GEAR CLEANING
This information is updated regularly. Please double check the information here and the with the manufacturers guidelines and DOCUMENT your practices. (last updated April 27, 2020)
NOTE:
Cleaning Life Safety Equipment has always been a challenging subject. A lot of information swirls around about how to do it in an effective way without detriment to the integrity of the gear. Two things are important in this process. 1) use the information from the manufacturer of the equipment. DONOT assume that a rope is a rope and any cleaning program will work. 2) DOCUMENT When, how and with what equipment is cleaned.
The following are the recommendations from manufactures. ACCT strongly recommends checking this information against the data on the manufacture’s website to assure no significant modifications have taken place since the updates.
“NOTE: I have been carefully reading the information from each of the companies listed below and in that reading the information for multiple pieces of equipment from the same company. I am finding that it is ESSENTIAL to assure you read the cleaning instructions for the SPECIFIC piece of equipment. Some manufactures have different cleaning guidelines for different equipment. There is also a lot of information about cleaning equipment. There is very little information on how to kill a virus on our harness. Manufacturers and owners are doing the best they can and will have to make the best decisions you can.”
General Guidelines
These guidelines are drawn from all of the material below.
- Do NOT use BLEACH!
- Do NOT dry in direct sun or with significant external heat
- Time is your friend in disinfecting. 3 to 7 days appears to be effective at this time (this is a moving target).
- Do NOT use Detergent (read the label, soap and detergent are different and labeled differently)
Petzl
To clean PETZL PPE or other equipment, please follow the instructions provided in the technical notice for each product.
As a reminder, chemical cleaners damage plastics and textiles, breaking down the compounds and the fibers. The only cleaning products tested and recommended are soap and water.
In the specific case of COVID-19, hospital disinfection methods involve high temperatures (>150°C) or low temperatures (<100°C) and using bleach. We cannot apply these protocols to Petzl PPE or other equipment.
To date, no health authority has announced an official, reliable disinfection protocol using low temperatures (<100°C) and without bleach.
With this in mind, we recommend using the following protocol:
- Respect a 72 hour quarantine period
- Hand wash products with soap and water, at a maximum temperature of 65°C (Warning: these are exceptional measures during the COVID-19 crisis. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, please wash your equipment at 30°C as indicated in the technical notice).
To dry your equipment, please follow the instructions provided in the technical notice.
This protocol will highly reduce the risk of contamination, but of course is not 100% guaranteed. You can also request further information from your local health authorities concerning low temperature disinfection protocols.
PLEASE NOTE: Cleaning products developed by ECOLAB, when applied as instructed, are also compatible with all Petzl helmets and can be used. However, we do not know how effective ECOLAB’s products are in killing the coronavirus. Here is the link to the ECOLAB website for more information: https://en-uk.ecolab.com/
Robertson Harness Cleaning Instructions
Robertson published new guidelines and recommendations in summer of 2020
Singing Rock
https://www.singingrock.com/covid-19-disinfection
In answer to numerous questions regarding proper disinfection of climbing and personal protective equipment, we made an official statement especially devoted to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Ethanol
- At the moment, the most easily accessible disinfection with approved destructive effect against coronavirus in our region has following contents: 83% of denatured 95% ethanol; 11.3% of distilled water, 4.2% of 3% hydrogen peroxide and 1.5% of glycerol.
- Numerous tests of repeatedly immersed textiles into the above-mentioned liquid with subsequent air drying didn’t show any detectable strength reduction.
- Nevertheless, we do not recommend to apply the above-mentioned chemicals on your gear more than 3 times.
Isopropanol
- Due to similar properties and tests, performed by some manufacturers, isopropanol or isopropyl alcohol can be used for disinfection with insignificant degenerative effect to exposed materials.
- We do not recommend to apply any chemicals on your gear more than 3 times.
Hot water
- Test results, published in the Supplementary appendix of the article by Chin A W H, Chu J T S, Perera M R A, et al. Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions. Lancet Microbe 2020; published online April 2., indicate a high virus sensitivity to heat. Virus is not detectable after 30 min. in 56 ˚C hot water.
- Based on studies “Effects of Pathogen Decontamination on the Strength of Climbing Rope and Harness Equipment” performed by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Technology and Development Program, it is possible to increase the water temperature to 55 ˚C with no effect to strength of the textile gear.
- We recommend to use 55 ˚C hot water for a non-destructive disinfection of your polyamide or polyester gear or metal components.
- This solution is not applicable to gear made of HMPE (Dyneema®, Spectra®, Dynex® or similar)
Hand soap
- Singing Rock allows to use hand soap with pH range 5.5 and 8.5.
- According to the above mentioned article “Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions. Lancet Microbe 2020”, it is necessary to wash your gear in 30 ˚C water with soap for at least 15 minutes in order to destroy the coronavirus.
Air dry
- SARS-CoV-2 can be detected on some smooth surfaces within 7 days from the contamination according to “Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions. Lancet Microbe 2020”
- Therefore, we recommend to leave your gear aside in a well-ventilated place away from all sources of direct heat for at least 1 week for disinfection.
Dilution of Potassium permanganate or ammonium salts
- Although Singing Rock recommends to use dilution of potassium permanganate or ammonium salts in user manuals, we can’t guarantee positive disinfecting effect in relation to SARS-CoV-2 due to lack of reliable scientific studies.
- Therefore, Singing Rock does not recommend to use the above-mentioned means for SARSCoV-2 disinfection.
The above-mentioned disinfecting solutions are advisory in nature. Singing Rock assumes no liability for improper use of the gear. Singing Rock edifies that the user has to inspect his gear before every use. In case of any doubts about your gear, retire it immediately.
Teufelberger
Eldorado Walls
Clic-it Lanyards
Any questions about Clic-it cleaning, distribution or products should be directed to the US distributer, Synego at kyle@teamsynergo.com and/or lhiller@teamsynergo.com.
“In order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus and to comply with sanitary measures, we recommend the use of hydroalcoholic solution to clean the connectors (plastic handles and aluminium(sp) housing). Protect your hands with disposable gloves and apply the product with a cloth. This procedure is safe for your lanyards.”
ISC Solutions in Metal
https://www.iscwales.com/News/Press-Releases/COVID-19-Cleaning-Hardware/