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.
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!
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
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 :).
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
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
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.
ROFLMAO
There is a great solution to your problem with a great and safe product containing a high grade of tea tree oil - it's a natural antiseptic, aromatic, penetrating and completely natural oil. Plus you don't have to worry about protecting your skin while using it, etc..All you have to do is spray and wipe. Please go to my site or just email me and I'll give you more info. This same product will remove tar, paint, nail polish and permanent marker + more. You'll never be without it once you try it. It's completely guaranteed for 60-days --it either meets your expectations or you will receive a refund. Hope you give it a try. Thanks for letting me share. :)
Karen Neapolitan
330-726-4505
I should have known you were selling Melaleuca crap. Tea tree oil is dangerous to infants and cats, and the terpinols in it are every bit as toxic as the phenol in Lysol.
Cats can be poisoned merely from inhaling the fumes of tea tree oil products, because their livers are far less capable than human or dog livers in breaking down terpinols. Medline/Pubmed lists quite a few citations of infant poisoning from tea tree oil products.
Seems that most sellers/users aren't happy with it.
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