The dark side of just drying, not washing, your gi.....

Fair warning-- I copied and pasted from various emails into this blog post and screwed up the font color in places, somehow.  Instead of it all being white text on dark grey background, some is black text on dark grey, and I have insufficient HTML skills (and patience) to fix it.  I'm sorry!  please let me know if you can't read the black parts!

Meg posted a fascinating piece on her blog, MegJitsu, about a couple who are exploring a new way to stay clean and fresh in jiu jitsu.    Michelle and Brandon Bledsoe, white and black belts, respectively, out of Wolf Clan Combat Sports in Knoxville, Tennessee, "wash" their gis without water.  Huh!  I checked Brandon out and he is legit-- just got his black belt this year under Helio Soneca and competes in jits as well as MMA.  So this is no random guy training alone in the basement with youtube for 6 months; he obviously cares about his students and his own safety.

Meg says they "tumble dry [their] gi with a dryer sheet for 10 minutes on a delicate setting/very low heat after class. I had to ask Michelle, do gi ‘washed’ in this manner start to stink as soon as sweat or moisture hits them?"  Michelle's answer was:

"Nope, no smell at all. People actually comment on how good they always smell! Because you are evaporating the sweat, there is no bacteria sitting in the fabric. It’s awesome! Brandon has been doing this for years and years. He has gis 8 years old that look brand new!"

Sorry, but among many others, I found this hard to swallow.  I don't know what Michelle and Brandon do for a living, but I know I'm not an expert in this stuff.  So, I found some experts and they say--

HELL NO.

I emailed chemists, microbiologists, textile scientists, experts in "linen and laundry management" and the like.  This is what I asked--

* * * *
I train in a martial art called jiu jitsu. We all wear heavy uniforms (called "gi") to train in and they are usually soaked in sweat when we finish a session. Normally we wash in hot water with detergent (some air dry, some machine dry) and count them "clean." But recently someone claimed that the gis would be just as safe if we immediately dried them on hot in the dryer-- on the theory that drying out the sweat at high heat will kill the bacteria, and therefore you could just go a whole week or longer (up to 6-8 weeks!) without  "washing" your gi, saving water and wear on the fibers.

See this article here for a discussion: http://www.megjitsu.com/how-to-wash-bjj-gi-without-water/

Please help me find someone who knows whether this would be safe! I would like to provide a scientific point of view for the discussion, not just anecdotal opinion.

* * * *

Please notice I kind of changed the question.  Michelle and Brandon advocate drying on the gentle/low-heat cycle.  I asked about drying on high heat.  I should have left the parameters the same, but I know I wouldn't personally feel comfortable about drying on low heat absent a wash with detergent.

Here are their answers.  First, from a PhD chemist and professor of textile science in Austria.  (His English is way better than my German.  I am so impressed with him and not impressed with my provincial self.)

"Dear Georgette,

we received your email an I will try to answer.
First I had a look on your discussion page [the MegJitsu blog post and comments after] and found the following comments:

"To achieve sterility, a holding time of at least 15 minutes at 121 °C (250 °F) or 3 minutes at 134 °C (273 °F) is required.  The standard properly functioning in home dryer runs around 175°C."

The general comment on sterility is right and you see, you will need quite harsh conditions to kill all microorganisms.

There is an error in the temperature of a home dryer, which most probably is 175 °F not 175 °C. Thus you cannot expect that your clothing will be free of microorganisms after a tumble drying.

What you will achieve is a reduction in population due to shorter growth time, effect of temperature and removal of liquid water (sweat), thus development of odor may be reduced, however I expect a considerable population to be alive (e.g. in stasis form) after such treatment.  In any case all non-volatile components released during perspiration with sweat will remain in the cloth e.g. salt, grease, ..
Just check the composition of sweat at wickipedia.

So after all you will have to chose between:

Real hygienic conditions e.g. by use of appropriate washing cycle or appearent hygiene, where odor and smell will be the primary quality parameters (not purity of the cloth).

Kind regards

Univ. Prof. Dr. Thomas Bechtold
Research Institute for Textile Chemistry and Textile Physics
University Innsbruck
Hoechsterstrasse 73
A-6850 Dornbirn
Austria
Tel.: +43 5572 28533 579
Fax: +43 5572 28629"

Next answer, from a professor of chemistry and environmental science in New York:

"Hi Georgette,

Laundering your gi with soap and water is a key step in getting rid of the microbes that would be festering on them after a heavy workout session. The mechanical action of machine washing loosens the bacteria, and the soap and surfactants in the detergent bind with them so the water can wash them away. If you just dry the clothes, you may kill a large proportion of the microorganisms, but you would be leaving organic residues on the fabric that would basically provide food for microbes to re-colonize afterwards. And the resulting build-up of crud would probably make the uniforms unusable faster than the effects of regular laundering anyway!

Detergent companies are very interested in the idea of cold-water washing these days, both for the purposes of saving energy and reducing wear and tear on fabric from washing in hot water. In fact, there was an excellent piece on that topic in the NY Times this past week:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/business/cold-water-detergents-get-a-chilly-reception.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=laundry&st=cse

Perhaps these cold-water detergents, which cost the same as the conventional kind, could provide an effective solution for washing your gi while reducing wear from hot water.

Also, drying on the line in the sun is a great way to kill microbes while saving energy.

A microbiologist would probably have a better answer for you, but I hope that helps. My specific expertise lies in the chemistry of chlorine bleach in laundry applications--I assume you're not bleaching your uniforms?

Best of luck,
Alessandra 

Alessandra Leri

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science
Marymount Manhattan College
221 E 71st St.
New York, NY 10021
(212) 517-0661"

The next is from the president of a company called Aquarecycle. 


"The Aqua Recycle^® Laundry Water Recycle System is the only proven system on the market that will reclaim and reuse ALL of your laundry wastewater." 

Sounded like they might have some insight, perhaps less thana microbiologist or textile scientist but what the hey.  The principals of the company have advanced degrees as varied as Marine Geochemistry, Physical Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Commercial Resort Management, and Mechanical Engineering. 


One dude has "24 year laundry industry experience includes Vice President of Consulting overseeing such prestigious clients as Ritz Carlton, Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott. He also held Vice President and Regional Management Positions for two of the largest commercial healthcare and hospitality linen rental corporations. While with these companies, he had responsibility for 12-laundry plants processing in excess of 200 million pounds annually. He entered the laundry business working for the Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Florida. During his 10-year career with Disney, he played a significant part in the development, construction and operation of one of the largest laundry facilities in the United States processing over 100 million pounds of linen and 13 million garments, annually." 



So I believe they have some chops in regards to the chemistry of clean laundry.  Here's what the company president told me:

"Georgette,

Thanks for the email. Its funny you should email me about this. My 26 yr old son is a huge jiu jitsu competitor. He has his purple belt [under Helio Soneca/Ranieri Paiva in Marietta Georgia, at X3 Sports] and competes nationally so I understand better than most. That being said, he has also come home with Staff infections and those are not something you take lightly.


The wrestling process, the sweat, the co-mingling of fluids between wrestlers and the environment produce a lot more than just bacteria. There are all kinds of human organics and fluids there and words can not describe how important it is to insure proper sanitizing of the uniforms. . . you can never cut corners even though the dryers are a good disinfectant; there is never a 100% guarantee of disinfection. I am not a launderer and not really a scientist either (I do have them in my organization) but when recycling laundry wastewater, we have several different disinfection processes going on (Ozone, UV, Active Alkalinity) and this is after the normal washing process that includes chlorine, hot water, detergents and such. Bacteria lives everywhere and each environment has to be handled differently since some can live in each environment. It’s a continuous battle and the best you can do is keep them at bay.

Please make sure these are washed, and always in HOT WATER. 140 – 160 degree [Fahrenheit] hot water for at least 5 minutes is always the safest and the most sanitary process.

Take care,

Jeff

 

Jeff Lebedin, President

AquaRecycle

ThermalRecycle

450 Ridgewater Drive

Marietta, GA 30068

(770)565-8488 (Plant)"

I still haven't heard back from Dr. Pourdeyhimi at the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University or Dr. Fairbanks at the Association of Linen Management, but I think I'm satisfied with what I was able to learn already.

I believe it is unsanitary and probably risking some infections to not wash your gi in water and detergent after every single training session.  I do not think drying on high heat alone (much less low heat or the gentle cycle!!!) is enough to remove the organic materials and the microbes from the cloth.  I love when people smell clean, and when a colored gi doesn't fade-- but even more importantly I want them to BE clean when I roll.  After all, if you stood in front of a fan naked after class, evaporated the sweat off your skin and hair, and then sprayed a little cologne or perfume on.... would you be clean???????

I have only been training three years, but I (until recently) was training 7 days a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, so I am well versed in the demands that laundering 1-3 gis a day can put on the water bill and the laundry room, as well as on the fabric.  (Now you see why I have 18+ gis in the rotation.)  But I'd rather wear the crap out of some gis and frazzle them into uselessness in 2-3 years (though that hasn't happened yet) than have pristine looking/smelling gis with colonies of bacteria and so on in them.

However, to each their own.  So it's worth making sure you're clear with your training partners (and sadly, opponents in tournaments) whether they subscribe to the no-water-wash school of thought, so you can assess your level of risk and comfort, etc.

THANK YOU MegJitsu for the very thought-provoking post and thanks Michelle and Brandon for sharing your method with us!  Maybe this will encourage a re-evaluation of the cleaning process :)