Have I Done A Bad Thing

[scoutingsam]

I'm still trying to get my fleece to wick. I think it is nearly there. The water is starting to go thou but still leaves soggy patch on fleece. So today I went and bought 10 bottles of distilled vinegar. I I read some where this may help

Any way I now have 6 fleeces in my bath tub. With hot water a bottle of washing up liquid. 3 bottles of vinegar.

Despite to get this to work as I'm off to ikea Wednesday and really want to get some more

 

[Namaah]

How much water are you putting on your fleece to test it? If you put a lot of water on it will leave the fleece soggy. I used a syringe with 5ml of water to test it.

 

[Veggies Galore]

The vinegar will not do any harm ..... but I am not sure it will do any good either !


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polar fleece | eBay

 

[Tigermoth]

That's a lot of vinegar! You only really "need" a spoonful. (It acts as an antibacterial iirc and also helps in hard water areas too, it won't help make the fleece wick per se)

Are you testing the fleece with something absorbent under it?

Tbh I just washed my fleeces 3 times and then used them. I came unstuck when I realised I had sewn the mattress protector on upside down on one of them, but the fleeces were no bother! It was obvious that it wasn't working then, there was a big "bubble" of liquid on the top as soon as they did a wee.

 

[Kit06]

The vinegar strips the fleece of any build up of washing powder. It's the same with reusable nappies. If you wash your fleece repeatedly you can get a build up on the fleece fibres which prevents wicking. You do only need a small amount in a rinse cycle of your machine and probably not much more in a bath tub (I used to just add a slosh). You can also strip fleece before you use it the first time to remove any residual chemicals from the manufacturing process. Repeated rinsing until you can see no more bubbles in the machine also helps.

 

[scoutingsam]

Thanks for your replies really hope I have not done any harm

How much water should I be using for testing If it wickes

 

[Namaah]

it wont have done any harm but your fleece will probably stink of vinegar so run it through the washing machine to get rid of the smell. I used 5ml of water in a syringe, I don't know how much pee a guinea pig produces in one go so I guessed 5 ml. I'll explain what happens to my fleece when I put the water on it so you can see if it's similar to what yours is doing.
- I put my fleece down on an absorbent layer (I used towels but anything absorbent will work)
- I squirt the 5ml of water onto the fleece
- the water goes straight into the fleece (doesn't leave a "bubble" of water on the surface)
- there is a dark brown spot in the center (about 1cm) surrounded by a medium brown patch around it(5cm diameter). I use light brown fleece so the colours will be different for your fleece obviously)
- after about 30 seconds the dark spot in the center has faded and there is a medium brown spot about 5cm still
- after about 60 seconds you cant see the wet patch and it is all light brown again
- the fleece should feel dry if you gently brush your hand over it (if you press down on it then it will soak up the water from the absorbent layer again and make the fleece feel wet)
hope that helps

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks for your replies really hope I have not done any harm

How much water should I be using for testing If it wickes

Place an old kitchen towel under the dry fleece and empty a thimble of water on the fleece. After an hour, the fleece should be hopefully dry or nearly dry again and the towel underneath should be damp.