how do i get rid of BO??

[Rob]

I bought a treadmill on ebay. It's exactly what the seller said it was and
is in great shape except.......... the seller must have stored all his
sweaty dirty laundry on the thing. The tread stinks like BO. I've tried
lysol and fabreeze and it's done nothing. Any thoughts on how to get rid of
this, it's stinking up the house!!! Thanks.

[Mrs Bonk]

"Rob" <rob@nospam.com> wrote in message news:%U1Uc.2896$_w.422@trndny04...
> I bought a treadmill on ebay. It's exactly what the seller said it was
and
> is in great shape except.......... the seller must have stored all his
> sweaty dirty laundry on the thing. The tread stinks like BO. I've tried
> lysol and fabreeze and it's done nothing. Any thoughts on how to get rid
of
> this, it's stinking up the house!!! Thanks.

Oh dear. I am not one for exercise and I've no idea what a treadmill's tread
is made of so I'm unable to advise on this occasion. Perhaps Gary has the
answer, he's normally up on most things.

[Phisherman]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 12:38:19 GMT, "Rob" <rob@nospam.com> wrote:

>I bought a treadmill on ebay. It's exactly what the seller said it was and
>is in great shape except.......... the seller must have stored all his
>sweaty dirty laundry on the thing. The tread stinks like BO. I've tried
>lysol and fabreeze and it's done nothing. Any thoughts on how to get rid of
>this, it's stinking up the house!!! Thanks.
>


Make a baking soda-water mix (1 c. to 1 gal) and work this into the
plastic areas, being careful not to drip any liquid into the
mechanical parts. An old washcloth will work well. Allow this to dry
for an hour. Rinse with a vinegar-water (1 c. to 2 qt) mix and allow
to dry in direct sunlight.

OK, I admit it, Phish has BO. I exercise daily--walking 4.5 miles,
hiking 2 miles daily, and with summer temperatures often in the 90's
it's easy to have body odor even with daily bathing and fresh
clothing. Congratulations on the treadmill, and happy sweating!

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Rob

It sounds to me like the manufacturer of the tread, to save money, a
mitigate agent was not used during the manufacture of the belt
material. Some of these belts smell worse than an old gym shoe, hi
hi....

About the only thing that I know of that will help, other than keeping
a fan blowing across it for a week, is to wash the belt (both sides)
down real well with a Scent Eliminating Soap, such as used by deer
hunters.

Knight and Hale makes a scent eliminating body wash that seems to help
remove some of the new rubber smell from many products fairly well.
They also make a spray that is roughly 4 times more effective BUT it's
like 7 bucks for a small spray bottle of the stuff. The body wash
and/or shampoo has the same ingredients and is much cheaper.

But good air circulation will eliminate much of it over time too.

TTUL
Gary

[Rob]

top post:
thanks gary, ill look into some of this. my wife just picked up a spray
bottle of stuff designed to wipe out cat urine smell. we've had the
treadmill now for a few months, but its now in a room we normally don't use
and i've been running outside. i bought it for the purpose of running in
the winter. it used to be in our bedroom where i have a fan running all the
time (i like the noise and the breeze, i run a fan even in the winter :))
and while it wasn't pointed directly at the treadmill, it just seems the
smell i getting worse and worse over time. my wife is ready to just wheel
it out to the curb. as someone else pointed out, this sounds like a
seinfeld episode :).

"Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr." <raiar@bbs.galilei.com.nospam> wrote in message
news:412160d0.995775796@news.galilei.com...
> Hi Rob
>
> It sounds to me like the manufacturer of the tread, to save money, a
> mitigate agent was not used during the manufacture of the belt
> material. Some of these belts smell worse than an old gym shoe, hi
> hi....
>
> About the only thing that I know of that will help, other than keeping
> a fan blowing across it for a week, is to wash the belt (both sides)
> down real well with a Scent Eliminating Soap, such as used by deer
> hunters.
>
> Knight and Hale makes a scent eliminating body wash that seems to help
> remove some of the new rubber smell from many products fairly well.
> They also make a spray that is roughly 4 times more effective BUT it's
> like 7 bucks for a small spray bottle of the stuff. The body wash
> and/or shampoo has the same ingredients and is much cheaper.
>
> But good air circulation will eliminate much of it over time too.
>
> TTUL
> Gary
>

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Rob

I understand!
My wife had me buy her a treadmill last year. It wasn't too bad when
it was in the main part of the house. But it was moved to a guest
bedroom that was usually left closed up.
When you opened that door, it was like you opened a gym locker that
was left for a whole year closed up and rotting.
Everything in the closet in that room (mostly our winter coats, etc.)
smelled just old sneakers.

We tried washing in this and washing in that, even used 1/2 a gallon
of OdorBan from Sam's in the things that could be washed, sprayed
those that couldn't be washed with the Odor Ban using it like Fabreze,
but nothing helped.
A cousin stopped by and went out to his car and came back in with that
Knight & Hale Body wash and washed down the treadmill belt, and then
told us to buy some of the spray for our coats.

It removed all of the smell from the clothes quite well, but the belt
still has a slight odor but not enough to permeate the room like it
did. A little plastic clip on fan blows across the belt now too and
in only a few weeks, you don't notice the odor much anymore and it's
still in a closed room.

FWIW: My brother is in the used car business. They slip a sliver of
these treadmill belts up under the passenger seat and a couple of
slivers under the rear seat, up in the springs.
Makes the car smell like a new car for a long long time.
Me, I think it makes them smell like dirty sneakers!

TTUL
Gary

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Mrs Bonk

I just caught your post!

Gee, isn't it nice to be recognized in ones own lifetime.;)

But I can't really take the credit.
I have to give it to Murphy!
If anything can go wrong, Old Murphy was there to make sure of it.

Perhaps I should write a book on how to deal with Murphy, hi hi.....

TTUL
Gary

[Barbecue Bob]

In article <%U1Uc.2896$_w.422@trndny04>, "Rob" <rob@nospam.com> wrote:

> I bought a treadmill on ebay. It's exactly what the seller said it was and
> is in great shape except.......... the seller must have stored all his
> sweaty dirty laundry on the thing. The tread stinks like BO. I've tried
> lysol and fabreeze and it's done nothing. Any thoughts on how to get rid of
> this, it's stinking up the house!!! Thanks.
>
>

You bought it from Lloyd, right? I couldn't get the odor out of
football jersey he sold me. Because I kept my mouth shut, he was able
to sell it to somebody else and give me a refund.

Does the treadmill have an ash tray? If you smoked during workouts the
odor wouldn't bother you.
--
Barbecue Bob serving family-style roast bunny
at convenient restaurants
from Montana to New Mexico