Extending the life of your Pants

The key to extending the life of your waterproof plastic pant is to rinse them as soon as practical after each use. This is especially true if you use lotions or oils. Both can cause plastics or laminates to stiffen and eventually crack. Petroleum based creams and lotions are not recommended. Even if you don’t use lotions or oils, both urine and fecal matter are highly acidic. Prompt rinsing after use is strongly recommended.

Eliminating Stains

Often stains can be almost completely eliminated if the plastic pant is thoroughly rinsed right away after soiling. If the pant remains soiled for an extended period of time, the stain will set and becomes virtually impossible to remove.

Soap & Detergent

Please note we said rinse, not wash. This is because soaps and detergents can remove or leech-out plasticizers in the material that help keep the pant soft and pliable. Of course occasionally it is necessary and desirable to wash them with a mild soap.

Fill a sink with fairly warm water that’s not too hot for you to put your hand in without discomfort. Add a few of drops of very mild liquid soap and gently hand wash. Then drain the basin, refill with plain water and rinse thoroughly.

Proper Drying

Never, ever place regular plastic pants in the dryer. If you are washing a single pair of pants, they can be placed on the showerhead to drip dry. We suggest placing them through a leg opening and letting the crotch rest on the showerhead. If you don’t have a shower or need to dry several pairs of pants you can place them on wire hangers to dry. You may need to bend or reshape the hanger. Sunlight is great for diapers but can be harmful to plastic pants so be sure to keep them out of direct sunlight. To speed drying time, pat them dry inside and out with a towel before hanging.

Proper Care of PUL (Poly Urethane Laminate) Plastic Pants

PUL (Poly Urethane Laminates) can be dried, they can handle the riggers of even industrial washing and drying. If you notice a smell building up, use 1/2 cup of vinegar in a small load with a light amount of detergent, that should fix the problem. Also use the extra water setting when washing all reusable incontinence products in high efficiency machines. Note the two biggest reasons why smell builds up on PUL pants is not enough water and the over use of detergents. If washing PUL pants by themselves, use just 1/2 the detergent recommended by the product's manufacturer. This same washing guidelines also applies to laundering any of our All-In-One cloth diapers that have PUL barriers. With cloth diapers, we always recommend a cold rinse cycle prior to washing, especially for bowel stained diapers.