General Guidelines on the Proper Care and Maintenance of your Military Body Armor

The military body armor is constructed from different materials which can be ballistic and non ballistic materials. These materials are highly sensitive and delicate thus proper care and maintenance should be observed. But since military body armors are made up of different materials and has many styles, there is really no complete care and maintenance guide that is applicable to all body armors. However, these general guidelines on the proper care and maintenance of your military body armor are basic and can apply to almost all body armors.

1. Read the instruction labels of your military body armor. These instruction labels indicate the proper washing and cleaning of your military body armor. Moreover, these instructions are more specific and are more applicable to the material used on your purchased military body armor.

2. It is ideal if the military body armor is personally cleaned and washed by the owner.

3. Hand washing is recommended for your military body armor. Never have it machine washed or dried because the fabric of the body armor might be damaged by the laundry equipment. Also, the detergents used by commercial laundries maybe harmful to the ballistic materials causing degradation on the ballistic performance of your military body armor. There are models wherein the carrier of the armor is removable. If this is the case, remove the ballistic panels of your armor and have the ballistic carrier be machine washed.

4. If soap is used when washing and cleaning the military body armor, make sure that you will properly rinse the the armor afterwards. All traces of soap must be removed so that it will not accumulate because the accumulated soap can cause the absorption of water thus reducing the effectiveness of the ballistic materials.

5. Physical inspection should be observed before wearing your body armor. This is to ensure that wear and tears, damages are immediately attended and repaired. Users of military body armor should never try to repair their armors by themselves. It is better to consult first your manufacturer.