Airing out gear in confined spaces

[TeamBlue96 3]

Not sure what forum this would've gone under specifically, so i'll say general?

For those of you that have limited space where you live, how do you guys air your gear out? Not only am i limited in space (1st floor 850 sqft apartment), i have GF that can't stand the smell.

My solution, i keep it in a small semi-walk-in closet in the guest bedroom on a 4 shelf rack. When the gear is fresh off a game or a practice, i'll leave the door open and place a fan there. Seems a bit primative, yes?

So, what are some of your creative ways of airing stuff out? post some pics up!

[interpathway 9]

Throughout college the order was as follows...

Skate

Air equipment in bathroom, door shut and towel/draft-guard under door.

Fan on all night.

Wake up 5 minutes earlier than normal, pack dry gear away.

Take a morning shower while fan continues on to clear away hockey "musk".

Bathroom/equipment never been better.

One tip, take your drying towel out of the bathroom before the night or you will be drying off with that hockey "musk".

GL.

[TeamBlue96 3]

Throughout college the order was as follows...

Skate

Air equipment in bathroom, door shut and towel/draft-guard under door.

Fan on all night.

Wake up 5 minutes earlier than normal, pack dry gear away.

Take a morning shower while fan continues on to clear away hockey "musk".

Bathroom/equipment never been better.

One tip, take your drying towel out of the bathroom before the night or you will be drying off with that hockey "musk".

GL.

In college, i just aired stuff out in my room much to the displeasure or people in and out of my room.

In my last apt, i did the bathroom thing because there was a window....my new place doesn't have that so the bathroom is a no go.

[hockeysc23 0]

In college I left it all outside to dry then brought it in. It was still bad and in the closet when you entered the whole apartment. 60+lbs of stinky goalie leather. Not good.

Highly recommend you dry as much as you can outside or something then bring it in an febreeze.

[interpathway 9]

A fan designed to suck humidity out of the bathroom during showers works just fine at taking the humid stink out of your equipment as well without contaminating anything outside the bathroom. If you don't have a shower fan, well, then that's another story.

[Jason Harris 31]

I know a guy who swears the Shock Doctor bag and ozone heater/fan system works, so you might what to consider that.

[BarDownGinos 3]

In the bathroom with the vent fan on works really well. Currently I have a 2nd floor apartment with a deck so I leave my stuff out there. If you have a washer/dryer take the under gear and towels out and just put them in there immediately, then you just have to deal with the gear. In college I left everything zipped up in my bag and stuffed in an overhead closet. Once a month I would put my stuff in the window and blast it with a fan for the day, stunk up the entire floor though.

[Axxion89 32]

Spray your equipment with disinfectant or antibacterial. I use nature's miracle, it helps eliminate the odor so when it dries, you don't smell anything. If you have things that smell REAL bad, you may need to get rid of that smell by a thorough washing first.

[nickyb13 9]

Freshmen year in the dorms used my closet and put my clothes in those rubbermaid stackable drawers. Sophomore year in the dorms used the shockdocter bag. Junior and senior year we used the laundry/ utility room in our town house and super senior year I went back to the shockdocter bag

[Law Goalie 147]

This is really a three-step process (with the exception of glove palms and skate liners, which need their own kind of care).

The first step is to kill what's living on the equipment, thriving in the heat, warmth, and bodily secretions produced by hockey: for that, you need ozone, alcohol, boiling water, steam, or temperatures that would wreck everything but the steel in your skates. Alcohol (isopropyl) is by far the easiest and least dangerous of these: a 60-70% spray is good. If you can try not to spray it in the closed space, since it can do a bit of damage to the mucous membranes in your respiratory tract -- nothing like ozone can, however, or a really good steam burn.

The second step is, as interpathway said, to get the water out of the gear as fast as possible, and keep it dry. I would suggest a closet-sized active dehumidifier for this. You can also supplement it with a passive dehumidifer and deodoriser, like the volcanic rock bag from Lee Valley (which is very effective).

The third step is to deal with the bacterial excrement and leftover bodily secretions that make the gear stink. You can do this either by (as Axxion said) using an enzymatic spray-on, or by washing the crud out of the equipment. My experience is that even the most diligent spraying, drying, and re-spraying will still leave behind enough crud to warrant a handwash per season with gentle laundry soap. I'm always amazed by what comes out of my C/A in the spring: it has the colour and particulate consistency of jaundiced Turkish coffee, and that's with my light sweating and doing the alcohol spray in the room before I go home.

[TeamBlue96 3]

hey guys, thanks to all for the replies. i'll admit, i'm not one for the whole disinfecting business. i'm more of a just 'air it out' kinda guy.

anyways, here's my setup after practice tonight.

[HolyRollie 0]

hey guys, thanks to all for the replies. i'll admit, i'm not one for the whole disinfecting business. i'm more of a just 'air it out' kinda guy.

anyways, here's my setup after practice tonight.

Run a fan in there to keep the air moving through the closet and you'll be all right...the stacked equipment might need a little extra air because it is stacked though.

[TeamBlue96 3]

Run a fan in there to keep the air moving through the closet and you'll be all right...the stacked equipment might need a little extra air because it is stacked though.

yeah, i have an exhaust fan circulating, but was cut off in the picture.

[lampliter87 8]

Hang your skates upside down with the footbeds removed... other than that, looks like a pretty good system.

[number21 3]

There are a few topics on this, the ones below have some good info. (There are many more just search shockdoctor in the equipment section)

Post game handling

ShockDoctor issues

Drying in an Apt.

I used an SD bag with regular blower, in an apartment with decent results. Had to run it twice. Now in a my current place I use a basement storage room that's too humid for the SD, so it's a box fan and a small electric dehumidifier. Before all that I had was a similar closet set up as Blue96's with a fan and that worked well enough for two guys sharing a place that both played hockey.

I have never had much success with sprays, though I have never tried the alcohol mix Law mentioned.