Mitigating the Stank

My last pair of liners achieved a prodigious stank that was much appreciated by all on long car rides and in small yurts.

I finally picked up a new pair of boots and untainted liners and want to start fresh. Does anyone have some odor control wisdom? I take out my liners/footbeds to dry after each tour but don't know what else to do. I also want to avoid the "I just took a massive dump, it smelled awful, so I sprayed some fabreeze and now it smells awful AND fruity" effect.

My touring companions thank you in advance.

When you take the liners and footbeds out to dry, do you put them somewhere like above a baseboard heater or a hot air vent or the like? I know that helps mine a lot relative to just having them in a 60+ degree ambient house temp.

I hear some folks speak of using anti-perspirant on their feet. Vapor barrier liners are another option - that should for sure keep the stank from the liners (also can help a lot on multi-day ventures to prevent heavy/moist liners).

Prolly not the best for the stitching and such, but a soak in water with some bleach can also help reduce the stank once it's begun (assuming you do a good job drying the liners after) - seems to get more to the source than "deoderant" type products.

Struggled with the same problem until I bought my PEET BOOT DRYER .
Now the challenge is ancient history.

poor man bootdryer= a household heater (ventlike) + a shoe box with a few holes + paper towel rolls sticking up out of the holes.

use it religiously!

Great title for this thread! If it's ok with the OP, I might want to use it elsewhere in my life, for other purposes entirely.

I've got experience with both tele and heavy motorcycle boots (believe me, the later are even worse than the former if used on long trips through the tropics---imagine wearing your ski boots 14 hours a day in 95 degree heat and 98% humidity every day for, say, four months straight).

I've never had much luck with washing liners, even using specialty preparations like the McNett enzyme treatment. Nor have passive driers like crumpled newspaper made much difference. Boot driers help, but the powered ones with the fan tend to make my whole house stink, whereas previously at least the smell was localized.

For rides in my car, I finally took to requiring that people bring plastic bags for their boot liners--that way at least we can all breath during the drive home. This is surprisingly effective.

For lessening the stench after skiing, the best method I've found is freezing the liners--this presumably kills the fungus and bacteria whose waste products you're smelling. I do this routinely whenever the stench gets overwhelming. Temps have to be quite low, and the most reliable way of doing this is to stick them in the freezer at home. I recommend not doing this when you're expecting company, or if sharing facilities with a finicky non-skier. Also, expect that the aroma of boot liner will penetrate any ice cubes or other consumables which happen to share freezer space, even briefly. You've been warned.

I've heard that microwaving also works, but I've not tried this....mostly because microwaves have fans which are very effective at disseminating odors widely, and I fear this greatly (see above). I believe that microwaving, like freezing, bursts cell membranes in the responsible micro-organisms, but again I'm not sure about this part.

Hope that helps, and hope it snows this weekend.

Mark

All of the above but also start at the source. Spray FEET with Tinactin antifungal deodorant powder spray every day.
It works.

Also I spray liners with Lysol AFTER drying when you store them for the next time you ski.