Washing Wearable Electronics

I get asked a lot of questions about wearable electronics, but by far the most common is "How do you wash that thing?" So we're at my house on laundry day to find out. First: read the label. It probably has some care instructions that will give you some ideas. For instance, when was the last time you washed your winter coat? Electronics aren't inherently allergic to water! As long as the batteries are removed, the metal, fiberglass, and plastics that make up these circuits can handle getting wet, so long as they completely dry out before you plug them back in. Did you know that distilled water isn't even a good conductor? It's the salt and other dissolved solids that make water cause short circuits. But anyway, physical agitation is the actual biggest concern when washing your homemade wearable electronics projects. Overflexed wires can break, and friction can loosen conductive stitching. But components that can fill with water like the microphone on this tie should never get wet or go in a washing machine. But then again so shouldn't your wool coat or silk blouse! If your garment satisfies any of these conditions, a visit to the dry cleaner might be in order. The next option is to hand wash, and in my opinion it's the safest way to wash most of the projects we show you to make at Adafruit. You can avoid more sensitive components and can more closely control the amount of agitation. Rinse thoroughly and hang up or lay flat to dry before plugging in the battery. Some of these things might survive the washing machine. Let's take out the batteries and see how it goes. I recommend line-drying even if you do machine wash, but as an experiment we put this EL wire hoodie and these FLORA and conductive thread circuits in the dryer. I even forgot to take out the GPS's backup battery... oops. But it still powers up just fine, and even though this hoodie shrank a little, the EL wire still works perfectly. Remember that just like your clothes before you added a circuit, your DIY wearable electronics might need minor repairs from time to time. Thanks for coming along to do the laundry with me, if you had fun please subscribe and leave your questions in the comments which I'll answer on the Adafruit live wearable electronics show every week.