Can anyone suggest the best way for me to deodorize (as much as possible) the outer bag on my Royal 4000? Everytime I use it, the air gets filled with a musty, foul odor that lingers for quite a while. I believe the previous owner was also the owner of large dogs. I'm afraid to wash it in the machine due to the metal coupler at the end of the bag, plus I do not want to affect the integrity of the outer bags filtration capabilities.

I handwash them in either the bathtub or the laundry tub. Lukewarm water just enough for it to float and so I can gently swish it around. Add a little bit of mild and definitely no bleach added laundry detergent. then rinse it off the same way and hang it to dry. You can decide if you want the metal collar parts etc to get wet. I did my Kirby bags this way and left the sani-emptor on to get that clean as well. Plus you can add a small amount of fabric softener when you rinse it if you want.

i say wash it. ive washed bag like this before successfully. your only worry should be preserving the silkscreen printing on bag.

when in doubt, handwash. warm (not hot) water. vacuum-out the inside of bag completely. dont wring or scrub when washing. stop and rinse quick at first sign of printing damage. spin in washer and hang to dry. your bag will smell daisy fresh.

Cory

I sell this stuff in my store, and also use it in the repair room to deodorize bags. It works wonders. It's a bacterial enzyme, so you need to dilute it with WARM water to activate the bacteria. If you use it full strength it won't work as well. I took cat urine out in my upstairs hall with this stuff. If you can't find it locally I'll send you some.

I would attempt to wash it like everyone suggests. I will warn you that I have had bad experiences with Royal bags fading so I would only handwash it. If you see the water turning the same color as the bag I would stop and let it dry. I have never had this problem with other brands, but Royals always seem to loose atleast a little bit of the die into the water.

Good luck!

Actually I had the same thing with the blue Kirby Tradition bag leeching dye into the water. Not a lot but noticeable when washing it. But it needed cleaning and when it dried it was fine.

If you have a Kirby with a suds-o-gun or another vac with a sprayer, try that with Kirby shampoo....Vacuum well ,spray on lots of suds and gently sponge in, inside & out, let dry and vacuum again. Thats the way i always cleaned and deodorized bags. Works great and smells great for a while afterwards when you run the machine. Sometimes i would add a cap full of ammonia to the sprayer jar if the bag was really bad.

Thanks for all of the great feedback guys! I have so many options now!

I have hand washed bags in my laundry tub and a little bit of tide and oxy-clean with great results. For the really stinky ones, I use some Fabreeze (see link) Laundry Odor Eliminator. It works great for this and other smelly stuff, if you haven't tried it, this stuff works great!