Soaking squeegees

[TCT]

What are peoples thoughts about letting squeegees and flood bars sit and soak in press wash or something similar? Think it would damage them at all? We have a handy bucket we keep water in that we just put squeegees and flood bars in after a WB/DC job, I was kind of thinking of doing the same for plastisol squeegees....

[Frog]

I don't know the effects of soaking in the new-fangled press washes and ink degradents, but our old xylene and mineral spirits had a habit of softening the rubber.
My squeegees nowadays eventually get stiffer, not softer, with age and normal wipe type cleaning, so I can only imagine that soaking them would hasten the process..

[TCT]

I was worried it may harm the squeegees.... There is no real reason to have a chemical in the bucket, just thought it may help break down the ink and make the cleaning a bit quicker.

[mraph]

frog is right on

the resin can swell with prolonged exposure to solvents. even though todays squeegees are more solvent resistant.
in the day squeegees had to be rested after pro longed solvent exposure, for the solvents to evaporate out
this did eventually cause them to get harder as time goes on, the squeegees that are saturated with solvent can chip and nic easier also.

with today's ink degradents/screen wash es most of them have very slow if any at all evaporation (they need to be rinsed) so the material keeps absorbing the chemical...this is problem

today's press washes do evaporate but at a much slower rate also.

I would recomend getting a squeegee/flood bar wash station w/ recerc system ( easiway has a good one), and wash the squeegees immediately .
good luck