HOW TO LOOK AFTER HIGH VIS REFLECTIVE GEAR
In winter, the nights are long and dark and the days can be bleak at this time of the year. Ensuring then, that your reflective gear is in the best possible condition is a good, and indeed a necessary idea!
One way of doing this is to keep it clean. This seems fairly straightforward, but there is more to it than just throwing everything into the trusty top-loader and pressing ‘start’.
Firstly, think about other articles of clothing that will be washed in the same load – are they heavy or abrasive? The agitating action of the washing machine can cause the microscopic glass beads on the reflective tape to be worn off by the rough treatment.
Secondly, it pays to abide by a few laundering rules to ensure long lasting and bright reflective gear: -
- Remove any obvious clumped of dirt or debris with a cloth or a light brush.
- Always wash in a cold water wash.
- Turn inside out if possible before washing (this will help protect the reflective tape).
- Don’t use bleach or fabric softener (even one wash with fabric softener can reduce the garment’s reflective ability).
- Don’t iron or dry clean.
- Line drying is preferable to putting garment in the dryer. If you choose to machine dry, do so on a low heat setting and remove the clothes as soon as they are dry. This will reduce heat damage to reflecrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrive tape.
Confused by all those strange shapes and symbols on the care label? Here is a selection of some likely ones and their meanings:
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Machine wash icon. Usually inside is a temperature. Sometimes the temperature is represented by dots to represent (1) low, (2) medium, (3) high heat. |
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Hand wash icon |
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Tumble dry icon. Usually with dots inside to represent low, medium, high heat. |
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Do not tumble dry icon |
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Do not dry clean icon |
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Do not bleach icon |
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Iron icon. Follows the same dots pattern as previous icons. |
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Do not iron icon |