Don’t waste your money… …on expensive cleaners. None of them work worth a damn. The are two ways to avoid stinky neoprene:
Avoid the problem. Wearing neoprene boots over bare feet is the major cause of the stench, not the water you use them in. Skin oil and shed skin cells make a perfect culture medium for bacteria when combined with water. If you wear latex or even thin cloth sock in your boots, the problem is all but eliminated.
Keep them clean and DRY. Rinse your boots thoroughly with fresh, preferably chlorinated water after ASAP after use and LET THEM DRY COMPLETELY. Damp boots provide a good breeding ground for bacteria, but bacteria cannot grow without moisture.
These two steps will do more to keep your boots from stinking than any after-the-fact cleaner will.
I beg to differ on the first point Agree that direct skin contact worsens stink, as it does with fuzzy rubber and other fabrics.
But my booties always stink worse after being in smelly water. In very clean water (high-altitude lakes in early summer), the booties don’t even need any cleaning other than a rinse and sun-drying.
Agree Pikeabike says it all. Like all accessories, neoprene boots should be rinsed off right away and left in the air to dry. After following the “boards” for a while I have learned to clean and inspect EVERYTHING immediately after a sojourn in the water. Let, me clarify that I don’t do weekend excursions so I can understand if things cannot be attended to right away. But, for general day trips (even if I am exhausted) I always take care of the gear.
Wow, all these replies and no mention… of plain old white vinegar. Mix a cup of white vinegar in a bucket of water, let booties soak overnight. Pull them out and let them dry - don’t even need to rinse them.
Dry them well on the inside, and they won’t stick so bad to start with. The cut off soda bottle is a cool idea. I’ve got an old boot dryer from my hunting days, so I just use that. But I think I’ll take a pair of soda bottles with me on my next week long river trip…
I typically paddle in ocean water that's pretty clean. If I was paddling in ponds or similar conditions, I'd expect some pond smell. What I've found when paddling clean water is that the boots that I wear with a dry suit with latex socks never get smelly, even if I dont' rinse and dry them shortly after use. The water shoes that I sometimes wear barefoot absolutely reek if I don't rinse them thoroughly and let them dry completely!
BTW, stuffing them with newspaper or cedar shavings will draw most of the moisture out if you cannot dry them quickly.
Let that be a warning …to practice rolling and wet exits etc. in the water where the booties get least stinky.
A cootie is a cootie, whether it causes bootie stink or sinus infections.
I once paddled in a small natural lake (one of the few that we have) where the algae was every conceivable shade of green. It was crusted on my kayak so tenaciously that it took a high-pressure car wash sprayer to blast it off. The booties I threw away, they smelled so horrible.
Yeah, I once paddled in that lake. It used to receive raw sewage back in the bad old days. Now it is a wildlife refuge.
Second This I’ve been doing what Brian says for several years (including boat, skirt, paddles, everything). No smells and everything is still in good shape. Of course, since I can only get out to paddle once a week, my gear has a week to dry.
Already been mentioned but I’ll say it again, hot sunshine. My watershoes were starting to stink really bad, and I rinsed them out every time. I’ve started leaving them on the blacktop in the hot sun after rinsing them out with a garden hose, and the smell is gone.
It used to receive raw sewage back in the bad old days. Now it is a wildlife refuge.