Ultrasonic cleaner for....fly lines? Yess!!!!!

[Whit]

Friends:

On this board its all about the reels, however a few weeks ago I bought one of the ultrasonic cleaners recommended on this board and on the first use (a Pfleuger medalist fly reel) it literally stripped the paint down to bare metal...oops!  Major setback to the idea of cleaning everything with ultrasonic cleaners...

Well today I was working on another Pfleuger Medalist and first stripped the line off.  It was BADDDDDDD.  Old, musty, moldy, gross.  A sure candidate for the trash can. 

Eyes shift over to the subsonic.  Hmmm.  If I run it in the Ultrasonic the line may get clean, or it may fall apart.  If the latter, no loss.   But if you don't swing the bat you'll never hit the ball.   So in it went.

So the question is why bother?  Well a decent tapered line is 30 bucks and up these days, commonly around 60.  Fly line is not like mono at pennies a yard, and cheerfully toss it after a trip or two.   So financial reasons.

Why the ultrasonic?  The usual two cleaning methods for fly lines are:  1) the hand wash method.  Warm rag, dishwashing soap. pull the line through. or 2) the "bucket" method (using two buckets, one with warm water and dishwashing soap and one with warm clean water) where you pull the line through a cloth back and forth a couple times between the two buckets.    The disadvantage of these methods?  One look at this nasty old line would tell you:  too much work.

7 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner later out it comes....... beautiful!   Nice and clean and very salvageable.  So I rinsed it in warm water and hung it up to dry.  Next step is to stretch it and coat it with some fly line conditioner, and this one will be back to fishing in no time at all....

And life returns to the idea of the usefulness of the ultrasonic cleaner....

Whit

[theswimmer]

Whit the big deal for me on the old Medalists is making sure everything is bone dry when put away.
I don't often fish in dirty water so not a concern for me.
I will hang everything out at the end of a trip just because of the moisture.
Best,
JT

[wfjord]

That's good to know.  I've got a shelf of expensive fly lines that need cleaning.

[Whit]

Well I stretched it out and gave it two coats of fly line dressing, wound it back on the now-cleaned-up 1494 1/2  and its good to go.  It feels a bit stiff near the ends, but it the problem persists, I'll just trim with scissors.  After I fish it, I'll report on whether it lays straight, etc.

As to wfjord, this solution came as a surprise to me.   I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, and am happy to have stumbled onto it.  That said, it might be worth doing a bit of research before plunging all the way in!!!!

Whit

[wfjord]

How much of the end of the fly line feels stiff --several inches or more than that? I'm not sure why it would make the ends stiffer unless maybe they were that way before you cleaned it. You could try it again on another line and check the ends before and after. I don't like doing any shortening of the tapers on my lines.

[Whit]

Its just a few inches at each end that were stiff and a bit discolored (the discoloration part was noticed before I tossed the line into the ultrasonic cleaner).  I just snipped the ends off. 

Another data point:  I ran the line through the cleaner unheated.

So last night I took the line fishing, and here are my observations:

1)  The line was very clean
2)  It floats high, as it should
3)  It still has somewhat of a "set": no doubt from sitting tightly coiled for many years, even though I stretched it out when applying the line dressing.  When I say set, I mean it doesn't lay straight in the water.

From this experiment of one example only, I definitely would use the subsonic cleaner again to clean a fly line. 

I now need to figure out how to remove the "set", which I consider separate from the fact that I ran it through the ultrasonic.   There are a variety of online articles having to do with stretching the line, however in this situation I already stretched it once, with only partial success.   I wonder if there are not some home made baking soda and vinegar type cures for this situation.  For example, lotsa folks soak their monofilament cast nets here in the south in the fabric softener Downey, then hang them up to dry - it does a beautiful job of ironing the memory.

Have any other members on this board had to face this situation?  Any thoughts/ideas appreciated!

Whit

[wfjord]

I never had much of a problem with "coil memory" with my lines and usually don't bother stretching them on a regular basis and they work fine.  When I do stretch them I just attach one end to a metal pole or something stationary and pull. I always keep my lines in the house so they stay cool.  Keeping them in a hot garage or car trunk will reduce their life span --and make them stiff (usually starting at the narrowest part of the taper).

[jurelometer]

[snip]

I now need to figure out how to remove the "set", which I consider separate from the fact that I ran it through the ultrasonic.   There are a variety of online articles having to do with stretching the line, however in this situation I already stretched it once, with only partial success.   I wonder if there are not some home made baking soda and vinegar type cures for this situation.  For example, lotsa folks soak their monofilament cast nets here in the south in the fabric softener Downey, then hang them up to dry - it does a beautiful job of ironing the memory.

Have any other members on this board had to face this situation?  Any thoughts/ideas appreciated!

Whit

Hi Whit,

Here is my take:

The vast majority of fly lines are made from a plasticized PVC coating over a nylon core.  Both are thermoset plastics that will creep.   In this case it means that the plastic on the outside of the coil has stretched, and the inside has compressed.  Creep is a function of force, heat and time. So you can use force, heat and time to encourage the line to creep back.   From my limited experience with plastics, it seems that plasticizers are the most vunerable to heat degradation (resulting in  stiff or cracked line).   So that leaves force and time.   I would try stretching the line for a couple days under a moderate amount of tension ( give the coating time to creep back without cracking).   A little bit of heat from being outdoors in the sun is probably useful.   If the coating fails, the  line was probably toast anyways.   But I wouldn't  use heat above  the  exposure encountered under use.

In terms of line dressing:  things like amor-all can remove plasticizers.   Don't see how the special-purpose fly line dressings would do more than add a temporary protective  coating. But I could be wrong here.

I would guess that the "set" is actually in the core and not the more flexible coating.  I doubt that fabric softener or other home brew remedies will penetrate to the core.  And in the end, if you were able to soften the core enough to reduce coiling, the line would be too limp and would tangle. The line needs stiffness/memory to work properly. The memory just has to not be tight little coils.   I personally would go the mechanical route (be patient),  before  trying home brew chemistry. 

I think somebody already mentioned this:  Always a good idea not to store fly lines on reels for too long.  The classic small arbor reels are the worst.   I use  a line winder to make a six inch diameter coil and store in a zip lock bag, away from light and heat.

-J

[Whit]

Thanks.  I'll do the mechanical thing first as you suggest, as it seems potentially less destructive than chemicals.  I had already written off the line anyway, so its a "guinea pig".  It will be an interesting experiment at least and I'm happy to share lessons learned. 

[Tightlines667]

Locals here routinely use an extended fabric softner soak followed by a rinse to 'condition' new,stiff, multi-strand 'Bloodline' to improve usability on electric and hydraulic pinch pullers, and spool reels for use when deep drop bottomfishing, Ika Shibi handlining, and Greenstick trolling.  The fabric softner presumably penetrates the woven material and softens the treated/coated strands.  It takes several treatments and uses to achieve the desired affect.

John

[mizmo67]

This is good to know, since I haven't touched my fly rods since before the hurricane in '12

[Whit]

A follow up.

I stretched the line for 24 hours days and when fishing it laid straighter but not as good as a newer line.  I attribute this to age:  it was very coiled when I pulled it off the reel. 

So I'll keep the line, perhaps as a backup or loaner, or to give to some kid cutting his teeth on flyfishing...

So bottom line the subsonic cleaner worked beautifully for the purpose of cleaning the line, and I would use it again for that purpose.

Whit