Drying out a goalie mask (and regluing foam)

[Zip]

Hi all,

A bit of a random one, but do any of you have any advice for how to best dry out your mask between skates? I have a problem where the foam in my mask seems to be constantly damp, like if I apply pressure to any of the foam I can easily squeeze out some mask juice 

I am skating twice a week and I can just never get it dry.

Linked to this, one of the damp bits of foam is coming away from the shell - what is the best adhesive to glue this back in?

Many thanks

[Chenner29]

How old is it, and is it a Bauer model with Poron?

Use contact cement to glue pieces back in

[Zip]

Its a Bauer 960 - about 2.5 years old - it looks like this inside when new (see attachment).

The piece that is coming loose is the upper cheek/eye piece.

 

[RichMan]

My personal routine is to rinse my mask under room temperature water (tub) as soon as I unpack at home, let it drip overnight and then fan dry it the following morning for a couple hours. No stink, no "juice", no issues. 

As @Chenner29 says, if it's an old mask with the thick yellow (cream) poron foam, the glue tends to breakdown over the years, hence why most new masks are using some kind of screw in system to prevent just that.

[Chenner29]

1 hour ago, Zip said:

Its a Bauer 960 - about 2.5 years old - it looks like this inside when new (see attachment).

The piece that is coming loose is the upper cheek/eye piece.

Poron is great because it stays soft and comfortable, but seems to absorb more moisture than the padding other masks are using.
Best workaround is probably to squeeze/squeegee out the sweat after your sessions.  It's gonna be gross.

You could also look at repadding the mask with an aftermarket kit, but this would void any CSA/HECC cert.

1 hour ago, RichMan said:

As @Chenner29 says, if it's an old mask with the thick yellow (cream) poron foam, the glue tends to breakdown over the years, hence why most new masks are using some kind of screw in system to prevent just that.

I think you're thinking of Rubatex, sir

[coopaloop1234]

I have the same mask. 

It is a bit of an annoyance with the saved juices, but it's just something to live with. What I've found successful is just tossing on a standard oscillating house fan on my gear to move the air around and dry it out faster. 

I store my gear in my garage, so I can't rely on the air alone to dry it out during the colder months. Turning on the fan on for 24-48 hours will dry out all of my gear to nearly 100% except those squishy parts of the mask foam. Though, the retained sweat in those areas are significantly reduced to the point I barely pay it any mind. 

 

[creasecollector]

I just spray mine with Captodour and leave it near a fan with the rest of my stuff to dry. I sometimes just air dry it for a few days before putting it back in the mask bag. It does the trick. 

Gear stored in a room temperature area.

Edited December 29, 2023 by creasecollector

[Hockey34]

I just unclip the two chin straps and set it on a shelf no fans or anything and its dry over night. But my mask is a NMEone so the foam is different

[coopaloop1234]

29 minutes ago, Hockey34 said:

I just unclip the two chin straps and set it on a shelf no fans or anything and its dry over night. But my mask is a NMEone so the foam is different

I always completely remove the backplate, but, my VTX was the same way. 

Bone dry almost overnight without any fans. 

[Zip]

Thank you for the tips and advice on the drying part - I will give them a try.

Any advice on what glue/adhesive to use on the white/cream portion of the foam?

[ArdeFIN]

You can (and should!) open all of the screws around the mask and remove the padding to fix it easier and see if there's any other spot requiring some contact cement too.

Why you should open the screws is that they do rust, and when they do bad enough you cannot open them anymore. The screw system Bauer uses is clever to the point where you think why the hell they didn't use stainless on all of the screws and nuts... 

You can also wash the foams easily when you have it removed, let it soak in water for few hours and squeeze the padding every now and then to get the filth out.

After a few water changes the water should remain mostly clear and you can finish the job with some nice smelling detergent but I don't know if it makes a lot of difference. Won't stink for some time after this. And also this "softens" the foams back to like new. 

 

[RichMan]

11 hours ago, Chenner29 said:

Poron is great because it stays soft and comfortable, but seems to absorb more moisture than the padding other masks are using.
Best workaround is probably to squeeze/squeegee out the sweat after your sessions.  It's gonna be gross.

You could also look at repadding the mask with an aftermarket kit, but this would void any CSA/HECC cert.

I think you're thinking of Rubatex, sir

Maybe, that thick stuff from back in the day

[Ross]

@Zip I’ve used Gorilla Glue, the original version, to glue the foam that was lifting back together on my 960. It works well. The nice thing about it is it cures with moisture so if the foam isn’t completely dry it still works whereas contact cement needs the surfaces to be totally dry. 
 

 I squeeze out as much moisture from the foam as I can after every game, then I press a microfibre cloth against the foam to remove any leftover moisture. Then give a wipe down with a clean slightly damp cloth and the hang up to air dry.