So … I emailed the folks at the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute and asked about their advice not to put helmets in the dishwasher here is their reply:
"Our dishwasher recommendation is based mostly on: 1. The possibility of getting the helmet right over the heating element. (Not your problem unless you forget to hit eco mode) That could damage the EPS. 2. The heat of the water. Dishwashers use only straight hot water, so if you have your heater set up to 160 or even higher the water can be that hot. 3. The harshness of the dishwashing detergent. There are many different formulas, and some people use a lot more than the recommended amount of detergent. Contrast that to hand washing in lukewarm water with a mild dish detergent, or even taking it into the shower with you after each ride, and the dishwasher has more potential problems. I would guess that the worst effects would be on the fit pads. I will raise this one at the next ASTM meeting to see what the manufacturers have to say. It was a manufacturer who originally made a comment that led to that advice on our site. Randy Swart helmets.org <http://helmets.org/>" I checked our hot water tonight, and it comes out of the tap at 145 degrees. Perhaps the recommendation against dishwasher helmet cleaning is just reflecting an abundance of caution. Even if there are only a few combinations of factors (overly hot water, heating element on, very harsh detergent) that make this unadvisable, I can see that it would be easier on the part of the industry to recommend an outright ban on the practice than to say it’s OK if you do this and this and this … Thanks to Randy Swart for his speedy reply, and for offering to look into this further. —Eric N campyonly...@me.com www.campyonly.com www.wheelsnorth.org Blog: http://campyonlyguy.blogspot.com Twitter: @campyonlyguy > On Jan 15, 2015, at 10:18 AM, Bill Finkelstein, Santa Rosa Cycling Club > <b...@williamfinkelstein.com> wrote: > > If you ran it through the dishwasher, you destroyed the helmets ability to > save your life. That amount of heat will ruin the foam. > > If you do want to do that, please make sure that you sign up to be an organ > donor. > > Here's a good article on how to clean your helmet. > http://www.bhsi.org/clean.htm <http://www.bhsi.org/clean.htm> > > Regards, > Bill Finkelstein (an Engineer) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "randon" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to randon+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > <mailto:randon+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > To post to this group, send email to ran...@googlegroups.com > <mailto:ran...@googlegroups.com>. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/randon > <http://groups.google.com/group/randon>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
