I was given a nice portage pack, however it smells like vomit.  Washed with no luck.  Any suggestions as to how to get the smell out?  I have been told soaking in a vinegar and water solution may do it, but I am afraid of damaging the pack.

If it was free, and a regular washing didn't solve the problem, I'd say you are at the point where you may need to take a chance on ruining it by using a more aggressive cleaning method.

I can't imagine a vinegar solution would ruin it, but the cure may be nearly as  bad as the problem.  It might turn out OK if you let the pack air out fully on a few hot sunny days.  Baking in the sun seems to help dissipate a lot of odors.  Once you're done and you want to know how it will smell to Mr. Bear, just put it in a sealed container and then take a deep whiff when you open it up a few days later.

Hopefully you'll end up with something more useable than a free jumbo-sized barf bag.

Quite a few years ago, I had some ponchos that were like that.  Did not use them except for camping, hiking, and such.  They were a nylon or nylon-like material, and the underside had a kind of lightweight plastic bonded to the nylon.  Nice hood, nice heavy grommets around the perimeter, heavy-duty snaps held front and back to each other, and the back was generous so you could put it over your pack and still have it go down far enough to cover to about the knees or so.  And when you unsnapped it, it was a nice rectangular fairly large tarp--with a hood in the middle.  My wife and I each had one and we had three shorter ones for my kids that got down to my 4-year-old's ankles.  They were quite nice, so I couldn't bear getting rid of them.  The good news is my 4-year-old is in his 40's now and seems an intelligent young man--so his poncho did not kill him or mess up his brains.
  Problem was that vomit smell.  Couldn't take them to baseball or football games, because folks around me wouldn't take to that.  If I rolled them up tight and stored them in the boxes that held tents, sleeping bags, and other outdoor gear, then everything in that same storage box picked up that smell; if I hung them over a hangar in a closet, then whatever hung next to them picked up that smell.  And it was bad enough that when we took them backpacking, the kids wouldn't want to wear them unless the rain was coming down pretty hard; they would rather get wet than wear that smell.
  The smell never really went away.  Washed them in the clothes washer, tried normal, mild cleaners and such.  Mostly I rolled them up and stored them in cardboard boxes with stuff that wouldn't be affected, like nested cook sets and such.  Then before I was to take them on an outing, I washed them with dishwashing soap and a sponge and rinsed well.  Then I exposed them to the breeze and sun outside, spread wide open, like over some lawn chairs.  That alleviated the problem but, get this, it never got rid of the smell completely.  After a few days rolled up in a pack, the smell came back, especially if you put them in the top part of the pack that got heated most by the sun.
  I should have thrown them away and got something better, but I was too cheap in those days to throw away "a perfectly good poncho."  Who knows, I might have caused the problem myself by trying to wash with vinegar or with bleach or something.  So I'd say, if you got a decent job, give your pack away and get something you would be 100% happy with.  Otherwise, see if there is a contents label identifying the type of plastic-like coating, and go on-line for suggestions about cleaning.  Take it to an old-time camping retailer with a mom-and-pop owner who is an opinionated know-it-all, and see what he or she remembers about this sort of stuff.  Then go ahead and either give it away as is or get aggressive with it, because otherwise you are never going to be happy.  On the off-chance that there is some sort of micro-organism associated with this and it's not just the plastic material, I'd also try soaking it in something that will kill them critters--I don't think I ever tried that route.

Egad, DB, that google ad software is smart.  The bottom of this thread on my machine has ads that indicate that the ad software is smart enough to know we are talking about odors that won't go away--and so my ad has references to carpet cleaners, doggy odor removers, and such.  Wow!  I bet we all are paying for that by having little snooper programs running everywhere, eating up all our CPU clicks.

Go nuts with baking soda.  Let it sit a few days.  Then wash it out.

Or try the pet store for stain/odour remover.  It's enzymatic!

Hang it outside out of the direct sunlight for a few weeks, too.

Preacher wrote on Apr 15^th, 2011 at 6:11pm:

Or try the pet store for stain/odour remover.  It's enzymatic!

We've had pretty good luck with a product called OUT.

dd

It's likely that the odor is just on the surface. A few short bursts of "Flaming Bear Spray" will solve the problem.......Don't forget to stand upwind. ::)

If the odor is off-gassing from one of the components of the pack construction you are SOL. It will always come back. You may be able to mask it somehow with a stronger less unpleasant odor.
I have a 40 year old set of Craftsman tools that has screwdrivers with plastic handles that off-gas a puke smell. I've learned to live with it and sometimes even entertain friends with it when I open my tool box on a hot day.

Borax is also a pretty good odor eliminator. I'd mix some in warm water and soak for a while and maybe dry w/o rinsing and/or rinse later if desired. Works great on the areas of carpet my dog somehow finds an interest once in a while.

Pee on it and hang it in the sun.  Worked for a pair of shoes I had.  Some of the best lessons are learned by accident.  Literally.

PhantomJug wrote on Apr 17^th, 2011 at 3:45am:

Pee on it and hang it in the sun.  Worked for a pair of shoes I had.  Some of the best lessons are learned by accident.  Literally.

And they keep telling us that size doesn't matter! Well I say it does........ especially if you don't want to pee on your shoes. ;)

db wrote on Apr 16^th, 2011 at 3:19pm:

Borax is also a pretty good odor eliminator. I'd mix some in warm water and soak for a while and maybe dry w/o rinsing and/or rinse later if desired. Works great on the areas of carpet my dog somehow finds an interest once in a while.

Dual purpose,  helps preserve the spawn bags too.

mastertangler wrote on Apr 17^th, 2011 at 11:37am:

PhantomJug wrote on Apr 17th, 2011 at 3:45am: Pee on it and hang it in the sun.  Worked for a pair of shoes I had.  Some of the best lessons are learned by accident.  Literally. And they keep telling us that size doesn't matter! Well I say it does........ especially if you don't want to pee on your shoes. ;)

I'm thinking what you consumed that made you pee on your footwear might have something to do with the odor removal ;D
Seriously, I'm wondering if the uric acid could have something to do with your result :question
 I use baking soda mixed in water to take odor out of Naglene bottles, so maybe a long soak in that mixture, rinse and air dried in sunlight might do the trick.

Urine decomposes to ammonia when exposed to air - I'd guess that ammonia is the odor-removing compound in your technique.

But urine decomposition usually produces a number of other by-products, some of which have their own unpleasant odor. You may have noticed this (if not, your wife probably has).

Firechief,

Try a product calle Mirazyme by McNett - as someone else mentioned, it's enzymatic - uses microbes and enzymes.  I've used it successfully on foul smelling tents, sweat stained packs and dry bags - even worked well on my "trash kit" dry bag that gets all the garbage from the trip - keeps the mess and smell from everything else.  It' says it safe for almost anything and it beats peeing on stuff...except snow.  It runs about $4-5 for a 2 oz. concentrate bottle.  If that don't get it out, maybe you should re-gift it!

portage dog

BARF bag, BARF pack what did expect for free, smells like a great deal ;)
and I don't think I would try the piss test neither!
Happy camping :)

//Windsailor

I've always wondered what nylon vomit smells like... :(

I believe when we smell that sour "vomit" smell what we are picking up is acidic in some form or another. Why not try several boxes of baking soda and water, seal it in a plastic bag and set it in the sun. Shake whenever you remember to. Leave it for a week.
I don't remember if anyone asked but you have checked to see it isn't actual remains of someones urp, Right?
Best Wishes, Rob

Check out the Mcnett(dot com) website!  They have good instructions (on how to deal with the smell) there. The vomit/cheesy smell is the PU coating breaking down.

Try some Hydrogen Peroxide, it takes the smell out of just about anything.  It took fish oil out of the carpet, it should work.

don't know from experience but I wonder if baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and a small amount of dish soap would do.   same formula we've used on the dog when she gets skunked.  my brother had an old beat up tarp with that vomit smell. i soaked it in a bleach solution which did not help. didn't think to try the skunk solution. threw the old tarp out

I'd try the simpleist remedy first - I'd just hang the pack out in the sun and air for a couple of weeks, at least

the sun should either break down the smell, or at least accelerate the cause, I'd think - nothing to lose

I had a similar problem with a nylon t-shirt.  I used a spray bottle of something called Power House Fabric Refresher.  It works great and doesn't harm the fabric.