How to wash your golf clothes properly
While outfits for rough-and-tumble sports such as football and rugby are no stranger to getting washed over and over again with regularity, these outfits are generally quite disposable and are often replaced every season. A golfer’s clothes, on the other hand, are curated to match a particular dress code and, as such, are more expensive and meant to last a little longer.
So it’s not uncommon for a golfer to have affection for a particular outfit. However, if you’re not properly washing that outfit and treating it with the care it requires, you’ll find yourself replacing it far faster than you wanted to do so. Not to worry – we’re here with an intervention before it gets that far! At Repair Aid, we know just a thing or two about washing machines – given that we repair and install them for a living – so here are some tips on how to properly wash your golf clothes.
Preventing colour loss
There are only two real reasons as to why you’d want to replace your favourite golf clothes: you want a change, or because they have become too damaged or faded. While we can’t do anything about the former, we can do something about the latter. If you want your golf clothes to last longer, it’s time to start changing how you clean them – and it starts by washing them in cold water.
While we often associate warmth with cleanliness, cold water washes can still do the job because detergents have gotten so good that they don’t actually need warm water any more. A warmer cycle will likely still provide a cleaner wash, but the difference isn’t what it used to be. A cold wash always ensures that colours keep longer as less of the dye runs.
You’ll want to cut the temperature in half (usually from 40°C to 20°C). The end result is that the amount of dye that runs off your clothes should reduce by about half or even three-quarters. This means that it’ll take twice as long for your clothes to fade in the wash. How’s that for a recovery shot from the bunker?
Stop microfibre loss
Another point of degradation for synthetic clothing is when they start losing microfibres. These are the tiny fibres – consisting of polyester and polyamide – that make up many of the clothes that we wear. When enough of these fibres get lost, your clothes begin to slowly lose their structure and strength over time. However, fibres from the likes of wool and cotton will also get lost; in fact, studies have found they shed at a far faster rate. For any material, the lose of fibres or microfibres leads to clothes that don’t feel as soft and, as such, not as nice to touch or wear.
One solution to these problems? Do quicker washes. This will reduce the loss of fibres – with microfibre loss, in particular, being reduced by up to 50%. Again, the end result is that your favourite golfing clothes will last even longer.
Bonus: environmentally friendly and cheaper
If you’re still feeling a little bit sceptical about this whole process saving your clothes, then consider some of the bonus benefits from running quicker, colder washes. First of all, it has been proven to be far more environmentally-friendly and it’s not hard to see why. Running faster washes at cooler temperatures saves on creating emissions and reduces your overall carbon footprint in the fight against climate change. In total, you’ll use somewhere between half to three-quarters of the energy you were using before!
Another obvious upshot from all of this is that you’re also going to save money on your energy bill too. And with your clothes being spared from the scrapheap, that also saves money on buying new clothes too. Given that golfing clothes are more expensive than your everyday wear, that’s a huge plus point.
The environmental savings continue when you consider how much less microfibres are being discharged into the environment. One study found that there was a 30% reduction in the microfibres released when switching from running 85-minute, 40oC washes to 30-minute, 15oC cycles. So let’s make sure that golf courses don’t, one day, become the last remnants of nature’s beauty: save your clothes, save some money and save the environment. Quite the albatross!