Seatbelts in the washing machine

[FarmerPug]

I took out the beige seatbelts and replaced them with black ones yesterday, i thought they were beyond cleaning as i tried a load of different things with them on the car and nothing ever worked, but last night just as an off chance i put them into the washing machine with a few fleeces to stop the machine getting battered to shite at 90 degreees with plenty of washing powder and they have come out as good as new.

Here they were before:




and after:




Here are the black belts i put in, im very tempted to put the cream ones back in i didnt expect them to clean up so well:



You can take the belt out of the reel although i did manage to break 2 reels learning this fact once its reeled fully out the belt is held in the reel with a pin to stop it going through, the pin is the same material the glovebox hinges are and just slides out of a loop in the belt.

[Welly]

I hope you used Non-Bio

Joking aside it might be worth considering whether the detergent might have weakened the webbing structure of the belt in some way? I can't think how this would happen but who knows?

Amazing results anyway.

[trem1]

WOW they really do look as good as new
I would put them back in if it was me

[KozmoNaut]

They certainly cleaned up well.

Get thee some good leather treatment products and get that leather nice and clean and protected.

This kit comes with the highest recommendations (ie: mine) http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Care_Kit.php

[lozz]

They look like new..

I'd get a slap off the Mrs if I used the hot point as a parts washer
I bet them where noisy as feck going round in the drum..

[FarmerPug]

I have all the stuff to clean the leather, even to bring back the colour, just need a spare day to take a bit of time and do it right

They were indeed noisy, i had wrapped them in a pillow case and put that inside my fleece but they managed to escape and rattle a lot, though not as bad as the time i washed my coat with a ratchet in the pocket

[steve_earwig]

When I was a teenager someone told me that you could wash trainers in a washing machine, so I did so. A few days later I spotted my dad with the washing machine apart, he couldn't understand why the bearings all went at the same time

Everything you read tells you not to wash seat belts in anything much at all. I suppose what you could do is, when you change them back, wash one of your black belts the same, while leaving the other one, and see which one tows your tractor the furthest before breaking...

[grasmere59]

What Farmerpug has negleted to tell us is that although there clean doing them at 90 degs have shrunk them to only 18" long.

[scotty73]

What Farmerpug has negleted to tell us is that although there clean doing them at 90 degs have shrunk them to only 18" long.

18" or 1:18 scale?

Fp's new ride.

[FarmerPug]

No shrinkage to the seatbelts, before they went in i laid the belts on the kitchen floor and measured the length with the tiles, after the wash they remained the same. I think its only certain materials that shrink on a high temperature a lot of my jumpers end up shrinking when i put them in the machine though

Ill do that tractor pulling test once i get the black ones out and see what happens, but they were out of a scrapyard car with no windows and were also cleaned to get rid of the mould, although only in a sink with hot water and washing powder.

[FarmerPug]

Biege belts back in, reeled back fine, here they are:




I did the tractor test with the black seatbelts, just trying to get the video up, but the end result was that both belts broke.

Nonetheless a very unscientific test of seatbelts :

both identical, one was washed the other wasn't

the unwashed one broke like this:


the washed one broke like this:


The belts were connected to the front bumpers of 2 tractors, the parked one had the handbrake on and a trailer on behind it, while the other tractor was reversed back in its lowest gear with 4 wheel drive engaged.
It will show up better in the video but its hard really to notice a difference, both broke but there was a lot more tension put on they were made for.

[FarmerPug]

ORRTc3xIPWc

[Welly]

How cool is that!

Thanks for going to such a lot of effort, it appears then that the washing does not affect the belt although you'd really need a Newton Meter to register the effort at breaking point to be precise about it but well done! hey, even the dog made an appearance

[scotty73]

Thanks for going to such a lot of effort,

Effort? that looks like fun ...

[Welly]

Yeah I know but it must have taken ages to do the Video with the captions and stuff.