How to Clean a Gi or Rashguard (European version)

Written on 2025-06-11 • conversation

I sport. I sweat. Other people also sweat on me because it’s a contact sport. And over time, especially synthetics like rash guards can start to be hard to clean.

You’ll find a lot of instructions online for how to clean your Gi or Rashguard, geared towards the US market, with US products and US measurements. On top of that a lot of them simply did not work for me. So I thought I’d share the European version that works for me every time.

Monthly Deep Clean

It says monthly, but I do this depending on training volume. And I do the smell test. No need to clean more than necessary.

  1. Soak 4–6 hours in 5 liters of warm water with 70g of sodium carbonate and a dash of fragrance-free detergent. DO NOT use too much detergent. Tablespoon max.
  2. Rinse thoroughly with clean water.
  3. Soak 15–30 minutes in 5 liters of fresh water with 250ml of white vinegar.
  4. Rinse again and hang dry, inside-out. In the summer: hang outside in the sun.

Maintenance, ASAP After Gym

The sooner after the gym you wash, the less time bacteria have time to multiply.

  1. Turn gi/rashguard inside out.
  2. Short cold pre-rinse ~10min. My shower sometimes takes a while to heat up, so I use the cold shower water to pre-rinse.
  3. Main wash at 30°C with detergent (again DO NOT use too much detergent, this is the cardinal sin), high rpm spin dry.
  4. Add 50–100ml vinegar in the softener compartment for the final rinse.
  5. Hang dry: never use a dryer or fabric softener.

Your training partners thank you.

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