Wash with Wally: Leather Gloves

By Wally Makowsky | Sep 24, 2009

I have landed a commercial account with the local sewer and water department, washing their leather gloves. But I am having trouble getting the gloves soft and pliable. I also could use some tips on how to remove all of the dirt, grime and grease on them. I would appreciate any advice you can provide.

First of all, during the washing process, the most favorable product to use is a citrus-based liquid detergent. With that, you can use colder water and achieve higher detergent efficiency. Plus, the citric portion of the detergent will remove most oils and greases.

When using this product be sure to use it with warm water. This product is probably most suitable to water in the 85- to 90-degree range. Don’t use hot water, especially on leather gloves.

If you have a problem with the gloves being stiff and hard after the washing process, purchase some mineral oil and mix 3 percent to 4 percent mineral oil with warm water and soak the gloves in that solution. That will bring some of the life back to those gloves.

Dry on low heat or air-dry if you want to maintain the oil and softness in the gloves.

A drop-off laundry customer recently came in with 200 pounds of uniforms. These items are red, and he wanted to be sure that the dyes wouldn’t bleed. Therefore, he asked me to set the dyes. How do I do that?

In the dying process, various salts and acids are used to set dyes. However, once the process is completed, it is very difficult to re-set or stabilize the dyes. The process requires using very high water temperatures and special equipment. As a result, most self-service laundries are not equipped for such a task.

You can try using salt or vinegar; soak that garments for 30 to 45 minutes, or tumble-wash for at least a half hour. But there is no guarantee this will be successful.

Remember, dyes are made from different materials. Some are made from vegetable extract. Some are metallic in nature. And others are earth dyes. Each is set with different chemicals and different processes.

However, there is a product on the market called Color Catcher, made by Johnson & Johnson, which will keep most dyes from transposing onto other garments. It works well, especially if you handle drop-off laundry and mix your loads.

One word of caution: If you decide to use this product, watch out for red garments. There is no guarantee that reds won’t bleed.

I am starting a mat rental business. I already have the laundry equipment to clean the mats, and my uncle owns a mat distribution business, so he can sell me vinyl-backed mats relatively inexpensively. My only difficulty is the fact that the heavy-duty mat cleaners I am aware of to remove gum and other residue are only good for rubber-backed mats, because they will erode vinyl-backed mats. Can you suggest a heavy-duty cleaner that will not harm my vinyl mats?

You can use a detergent that is heavily laden with alkalie. This shouldn’t harm your vinyl mats, but it should remove most of the gum residue you mentioned. You might have to wash the items twice. However, a built detergent with alkalie is one method for handling your mats.

Another method is to use a spray-type cleaner with freon. Such products are available at most carpet-cleaning supply houses. You simply spray the cleaner on the gum or other residue, which would turn hard and powdery; then simply brush it off. Of course, that is a manual process, and you would have to treat each mat individually. However, it’s a quick method and might be the best way for you to go.