Washing Electroluminescent (EL) Wire

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
marten
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 12:54 pm

Washing Electroluminescent (EL) Wire

Post by marten »

Hello,

I'd like to sew electroluminescent wire to a leggings, so after some time of wearing it needs to be washed.

Would it be possible to use a soft wool cleaning program in the washing machine? Or would at least hand wash be fine? Is there more that I can do to protect the inner EL part than applying some varnish spray at both ends so seal?

Kind regards
Marten

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88086
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Washing Electroluminescent (EL) Wire

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Definitely hand-wash and air-dry. Obviously you will want to disconnect all batteries & inverters first.
To prevent damage to the wire itself, I'd seal all you connections with heat-shrink. If you have any exposed cut-ends, you can seal them with a dab of silicone and maybe some heat-shrink over that for protection.

User avatar
joshuabardwell
 
Posts: 93
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 2:09 pm

Re: Washing Electroluminescent (EL) Wire

Post by joshuabardwell »

EL wire is very robust, but if water gets in the ends, it can damage the phosphor. Generally, EL wire is best for clothes that are not going to need washing, like hats or belts, or that will only be dry cleaned. If you want to wet-wash your EL wire, make absolutely sure your ends are water-tight and hand-wash only.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Glowy things (LCD, LED, TFT, EL) purchased at Adafruit”