Most helmet damage doesn’t come from the season. It comes from the garage sink.
What actually cleans it
Mild, non-citrus dish soap and warm water. Dip a rag or an old toothbrush in the soapy water, scrub the shell and the inside padding, then wipe it down again with a rag dipped in plain water. Schutt’s own care instructions for its football helmets stop right there: soap, water, and a toothbrush for the crevices.
What wrecks it
Skip everything else. Commercial helmet cleaners, car wax, glass cleaner, bleach, and solvents all break down the polycarbonate shell or the foam liner underneath it.
Schutt warns that using anything beyond dish soap and water can void the warranty. Riddell’s instructions say the same thing a different way: no cleaning liquids, no solvents.
Don’t submerge the helmet. Water gets past the pads and into the foam, and foam that stays wet doesn’t dry the way you’d want it to before the next practice.
Drying it
Rinse with plain water and let the helmet air dry somewhere out of direct sun. A hot dashboard or a closed car in August does the same slow damage a bad cleaner does, just slower.
The part that isn’t cleaning
A clean helmet still needs reconditioning. NOCSAE, the major manufacturers, and NAERA, the reconditioners’ own trade group, all recommend sending a helmet out every year, or at minimum every other year, to get inspected, repadded, and recertified.
Most helmets can keep getting recertified up to ten years old. After that, the helmet gets replaced, not reconditioned again.
Reconditioning happens at a NOCSAE-licensed shop, not at a sink with a hose. If your league hasn’t said when helmets go out for that, ask before the pads go back on for the first practice.