Posted by pete on October 19, 2003 at 07:09 [67.3.26.117]
In Reply to: Care of Plastic Pants posted by Tex-DL on October 18, 2003 at 11:07
ANY oil will shorten the life of plastic pants, including oils that everyone's skin secretes. That's why they get brittle eventually.
The pvc material that plastic pants are made of have up to 50% plasticizer in them to make them soft, otherwise it would be the same stuff you make plastic pipe and window frames out of. Oil tends to extract the plasticizer from the pvc...that's what causes the brittling effect.
Soap will extract plasticizers too...that's why it's best to rinse your plastic pants in plain water, or at best use a mild soap and rinse right away. Sometimes of course the elastics need to be cleaned with soap...
I've found that high-quality plastic pants have a better quality of plasticizer that takes longer to extract. For instance, some of my Fetware pants after _many_ wearings have gotten about as hard and crackly as new Privas.
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