Sticky ski helmet

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 OwenM 26 Dec 2020

Dug out my ski kit in a vane hope that we might actually be allowed out to play this season.  The surface of my helmet has gone all sticky.

Tried washing it in soapy water with no effect. Tried white sprite but that made it worse if anything.  I've no idea what's causing it so I'm stumped as to what to try next. Any ideas?

 alx 26 Dec 2020
In reply to OwenM:

It’s the plastic degrading. From what I understand is if it’s a specific coating or layer it can be removed with alcohol to expose the different layer beneath. If it’s all sticky then it’s the whole thing going off.

Had this happen to some old kitchen equipment and nothing seemed to fix the issue.

In reply to OwenM:

It's a design flaw of the soft touch smooth coating which seems to break down over time. My paragliding helmet from a few years back has done the same thing. I had some limited success wiping off the sticky degraded coating with meths but it's messy and wasn't totally successful so I now ignore it and have bits of grass stuck to it.

Some searching around google may result in other possible solutions, it was a common problem in paragliding circles a few years ago, I'm sure it's an identical problem.

Here is a random link I found which describes the problem.

https://midlifeminutes.com/why-do-ski-helmets-get-sticky/

 FATBOYFAT 26 Dec 2020
In reply to richard_hopkins:

If you've put white spirit on it it may need to be junked anyway. A lot of plastics are seriously weakened by solvent exposure. If you know what plastics it's made from someone might be able to give more specific advice.

OP OwenM 26 Dec 2020
In reply to FATBOYFAT:

Looking at the link by richard_hopkins it would seem it's come to the end of it's life anyway. Time to look for another one I think. 

In reply to OwenM:

Yes, probably finished. The conclusion in paragliding circles was not to buy that type any more, and get the shiny types which must be painted or coated differently in some way. The sticky design seems to have gone away now so maybe the designers listened and changed something. I recall they used to go sticky really quickly, within a year or so. Maybe sunlight & heat accelerates their demise so the problem takes longer to appear in ski helmets.

Agree with not putting random solvents on plastic. Definitely avoid acetone!

 aostaman 26 Dec 2020
In reply to OwenM:

I have a sticky helmet and thus this was a very informative and interesting thread, in the way that only climbing nerds would understand. 

Sticky helmets and three pebble slab!!

What I've really learnt is that it's time to junk that lid and get a new one.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

 crayefish 27 Dec 2020
In reply to aostaman:

> I have a sticky helmet

Ahem.  I don't think this is the sort of forum for such admissions...

 aostaman 28 Dec 2020
In reply to crayefish:

Phew. I thought you were going to bring up 3 Pebble Slab. 


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