Postgame Equipment Handling

[Empieee 0]

in the scullery, have to say that the day after the smell is quite... noticeable..

but maybe that is because there is my own gear and that of my brother who is a goalie.. so quite a lot of stuf

[vf-x 0]

Gear gets taken out and placed in the garage to dry. Footbeds are removed and stuck to the side of our freezer with magnets. The freezer gives off some warmth that dries it out without damaging the material. Undergarments, jerseys, and socks gets thrown into the washing machine right away.

[deej 19]

Hung up in an old fabric covered closet in the garage. Base layer straight in the wash. I keep forgetting to spray in my gloves and they are starting the familiar smell.

[kevrocks 1]

The first thing I do when I get home from a game is I take out my hockey gear to air dry. I have a wire shelving rack for my gear. I hang my pants, shoulder pads, and jock on hooks, and I lay my helmet, elbow pads, shin guards, and hockey socks on the shelves. I also have a glove dryer that I use to blow air into my gloves. I think it was meant for snow/ski gloves, but I use it for my hockey gloves. For my skates, I take out the insoles and air dry them and then hang the skates upside down. I also hang my jerseys.

There is a stench that lingers in the room though, but it's not too bad.

Edit: For my gloves, I also pull out the backhand padding so that the inside of the gloves dries faster.

[RadioGaGa 162]

I have a large metal cabinet. I want to turn it into a storage/drying locker for my gear. Would it be most beneficial to have a fan blowing cool air into it...or sucking warm air out of it?

[technophile 0]

I have a bench with a back on it that I built for one of my wife's plays that is pretty decent for airing out hockey gear; the bench itself is about the right width for my bag to sit on it (keeps it off the ground/away from bugs/etc), and it has 3 evenly spaced double hooks on the back. There are a couple of those big bike hooks hung directly over it.

It sits in the garage, against the wall right next to where I'm standing when I open the trunk, so all I have to do is pull out my sticks, slide them onto the bike hooks, then swing my bag over onto the bench. I pull out my jersey, jock, headband, towel, and dri-fit shirt and hang them on hooks, pull out my skates and pants and lay them on the bench next to the bag, and leave the bag unzipped so everything else will air out.

It's dry enough here that they're probably dry within a couple of hours, and being in the garage smell obviously isn't an issue most of the time (there are times my wife will come in from the garage and order me to wash my gear immediately ). Haven't had any creepy crawlies in there, although I did a couple times in Austin (where there are a lot more, and a lot bigger, bugs).

[coryroth24 15]

I have a large metal cabinet. I want to turn it into a storage/drying locker for my gear. Would it be most beneficial to have a fan blowing cool air into it...or sucking warm air out of it?

Just air flow period. As long as there's dry air flowing in and a place for the moist air to flow out of, you're all set...

[ak996 0]

Shock doctor high output blower and bag; bring bag into apartment and hook it up straightaway. It was either that or girlfriend was going to move out - became a huge issue as the stench was unbearable (so I'd keep the bag closed which only made it worse). So I got the shock doc set up and new equipment to start "fresh"

Is there any kind of cartridge or something with the blower that needs to replaced regularly for the ozone feature? I'm thinking of getting this bag as well but want to understand if there are any ongoing costs to be aware of.

[stick&puck 1]

First thing i do when i get home is air out all the gear.

I have one of those hockey racks which i will hang:

Shoulders

Helmet

Gloves

Elbows

Inner to shin pads

I have a laundry rack for my jerseys, jock, socks, dri-fit

I do find airing everything out religiously keeps the gear smelling good.

[Law Goalie 147]

I have a large metal cabinet. I want to turn it into a storage/drying locker for my gear. Would it be most beneficial to have a fan blowing cool air into it...or sucking warm air out of it?

Just air flow period. As long as there's dry air flowing in and a place for the moist air to flow out of, you're all set...

Dry, cool airflow is key. Personally, I'd say a dehumidifier is more important than a fan on its own.

[krwwc6 0]

Ever since I was a kid I've hung all of my equipment up in a closet where my water heater and furnace are located. The low humidity air usually has my gear dry by morning. I've never had an issue with stench. Hockey gloves set on top of the water heater, everything else hangs up. I've even got some nice hooks in the ceiling for hanging my skates.

When my wife and I began dating she was very skeptical of having hockey equipment laying in the house. She has never once complained about my equipment smelling. I also take my equipment to the Laundromat once a year and throw it all in the huge washing machine (bag included) and then let it dry in the sun for the day.

I always get a kick out of the guys on my team that will talk about how they aired their equipment out for the first time in a few years . . . and they wonder why my equipment is still in great shape even though it's 10+ years old, while the rivets on their 6 month old top of the line skates are already rusting out.

Five minutes spent hanging up your equipment saves you hundreds of dollars in the long run, and no stench!

[AfftonDad 88]

I just recently bought me something called a "Dry Guy". It is a hockey drying tree that is made from metal with strategically placed holes. It includes a heater/fan that forces air through it (I need heat because it is frequently too cold in my garage to dry with air alone). After I put it together I was very disappointed. The heater/blower is way underpowered. The timer has a max of 3 hours and this isn't enough to dry everything. I considered replacing the heater/blower with a Shock Doctor Power Dry unit but I didn't know if it would be powerful enough either. So I replaced the heater/blower unit with a small space heater and a 70 CFM bathroom exhaust fan connected to the tree via 3inch flexible duct. This works great. Generally dries everything in around an hour. I've got a 12 hour spring wound timer on order from Lowes that I'll connect into it when it shows up. I've connected the fan/heater to a piece of wood right now but I'm thinking about putting it in an enclosure. I'm a little worried about the potential for fire though if I restrict air flow to the space heater too much. With hindsight, I wish I would have just made a tree out of PVC, drilled holes in it and hooked up the heater/exhaust fan to that instead of buying the "Dry Guy".

[Beflar 53]

just get a grit bag. open it and your basicly done.

[tmw1582 6]

I do what most people on here have said already.

As soon as I get home all the things that can be hung up are hung on my scarecrow. The rest is laid out on the floor. Before my next game everything that can go in the washer does.

All my gear is usually dry overnight b/c I have a small room in my basement that is unfinished and I have 2 furnaces/AC units in there that keep the air pretty dry.

[shooter27 116]

I bought this thing a few years ago: http://www.thehockeyshop.com/us/the-octopus-hockey-tree.html

It actually works quite well. I hang it in an empty closet, hook my gear to it and close the door. Its usually dry within 12 hours or so.

[strosedefence34 175]

i bought this garment rack at walmart for $10 and leave it in the basement. My bag sits on top of one of those plastic tubs that holds some of my old gear. And the sticks are in the spare bedroom

[RadioGaGa 162]

Dry, cool airflow is key. Personally, I'd say a dehumidifier is more important than a fan on its own.

I run a dehumidifier in my storage room now...that seems to work well...especially in the summer. Gonna try this is tandem with the fan on the cabinet and see what happens.

[beerleaguecaptain 999]

My son's gear and mine are stored in the garage. We each have a WetGear hanging rack. I call them Fred.

I am religious about hanging and caring for mine and have very little odor.

My son will often leave his in the bag and I have to nag him (typical 16 year old).

His gear has a pretty bad smell, especially his skates because he doesn't wear socks. It has a pretty bad impact on the garage.

[AnthonyJTa 0]

I've been pretty pleased with the newer gen ShockDoctor bags. In my last place, and new place; I don't have the space to lay mystuff out.... so everything stays in the bag except my skates and helmet (they get air dried) and the blower runs 1 long cycle heated, then a cycle with cool air. No stank!

[fogelberg 9]

During the colder months, I spread my stuff out on the floor of our laundry/furnace room. I make sure to pull the footbeds out of my skates. The stuff stinks, and my wife hates it, but I don't have an alternative. If I leave it outside in my shed, it freezes. Once the weather turns warm, it goes in the shed. Doesn't dry out as nice out there though.

[number21 3]

I run a dehumidifier in my storage room now...that seems to work well...especially in the summer. Gonna try this is tandem with the fan on the cabinet and see what happens.

I use a small dehumidifier in a basement storage room in the summer. It works pretty well. Though i do dry the gear first with a box fan, then turn the dehumidifier on.

[leftwinger37 43]

I am also guilty of being really anal about airing out my gear. I have a dedicated room in my apartment where I dry and store my gear. As soon as I get home after a skate, I put my gloves and skates on a boot dryer. Then I put my shoulder pads, jock, and girdle on an over the door, 3 hook drying rack. I hang my pant shell on the knob of said door and hang my bag (opened up) from the pully of an excercise machine.

When dry, I put the equiptment on a four-tier garage shelving unit in the closet of that room. The doors of this closet stay open at all times so that everything can breathe. I don't put anything back in the bag until the day of or the night before I skate again.

I have always been good about airing everything out, but I used to just throw everything back in the bag after a couple hours. I think that airing the bag out and keeping the equiptment out to breathe even after it has dried have been the secret to keeping my gear odor-free.

[hunt3rsean 44]

I live on a 2nd story apartment. So after a game I lay out all my stuff on the balcony to dry out. It never gets that cold here in Oregon so Winter or Summer my stuff lays out for a full day or two to dry out. During the more wet months it's tough to get everything 100% dry so I will hang things in the bathroom and aim a box fan to get everything dry. Then about after every other game will spray everything down with lysol.

I will be getting a wire rack/shelf system to put my gear on. My wife is tired of it being layed out all over our balcony.

[olsona 0]

i live in an apartment but cant leave my gear out side because a don't want people to steal it so i Immediately air it out and spray it with febreze.

[Puck Norris 0]

My pads are hung up in the mud room and a fan is turned on to dry them out within 2-3 hours. The skates are put on a field and stream boot dryer I got from dicks sporting goods for 25 bucks and are dry in less than 2 hours. Then it all goes back in the bag.