Cleaning Climbing Ropes

I have to say, I stopped washing my ropes years ago. I'm sure there's some study out there showing that it extends the life, but I haven't seen a benefit to washing them. If getting dirty hands is a problem for you, go ahead and wash it.

FrankPS wrote:I have to say, I stopped washing my ropes years ago. I'm sure there's some study out there showing that it extends the life, but I haven't seen a benefit to washing them. If getting dirty hands is a problem for you, go ahead and wash it.

In a sandy desert it helps extend the life of your hardware pretty noticeably.

baldclimber wrote: Yet after 72 hours, a 144 times longer soak time, the strength reduction is 5% of the original value. 28.4Kn down to 27.0Kn, well above the required 22Kn. Unlike Woolite, bleach reduced the strength drastically.

Yea, the test is lacking for sure, but ultimately I see this as a lose/ lose scenario because you're not gaining anything by using the soap. The soap is not going to make the rope noticeably cleaner. I've tried--I coudlent tell and neither could any of my friends. I washed one twin rope with soap, the other without, then had friends hold the twins side by side. No one had any idea what was washed with what. I even weighed the ropes and they weighed the same after they dried.

Mesh bag (allows much better flow than a pillowcase, available cheap at MEC or Canadian Tire) and McNett wetsuit shampoo in our front-loading washer. The shampoo is safe for nylon, pH 7.0-8.0 (no acidity, important for nylon) and rinses out very completely. It doesn't take out the dry treatment of the rope, by design, because it's intended for drytops and drysuits as well. I started using it mainly because I had it already (ww kayaker) and on checking out its MSDS and specs found it was perfect for the task. Plus it'll do a great job for your Gore-Tex shell, etc.

Q-man wrote:The Beal rope brush is amazing. I've used it several times on several different ropes. In a bathtub using only water(and 2 to 3 fill ups of new water),the brush brings out so much dirt and aluminum it's unbelievable how new the rope looks. The main idea I like about the brush is that you don't have to use any type cleaner or soap to get nice results. And you have piece of mind that no detergents were used in cleaning the rope. You will have to clean up the dirt/aluminum rings from around the bath tub after the process; that's the only downer.

The Beal rope brush looks exactly like this motorcycle chain brush: revzilla.com/motorcycle/tir…, except that Beal charges almost twice what the motorcycle chain brush costs. The brush does do an excellent job of cleaning ropes.

I love dirty ropes...

Justin Meyer wrote:Here are some pics of daisy chain washing machine method: basicrockclimbing.com/how-t…

thanks a bunch :) I'll give a go!!

mark felber wrote: The Beal rope brush looks exactly like this motorcycle chain brush: revzilla.com/motorcycle/tir…, except that Beal charges almost twice what the motorcycle chain brush costs. The brush does do an excellent job of cleaning ropes.

in all fairness, the Beal brush looks like it has twice as many bristles/loops than the tirox brush?

You're right, it does.