Washing and Caring for a Compression Suit: Why Heat Is the Thing That Kills It

Wash a Hidez suit on a gentle, cold cycle at 30°C or below, with a mild detergent and no bleach or fabric softener, then air-dry it flat in the shade. The one rule that matters more than all the others is that it never goes in a tumble dryer: heat is what destroys graduated compression, and unlike dirt or a snag, that damage cannot be undone. A compression garment is a piece of engineering rather than a coat, and it is the only part of the kit an owner can quietly ruin in a single afternoon without noticing.

How do you actually wash a compression suit?

Machine wash on a gentle, cold cycle — 30°C (86°F) maximum — with a mild detergent, then air-dry in the shade. That is the whole method. Wash it on its own or with other soft items rather than alongside anything with hooks, zips or Velcro, which is where most snags come from. A mesh laundry bag is worth the few euro if the suit shares a drum with rugs or numnahs.

Drying matters as much as washing. Lay the suit flat or hang it loosely somewhere with moving air, out of direct sun — sunlight is heat and ultraviolet together, and both work on the same fibres a dryer does. A suit on a radiator is a suit in a slow tumble dryer. A thick suit air-dries overnight rather than in an hour.

Why does heat destroy graduated compression?

Because the compression comes from elastane fibres knitted through the fabric, and elastane relaxes permanently when it gets hot. The garment will still look right afterwards — it does not shrink, discolour or obviously fail — but the fibres no longer pull back to their original length, so the engineered pressure that made it a compression suit is simply gone. It becomes a well-cut warm layer.

This is why the tumble dryer is the most expensive mistake available: there is no wash that reverses it and no reliable way to tell by eye that it has happened. The same logic covers hot washes, radiators, airing cupboards, hot cars and ironing. Cold water and moving air leave the fibres intact and do the job perfectly well.

What do fabric softener and bleach do to it?

Softener coats the fibres, which is exactly what you do not want on a technical fabric. That coating fills the spaces the knit relies on to breathe and wick moisture, so a softened suit holds damp against the coat instead of moving it away — and a damp suit cools an animal rather than keeping it comfortable. Bleach is more direct: it attacks elastane, the fibre the whole garment depends on.

Skip both, along with stain removers and pre-treatment sprays, unless they explicitly state they are safe for elastane. A mild liquid detergent used sparingly handles ordinary sweat and dirt, and where something has genuinely stained, a longer soak in cold water beats a stronger chemical every time.

How often should the suit be washed?

More often than it looks like it needs. A compression garment is worn directly against the coat, so it picks up grease, loose hair, dander and sweat on every wear whether or not any of that shows. Left in the fabric, those residues sit in the knit, hold moisture, and make the suit less comfortable to wear next time — which is usually the real reason an animal that accepted a suit happily starts objecting to it.

As a working habit: wash after any hard or sweaty use, and every few wears otherwise. Never put a suit away damp, and never put one on a damp animal — the coat must be dry first, or moisture is trapped against the skin. If you use a suit heavily, whether that is a horse travel and recovery suit across a season or a canine suit worn most evenings, a second suit means one is always clean and dry when you need it.

What should you do about a snag or a small tear?

Small snags are not an emergency, because the fabric is warp-knitted: a broken loop does not run the way it would in a jersey knit, so a nick or a pulled thread stays local instead of unravelling across the suit. Trim a pulled loop rather than yanking it, and close a small hole with strong nylon thread and a few careful stitches.

A large tear across a major compression seam is a different matter. Those seams are where the graduated pressure is set, and a repair across one changes the tension the panel was built to hold — so the suit may look mended while no longer doing the job. If a seam has gone, treat the suit as past its working life rather than repaired, and check it on the animal before trusting it to a long journey.

How should a suit be stored between uses?

Completely dry, loosely folded or flat, somewhere cool and dark. Damp storage is how a suit picks up a smell that no longer washes out, and a suit stuffed into a tack box under heavy kit can hold creases in the elastane. Keep it away from windows and off the top of anything warm.

Before a season starts, look at the suit properly: hold it up to the light for thin patches, check the seams along the chest and girth, and run it over the animal to confirm it still sits snug and even. A suit that has lost its grip has usually lost its compression, and the time to find that out is at home rather than the night before a race. The equine range and the made-to-measure canine suit are both built to be worn repeatedly over years, and looked after properly that is what they do.

How do you know when a suit is finished?

When it no longer applies even, snug pressure across the whole frame. The clearest sign is fit: a suit you can now slide a flat hand under easily at points where it used to resist has relaxed, and a suit that shifts or rotates while the animal moves is no longer gripping the way it was cut to. Thinning fabric, a seam that has stretched open, and a suit that suddenly goes on far too easily all say the same thing.

Compression garments are consumables in the end, worn out by use rather than broken. Looked after — cold washes, no heat, no softener, dry storage — a suit keeps working for years. Cooked once in a dryer, it is finished immediately. The care and sizing FAQ covers the specifics, and any concern about the animal rather than the garment belongs with your vet.

The short version

Gentle cold cycle at 30°C or under, mild detergent, no bleach, no fabric softener, no stain treatments. Air-dry flat in the shade, never in a tumble dryer, never on a radiator, never in direct sun. Wash more often than it looks like it needs, store it dry and loose, and only ever put it on a dry animal. Trim and stitch small snags with nylon thread; retire a suit with a torn compression seam. Get the heat rule right and everything else is housekeeping.