Unless you do contruction work in the vest I don't see why we cyclists would need to wash the vest often. I've been using my Alert Shirt ANSI Calss II vest since October every day twice a day and I still see no need to wash it yet. It has seen plenty of rain, but I imagine it is the rubbing in the washing machine that realy huts the refelctive coating.

As a side note, orange vests are slowing being phased out by road workers in the USA and form what I've seen are pretty much gone in Europe. Many studies have shown that under low light (but not total darkness) conditions the orange starts to look more dark and black while the hi-vis yellow-green remains very visable. Therefore I don't understand why anyone would build a safety vest of orange. I wear my vest mornings and nights even though it is officially light in the morning, but it is definitely not yet bright outside. I also use a Superflash in the back plus a cheapy Pyramid 5 LED light. I also added 3M Solas tape to my rear fender and the back of my helmet I now "glow" from head to toe during might cycling. You just can't make yourself visable enough.

Happy riding,
André