Washing rigs, going price?

[cgeres 0]

Hi Guys & Gals,
I have been packing pilot rigs for the local gliding club, and some of these are absolute filthy!

My question is what is the going rate that you charge your customers?

Thanks
Charlie Geres

[PhreeZone 15]

For Sport rigs I do it for $15 or $25 depending on bad they are. Quick dunk in a tub and about 10 minutes of rinsing - $15 for the wash and reassembly. If I have to get out the scrub brushes to get deep stains out then its $25. I typically will ask to wash rigs while AAD's are out for service since it takes a few extra days to hang and dry a rig and the rigs are usually down for the 2 weeks at that point.

Are you looking at hand washing or machine washing the rigs?

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[piisfish 136]

Phree you are cheap.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[RiggerLee 61]

Agree. I don't think $25 would cover the annoyance of the shrinkage you will get when you wash it. Washing a tight rig can turn it into a night mare.

Lee

Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

[linestretch 0]

I agree on the cheap price. I've washed a LOT of rigs and have slowly increased the price due to the amount of work involved. It's pretty irritating when you have the rig all dry and see an area that you needed to scrub more since you can't really tell when it's all wet so I've been putting in the extra time up front while it's soaking (something i learned the hard way....take pictures of the really bad areas prior to it being wet so you know where they are once it is wet). I've been charging 35ish bucks...and that includes removing all the components...washing and scrubbing by hand....and reassembly.

I have in the past (out of laziness) left the reserve attached & bagged and washed the container that way but I don't recommend it. It's more of a pain in the ass.

my pics & stuff!

[gowlerk 2,072]

piisfish

Phree you are cheap.

Indeed. A wash means a complete disassembly and reassembly. Plus the actual wash. Sometimes I charge $50 and sometimes $60. Plus the $75 R&I, and $10 more to inspect and pack the main.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[parachutist 1]

gowlerk

***Phree you are cheap.

Indeed. A wash means a complete disassembly and reassembly. Plus the actual wash. Sometimes I charge $50 and sometimes $60. Plus the $75 R&I, and $10 more to inspect and pack the main.

Also the gear spends 2-3 days hanging in my loft, taking up space while it dries. Good soap isn't cheap either. Complete dis/reassembly, new elastics if warranted: 55 for a sport or pilot container wash and 65 for a tandem. 70 I&R, 7 main pack

[Pobrause 6]

Have you guys ever tried maschine washing a rig?
Of course not 140*F and tumbling with 1600 rpm. Procedure as I have seen it at my riggers place is soaking the rig for about a day, scrubbing and rinsing it and then off to the wasching maschine in a cotton sack or smth. Afterwards again rinsing to get the last bit of soap out and then hanging it up to dry.

Does this sound reasonable? Results as I have seen them were great, the cordura might get a bit fuzzy depending on the age of the system

-------------------------------------------------------

To absent friends

[gowlerk 2,072]

That's what I do. A combination of soaking followed by the top load washing machine on delicate cycle. Extra scrubbing on tough spots. Cordera actually comes pretty clean, even the white spots.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[pchapman 275]

I've been charging $60 Cdn for a while. Why do I charge a fair bit? Because it takes a long time to deal with the rig, plus I think I have a decent system worked out to do the job well, plus most jumpers don't like doing that job. (If there were a bunch of immigrant ladies who wanted to wash rigs... I'm sure they would be willing to do it cheaper. Supply and demand exists.)

Although I've also heard of the machine method working, I do it by hand and I think customers like that. Washing isn't a quick job -- I find it takes some time to deal with the soaking and agitating and scrubbing (soft brush) and more soaking and more scrubbing, and a bunch of rinses, hanging the rig up with a box fan blowing on it, checking and turning it to get the fan blowing at other angles to the rig, and then putting AAD etc back in the rig. So it isn't a task that's just done at one time; there's a lot of starting and stopping the job.

I don't remove the reserve, but have the lower lines and thus reserve risers hung up with a bungee from overhead the laundry tub, keeping the risers partially out of the water. (Reserve is in a sturdy bag off to the side.) Works well for me.

[betzilla 56]

$75 includes wash and reassembly. Repack additional at the standard price. And I always wish I had charged more.

[dpreguy 14]

What Betzilla said.

[linestretch 0]

pchapman

I don't remove the reserve, but have the lower lines and thus reserve risers hung up with a bungee from overhead the laundry tub, keeping the risers partially out of the water. (Reserve is in a sturdy bag off to the side.) Works well for me.

The last time I did this was on a rig with a red harness. The dye worked it's way onto the spectra lines and they turned pink. Of course I just spray painted the lines to hide the evidence. Even with the risers hanging out of the tub the water wicked it's way up the risers and eventually discolored the lines.

my pics & stuff!

[pchapman 275]

Interesting, something to watch for. Red dyes have traditionally been worse at running in clothing for example.

[rmarshall234 13]

$100 to wash and reassemble and I hardly ever have to do one...
But when I do, the canopy comes off and it get's hand washed in a tub and agitated and spot cleaned for a looong time. Then triple rinsed with a bunch more agitating followed by several days - or maybe a week - of air drying in which I regularly monitor and rotate it. It's probably overkill but this has served me well with good results. If I charged for the time it actually takes me, it would probably be twice that.

[cgeres 0]

Just reread my post should have said, what is the going rate that you charge your customers to wash their rigs, most of you understood what i was asking, Thanks for all the responses

[mchamp 1]

Just had mine done and my local rigger charges $90 USD for wash + another $90 USD for I+R along with additional $9 USD main pack job.

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