Cleaning Laces?

[Jeté]

Hey everyone!!
Just wanted to know if it is a good idea to clean laces in the washing machine. Also how often should you change laces if: you skate 2 hours a week, on Freeskate 3 (now, just passed FS2) and tie laces quite tight?

Thanks,
Jete

[nicklaszlo]

I throw them away if they look frayed or if I am about to compete.  It does not matter if they are dirty, but it matters if they break.

Some brands last longer than others.  Avoid Braidlace laces. 

I'd say laces last me about 60 hours. 

[tstop4me]

I would not wash them.  It might weaken some materials, and some laces are treated with a coating, which washing might remove.

I replace my laces when I see signs of fraying, or when a tip (aglet) comes off.  How often you need to change them varies a lot, depending on the material of the lace, how you lace up, whether you snag them against a hook, whether you nick them against the blade edge or picks, whether you step on a tip, ....  Barring accidental damage, I typically change my laces once or twice a year (I skate ~5 times/wk year round, 1.5 hrs/session); this is with either the Jackson poly laces or the Riedell combo poly/cotton laces.  I'm not sure whether total skating time is a good indicator, because I think most of the wear comes from lacing and unlacing.  Also, I don't know whether the stress of jumps shortens the life of the laces (I don't jump).

[Ethereal Ice]

I don't wash mine either. Laces are not expensive, it baffles me all the people I see wearing nasty looking laces, bleh. I replace mine twice a year, I skate 4-6 hours a week. I have noticed that their stretch, and therefore their ability to stay snug, becomes less consistent after about six months time.

[FigureSpins]

I change my laces 2-3 times a year and keep a new pair in my skate bag as well.  I skate almost every day and tie very tightly, so the laces do stretch out and start to fail.  (Missing aglets, fraying, just plain filthy...)  My spares are new because it's too much effort to replace laces with ones that are already worn, imo.

There's a thread somewhere about repurposing laces.  (Edit: found it!)
http://skatingforums.com/index.php?topic=5122.0

[Query]

If your laces contain nylon, I'm not sure putting them in the drier would be safe...

Even if they are all cotton, I wonder if there is a chance they might get tangled around the agitator.

I think the ends all my skate laces wore out before they got significantly dirty. I did used to occasionally wash tennis shoes, with the all-cotton laces in place, especially ones that I had taken into the mud. I think I used low heat in the drier, because I was worried the shoes would melt. (BTW, I do not think it would be a good idea to put skate boots in the washer or drier.)

If your laces are significantly dirty, for whatever reason, and it bothers you, you could always hand-wash them and let them drip dry. It's not like the experiment costs much, even if it somehow wrecks the laces. Whether it is worth the effort, given the minimal cost, is your choice, not ours.