The Sunday Review: Rambo Wash

OVERVIEW:

A couple weeks ago I talked about my blanket care routine in Spring Cleaning. What’s more fitting for today’s Sunday Review than Horseware Ireland’s Rambo Wash?

Rambo Wash is a nontoxic, phosphate-free, and biodegradable rug cleaner. It’s gentle enough to maintain waterproof blankets but tough enough to get them clean and smelling great (or at least better if the rugs are really gross).

You can use Rambo wash on synthetics, canvas, poly-cotton, insulated horse rugs. It can be used for your breeches, wool, and even down filled items.

The product itself is a clear viscous liquid and has a mild aroma. The fragrance is not overpowering yet still fresh smelling.

The bottle I buy is 8oz. For it’s size it is not cheap; you can plan to pay $18-22 for the bottle.

A little does go a long way. The bottle will typically wash 6-8 blankets for me so I plan to use a bottle each year. I can get away with using only 1oz or so thanks to my pre-cleaning method.

PROS:

Environmentally Friendly
Won’t harm the waterproofing
It works
A little goes a long way

CONS

Pricey
No additional sizes, just 8oz

Tips:

To get the most out of your Rambo Wash make sure to preclean your rug, brush them off, hose them down. This will save the life of the washer and make your Rambo Wash more effective.

Alternatives:

Nikwax Rug Wash: Nikwax is a similar product and will cost you about the same price. For roughly $22 you will buy a 1Liter bottle. The bottle is larger but you use 5oz per blanket so you still only get about 7 blankets in each wash. If you really want o get more at once Nikwax offers 5L and even 25L.
Schneider’s Saddlery offers its own Blanket Wash in 16oz and 32oz sizes. It’s recommended use is 2-5oz per load…the smaller coming out to about the same 8 blankets per bottle. The price runs about $25.99 and $39.99 respectively, though my latest view shows me a 30% discount at $18/$28.

Final Word:

Horseware Ireland’s Rambo Wash is the only product I have used on my blankets. It is what I used when I worked for a high end training barn that laundered its rugs on-site weekly. I like it and have had great success with it. It’s pricey but when you only wash about 8 rugs per year…$20/year doesn’t seem all that bad. The competitors are all around the sea price-point per rug cleaned.

My horses deserve nice clean clothes too!