Am I being too paranoid about bleaching Filter Socks?

[krisjoseph]

I could be completely wrong but it's my understanding that bleach breaks down quickly. It turns to salt (2NaOCl --> O2 + 2NaCl) when it breaks down. I wash mine in the washing machine on hot/cold and then set them in the sun to dry. I then use them as needed (sometimes within hours). I've never noticed any ill effects.

I echo your understanding of what happens when bleach is exposed to air: it breaks down into oxygen and salt.

There is NO reason to fear using bleach with filter socks. The key is making sure they air-dry throughly before you use them.

I'll wash a batch as soon as my last "clean" set has been swapped in. As a result, all of the clean socks sit out for several days before any of them are put back in the tank. In practice, though, 24 hours is plenty long enough.

True fact: you can make clean drinking water out in the wild by adding 2 drops of bleach per liter of water, agitating it, and letting it sit for an hour. It's drinkable and bacteria-free at that point (but technically could still contain parasites).

 

[Garreth Robinson]

The best way I’ve found it to just power wash your socks if you leave dirty socks to soak in a bucket and clean in batches it comes off very easily I don’t even have to turn them inside out. If they dry up and are harder to clean bleach soak does help. But it’s been proven that bleach doesn’t remove the ****e it just bleaches it so it’s not seen in sone cases. Power washer is amazing , I’m not sure I’d trust a washing machine to not have any detergent in it.

 

[dhnguyen]

I used to wash mine in bleach and then soak them in a water/dechlorinator solution for 24 hrs and then run then through a rinse cycle. But now I just take my pressure washer to the socks and get them plenty clean. Easier that way for me now.