and blow out the excess.

I usually powder my feet with baby powder if it's going to be a sweaty/wet day. Doesn't stop the odor, but cuts down on it.
 

HowardDvorin

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Hello,

While there are no guarentees, I would try going to a pet shop and gettig a pet oder eliminator. Follow the instructions on the container. It should handle urine and feces oders. I use the technique on carpets my company cleans for aliving.

HowardDvorin:rolleyes:
 

scootermm

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Murray, Ive used dilute citric acid and soaked goretex boots in it to help cleanse them. I used to do this with my climbing shoes as well, as those things would get completely funky smelling.
 

jeroldharter

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I would wash the foot beds, soak the boots in soapy water followed by a thorough rinse and dry (sort of like darkroom work isn't it?). Some clothes driers have attachments which are like a shelf so that you can puts the boots on the shelf and they dry in the heat without tumbling. Perhaps spraying them with Febreeze several times and or keeping a fabric softening drier sheet in them when idle will help.
 

jeroldharter

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Another thing to check out is how people clean and de-stink neoprene wetsuits or waders. I think a special product exists for that which might help.
 

Mike Wilde

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it's called 'sink the stink' in Canada

look for it in a dive shop - it is an enzyme based cleaner that eats the bacteria that cause the smell. I use it on my neoprene socks that get used to canoe on days when the water is otherwise to chilly for the on/out casual encounter (but not cold enough for hypothermia if we do dunk)
 

Ian Grant

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Wear more socks in future, I was always taught to wear at least two pairs of walking socks, this allows your feet to breathe better. Surpisingly it also keeps your feet cooler.

Ian
 

garri

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Jeroldharter and Mike hit the nail on the head. If there is a rafting outfitters near you ask 'em what they use. I worked as a river guide and safety kayaker and the stuff they dunk the wetsuits in works great, 'cos people have interesting ways of keeping warm in wetsuits!!

Gari
 

Struan Gray

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Wash them, dry them, than bung them in a ziplock bag and put them in the deep freeze for a day. 24 hours of -20 or lower is usually enough to kill most of the odor-producing bugs.

The smell will come back, but much more slowly than if you omit the freezing.
 

wilsonneal

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Hydrogen Peroxide. Dilute it 1:2 with distilled water, put it in a spray bottle, saturate the footbeds, leave them in sun to dry. Repeat until the beds no longer foam up when you spray on the Hydrogen Peroxide. The HP is eating the bacteria that causes the smell. When it has nothing to eat, it doesn't foam.
You will do well but what I have told you.
Neal
 

johnnywalker

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Does the scent have anything to do with the Gortex? I also have a pair and think they're great. The only completely waterproof leather boots I've ever owned. On mine the Gortex fabric is between the outer and inner layers of leather. Hard to imagine the Gortex is the cause of the scent problem.
 
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MurrayMinchin

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Thanks all

I'll try the river guide and divers solution first, followed by the solution to scanky rockclimbing shoes.

These boots are a 'cordura' like material instead of leather. It's been a really wet fall here and as I'm a letter carrier they never had a chance to fully dry, even with a boot dryer (the kind that blows warm air into the boot).

I'll be making a boot/glove/touque/scarf drying cabinet with an old bathroom fan (venting to the outside) which should dry them out overnight...I hope!

Murray
 

JBrunner

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Puss-in-boots?
 

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MurrayMinchin

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No pustulating going on down there, just heinously scanky cat piss like smells!

Murray
 

RobC

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As you know the smell is caused by bacteria. The best treatment, by far, that I have come across is an athletes foot powder which is sold in the UK under the brand name MYCOTA. This stuff is good. Liberally sprinkle the insides of boots with it and shake it around the inside of boots so they are covered in it. Do this to boots for approx 3 times of wearing and also always liberally sprinkle inside of your socks every time you wear the boots or any other shoes come to that since you obviously have a foot bacteria problem
After a few goes at this, the boots will smell sweet after a full day in them. Also helps keep feet dry.
You,ll leave white footprints every where when you take the boots off
 
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MurrayMinchin

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rob champagne said:
...since you obviously have a foot bacteria problem
Click to expand...

Hey! I do not it's the boots fault I tell ya!!!

Oh, and welcome aboard APUG...you sure picked a weird topic for your first post!

Murray
 

johnnywalker

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MurrayMinchin said:
After these wear out I'm going back to leather

Murray
Click to expand...
Not from the hide of Felis silvestris catus I trust! After all, they've been our buddies for the last 10,000 years!
Besides, there may be something to be gained out of this: fill the boot with water; throw in some film; see what happens. No weirder than some of the recipes I've seen suggested! Cat P enol?
 

Albert

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Try with a tea spoon Potassiumbisulfite and a pinch of citric acid per liter of water. This is a popular mixture for sterilizing wine bottles. I used on my hiking shoes (synthetic not leather) with success.
 

Murray@uptowngallery

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This has all the great puns, puss-in-boots, piss-in-boots, etc.

If the great suggestions here don't suffice, maybe one of those big-city cleaning services that handles crime scenes has ideas. They clean up some pretty nasty things in buildings.

Don't know about the cost-benefit ratio, however, but maybe advice is free, like here.

I just got an "A" in a class on a paper because the professor locked a cat in his room & the rectangular stack of papers must have been the closest geometrical match for a litter box - the cat, ahem, soiled the stack of papers, so we all got A 's. (That tops the legendary "the dog ate my homework" excuse).

I put a bullseye on my next paper.
 
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