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.
Bleach water. 1/2 cup bleach in a gallon of cold water, mix well, pour into spray bottle, spritz on tread, allow to saturate and evaporate. Rotate tread, repeat on next untreated section. Repeat 2 or 3 times as needed. KEEP PETS OUT OF THE ROOM, you don't want them licking it (and crawling crumb crushers too, of course.) Don't go too heavy on the bleach, or it will start to react with the tread (assuming rubber?) and that wouldn't be a good thing.
In the spa I go to they use "Simple Green" in between clients, but an ammonia dilution at night. They say the bleach dries out the coverings too rapidly.
Click & Clack always reccommend a product called "Nature's Miracle" - some enzymatic stuff. Definitely put it in the garage, or better yet outside - some sunshine might do some good, and you don't want anything else picking-up the smell. Fabreeze is a crock!
Actually Fabreeze works well and is a breakthrough in chemically neutralizing odors. Since you said you used it and it didn't work, it could be on the reverse side of the belt or embedded and/or caused by decomposing rubber. The best way may be to take the belt off, change it with a new belt from the mfgr, and thoroughly clean all surfaces that sweat would drip onto. That said, you can try band-aid solutions. Load
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and click on Evaporator Core Treatment. That foaming stuff should help neutralize organic odors. You must rinse with water afterwards.
You could also try contacting a company specializing in cleanups after fires. They may have some equipment that would work. I understand that ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent that may convert the smelly molecules into less odorous reaction products.
Here's a link about how to get rid of skunk-smell. Maybe the formulae work for B.O. also:
Take a shower !!!! (Yes, I know it's only been 6 weeks since you last took one, but make an exception and take one today, instead of waiting the entire year).
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