Especially in outdoor and sports activities, the clothing is not spared: Dirt, fat, sweat and maybe blood cling to your clothes.

If you follow the following rules when washing your functional and outdoor textiles, the good pieces will be preserved for a long time without any damage to the functionality.

1. The general and most important rule is: washing as often as necessary, but as little as possible! On the one hand, contamination can adversely affect the functionality of the material. On the other hand too frequent and above all wrong washing can lead to a deterioration of the functional clothing. There is no way around this dilemma.
2. By no means should you laundry additives such as bleach, special stain remover or softener! The chemical components of these laundry additives can completely ruin the membrane of your beloved outerwear.
3. Instead special detergent use! Manufacturers like Nikwax offer suitable cleaning agents for every kind of functional textiles. You can not go wrong with this as long as you follow the manufacturer's instructions. Those who do not want to afford such expensive special detergents, deviate from a cheap alternative fro frog - important is that it is liquid detergent, because powder can leave residues that clog the pores. 
4. Low temperatures and a gentle washing program choose: For the functional clothing in combination with the appropriate detergent 30-40 ° C is sufficient. Higher temperatures can be more likely to cause damage. You may wash by hand or set the machine to a gentle program.
5. Keep your functional clothing fresh Air dry! Functional textiles are usually quick drying, so you can number of revolutions of the spin cycle and thus reduce the mechanical stress caused by washing to a minimum or completely waive. The garments do not absorb water and dry very quickly in the fresh air.
6. warmth helps to refresh the impregnation: if the upper of the garment is water-repellent, you can use either the gentle cycle of your dryer or the iron to reactivate the impregnation. When ironing you should definitely refrain from steam and best put a towel between iron and functional clothing. Set the dryer or iron to the coldest level, the fibers should not get too hot.
7. Is your clothes primarily affected by sweat and bacteria? Or in other words: Do the clothes just smell bad? It is best to leave the garment in the highest position for 24 hours freezer - or better - in the freezer. The tissue-dwelling, odor-causing bacteria die off in cold weather.

If you follow these simple tips and tricks when washing, you will definitely enjoy the garments for longer. And just when you have spent a few hundred euros on the clothes, you should not be too stingy with the washing and care products. Such false economy pays off in the long run not.

Bergleben.de also goes to the care other equipment on.

Photo: freestocks.org