Removing grease stains from halcyon material?

[bouncing]

Hello, TB people!

I was recently taking my Aeronaut 30 on a bus, and as one does, I flipped it over and used the slightly rigid bottom of it as a make-shift table. I enjoyed a delicious hamburger, but upon finishing my meal, I noticed some grease had leaked onto the material. It's not the end of the world, but I don't want grease rubbing against my clothing as I use the Aeronaut, so it needs a wash.

Usually for grease stains, Dawn dish soap is my go-to. My concern however is that it might also breakdown the weatherproof chemicals applied to my Aeronaut 30 to repel water.

Suggestions?

EDIT: To clarify, this is the halcyon material, not ballistic nylon.

[BWeaves]

You can always use Nikwax to rewaterproof the fabric.

[Darcy]

Hello, TB people!

I was recently taking my Aeronaut 30 on a bus, and as one does, I flipped it over and used the slightly rigid bottom of it as a make-shift table. I enjoyed a delicious hamburger,

Hehe, I love this! You didn't happen to get a photo, did you? We could update its page to say "The Aeronaut can be used as a backpack, duffel, shoulder bag, or a make-shift table when enjoying a delicious hamburger."

but upon finishing my meal, I noticed some grease had leaked onto the material. It's not the end of the world, but I don't want grease rubbing against my clothing as I use the Aeronaut, so it needs a wash.

Usually for grease stains, Dawn dish soap is my go-to. My concern however is that it might also breakdown the weatherproof chemicals applied to my Aeronaut 30 to repel water.

Suggestions?

EDIT: To clarify, this is the halcyon material, not ballistic nylon.

We typically recommend Dawn (let it soak for a few minutes before rinsing thoroughly) or this stuff for getting rid of grease stains. I don't think we've heard how the latter works on Halcyon, but it's fine on ballistic. If the Dawn does the trick, though, that may be the easier way to go. And as @BWeaves mentioned you can use Nikwax to reapply the water-repellant coating on the Halcyon. If you don't already have a bottle, Nikwax is widely available and can be found on Amazon or at your local outdoors store.

[jmachats]

Hehe, I love this! You didn't happen to get a photo, did you? We could update its page to say "The Aeronaut can be used as a backpack, duffel, shoulder bag, or a make-shift table when enjoying a delicious hamburger."



We typically recommend Dawn (let it soak for a few minutes before rinsing thoroughly) or this stuff for getting rid of grease stains. I don't think we've heard how the latter works on Halcyon, but it's fine on ballistic. If the Dawn does the trick, though, that may be the easier way to go. And as @BWeaves mentioned you can use Nikwax to reapply the water-repellant coating on the Halcyon. If you don't already have a bottle, Nikwax is widely available and can be found on Amazon or at your local outdoors store.

Darcy the FAQ's have long said "Palmolive and Dawn soaps may be too harsh" for cleaning your bag and I've always stayed away from them for that reason.

Is that no longer the case?

[Darcy]

Darcy the FAQ's have long said "Palmolive and Dawn soaps may be too harsh" for cleaning your bag and I've always stayed away from them for that reason.

Is that no longer the case?

For general cleaning, we do recommend using a gentle, mild, environmentally friendly dish soap. But in the case of a grease stain, it is often necessary to use something a little more heavy duty. I could've/should've offered that @bouncing could first try a mild soap before moving on to the Dawn.

[anna2222]

I was recently taking my Aeronaut 30 on a bus, and as one does, I flipped it over and used the slightly rigid bottom of it as a make-shift table. I enjoyed a delicious hamburger

Wow, never would have thought of THAT, my A30 has one more purpose when on-the-go!

[backpack]

Beside using the A45 as a makeshift back seat on a concrete seat that was placed next to a widow, at an airport.

I have used 7 Generations dish washing detergent on my S19, in Halcyon.

The culprit wasn't grease but peach juice, it took me a couple of days before getting to the cleaning because I got sick, right after the juice spilling incident.

I washed the S19 3 times, with 7 Generations dish washing detergent, to remove the sticky sugar feel and fade the peachy color on my S19.

Make sure to 1: place detergent on top of the grease stain, 2: soak the bag in water, 3: massage the detergent on the stain, 4: rinse well, 5: air dry, 6: look at the stain area. If you don't see anything, you are good to go.

If you still see a slightly darker area and most important still feel a greasy kind of sensation, repeat steps 1,2 and 3 but, this time, use an old soft toothbrush to make sure the detergent really gets into the stain. 4: rinse well, 5: air dry, 6: look at the stain area.

If it is really stubborn break out the Dawn, and repeat all the steps above.

[Cristina]

I live in the U.K. so I have different liquid soaps available to me. I do have Johnson's Baby Shampoo though, is that ok as a first step for washing?

The other thing that comes to mind in terms of environmentally friendly soaps is Ecover brand... either dish soap or laundry detergent.

If any transatlantic types are reading this, is Fairy liquid as strong as Dawn?

[TorontoSS]

I live in the U.K. so I have different liquid soaps available to me. I do have Johnson's Baby Shampoo though, is that ok as a first step for washing?

The other thing that comes to mind in terms of environmentally friendly soaps is Ecover brand... either dish soap or laundry detergent.

If any transatlantic types are reading this, is Fairy liquid as strong as Dawn?

Hi Cristina, another UK resident here. I would think Fairy is one of the harsher ones (because it’s effective on dishes!). I have used it however when I owned a burnt orange s19 and I had a grease stain from leaky sunblock. Fairy worked very well for that. On a side note, fairy got a grease stain off a goretex jacket too.

[bouncing]

Hehe, I love this! You didn't happen to get a photo, did you? We could update its page to say "The Aeronaut can be used as a backpack, duffel, shoulder bag, or a make-shift table when enjoying a delicious hamburger."

Haha. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of it, no.

We typically recommend Dawn (let it soak for a few minutes before rinsing thoroughly) or this stuff for getting rid of grease stains. I don't think we've heard how the latter works on Halcyon, but it's fine on ballistic. If the Dawn does the trick, though, that may be the easier way to go. And as @BWeaves mentioned you can use Nikwax to reapply the water-repellant coating on the Halcyon. If you don't already have a bottle, Nikwax is widely available and can be found on Amazon or at your local outdoors store.

Thanks a bunch for chiming in with this and the note on whether dish soap might be too harsh. I tried soaking it in just water, but that didn't quite do the trick, so it's soaking now in water with a little dishsoap.

Nikwax is on the way.

[bouncing]

For general cleaning, we do recommend using a gentle, mild, environmentally friendly dish soap. But in the case of a grease stain, it is often necessary to use something a little more heavy duty. I could've/should've offered that @bouncing could first try a mild soap before moving on to the Dawn.

Hi Darcy! I'm happy to report that a little Dawn did the trick and I re-waterproofed it using the Nikwax. I did a quick test in the sink and indeed, the weather resistant treatment seems to work well and the grease stain is gone. Thanks!