Washing a snowsuit without ruining it

A snowsuit does not need washing every week: mud dries and brushes off, and every machine cycle wears on the water repellency. When it genuinely needs a wash, read the care label first; most overalls take 40 degrees, some shells want 30. Close every zipper and every strip of velcro before it goes in, because open velcro chews the fabric of whatever it tumbles against, its own sleeve included.

Detergent: a technical wash for shell fabrics if you have one, plain detergent if you do not, and fabric softener under no circumstances. Softener coats the membrane and the water-repellent finish with a film that neither breathes nor beads, and it does not rinse out in one wash. If the suit has already met softener, two runs with ordinary detergent claw most of the function back.

Drying, and waking the impregnation up

Tumble-dry on low if the label allows it, or line-dry and finish with mild heat: twenty minutes in the dryer, or a quick pass with an iron on low through a tea towel. The heat reactivates the DWR, the factory finish that makes water bead on the surface. The day water soaks in instead of beading, heat alone stops working, and it is time for a re-impregnation spray or wash-in, applied to a clean suit.

The economics make the care worth it. A snowsuit that survives two kids is the cheapest one you own: 1,200 kronor across two winters and a sibling beats any sale price. Which is why our own outgrown Didriksons is not for sale; it is marked as saved for the little sister, washed right, still beading, waiting one size ahead of her.