Many horse rug laundry operations use the wrong type of washing machine; or at the very least too small a machine to effectively clean the larger, heavier and expensive turnout rugs like Fal, Rambo, Wetherbeeta and other quality branded turnout rugs.

Let us explain:

Your household washing machine has a drum that is sized as a 7kg dry load weight. Have you tried to get a horse rug in there? If it is a lightweight rug you might just get away with it, but I bet it was a struggle to get it all in. If the rug is tightly packed into the drum there is no way that the water can get to all of the dirt and grime, never mind be able to wash it away, as there is no room for the water and detergent to move around the rug.

Many laundry machine companies will tell you that you need a 10kg machine to clean horse rugs. Admittedly the larger size of this drum will give your rug more room, but even so, with the increasingly ‘fluffy’ linings and polyester filings that the modern winter turnouts have, even this larger size of machine will struggle to give your rug a really good cleaning. Some other companies say that a 10kg machine is still not big enough, and that you really need a 15kg machine to do the job.

Well, at Captain Rugwash™ we’ve gone a step further. All of our machines have a minimum of 23kg dry load capacity, which means that even the largest 7’3” heavyweight winter turnouts, including those with integral neck covers, have plenty of room to move around in the drum, allowing the water to penetrate deeply, and the detergent to remove the dirt away from the rug leaving it sparklingly clean.

So much for the washing part of the job. How about reproofing? Some manufacturers say that their turnout rugs do not need reproofing for at least three seasons. That may be the case, but do you really want to wait until the waterproofing has gone before you reproof. If you keep the reproofing ‘topped up’ the rug will never be less than waterproof, preventing damage to the core fibres of the rug caused by water sitting in the fibres and going stagnant in the rug. What the manufacturers don't tell you is that many of the waterproof, breathable outers that the rugs are made from, are simply a chemically treated fabric. The chemicals used may deteriorate with time and harmful UV rays from sunlight.

Many horse rug laundries simply spray on a reproofing agent after the rug has been cleaned and dried. This not only gives an inconsistent coverage, but only treats the outer shell of the rug, not the whole of the fabric make up of the rug. Other companies add a reproofer to the final rinse of the wash cycle and then drip dry the rug. This ‘dripping’ not only lets the water drip out and run down the drain, but a large amount of the expensive reproofer goes with it leaving, at best, a partially reproofed rug with a higher concentration of waterproofing on the skirt of the rug and very little along the back, which is where you need it most.

That is why at Captain Rugwash™ we add the reproofer to the final rinse cycle, but then we tumble dry the rugs at a carefully controlled temperature so that the water evaporates but the reproofer doesn’t, leaving it firmly in the rug. The tumbling action of our dryers also ensures that the reproofing agent stays equally distributed throughout the entire rug, lining and filling included. Many horse rug laundry operations advise against using tumble driers, usually because they haven't invested in the machines, and don't want to pay the additional costs in running these big beasts. (Our tumble driers are taller than me, and I'm 6' tall!!). Tumble driers are only harmful to horse rugs if they are not used correctly. And, in fact, NikWax® (makers of the world's most well known rug detergent) recommend the use of tumble driers for reproofing in their technical guide, which perhaps other companies haven't read; or perhaps they don't even know this document exists, or perhaps they just want to do the job on the cheap. We don't know why they don't use tumble driers, it's up to you to decide why. What we do know is that we do the job properly, using the right equipment, the best detergents available, and we do everything according to the advice of the laundry machine suppliers, detergent manufacturers, and the horse rug manufacturers combined.

What else can we say..?