DIY helmet reconditioning

Rubbing alcohol or acetone works pretty well for removing scuffs and swapped paint. You might even get a buffing wheel and some compound on them to shine them up.

I have to admit I find it weird that you don't have to have them professionally reconditioned and recertified. Everywhere I have ever coached we had to do this yearly regardless of the age of the helmet. I would honestly be a little bit nervous about taking on the liability of not using newly certified helmets.

I always thought it was every year, but after doing a ton of searching all I could find was this article link with a statement that says all states have adopted an every 2 years protocol.  However, I live in Ohio and could not find anywhere a statement saying that.

I would make sure, for liability concerns, that I had them professionally done every 2 years just to CYA.

Our Riddell rep came in after each season, went through entire inventory (gave me written copy), took the helmets that needed reconditioning.

When they came back the recertification sticker had the year on it.

I don't think you need to recondition EVERY helmet every two years, but some may need it every year depending on use.

Only hard and fast policy is they won't recertify any helmet after ten years.

We send them in every year even if they are not worn. I want to make sure everyone has a sticker on the back that says the current year. CYA

I know it costs some money, but we re-certify every year, both for overall safety and a little bit of CYA (cover your a$$).

Rules are often at 2 years. However, I would keep by behind covered and get them reconditioned. If something happens, you can bet a lawyer is going to point out that most schools do it every year---and I'll bet that Riddell rep will claim he never said such a thing....unless, of course, he wants to become a part of the lawsuit and lose his job as well.

I am running into a major fight this year at my new school with this. When I coached in California, it is the law that every school get every helmet reconditioned every year. As far as I know that is the only state that has it as a law. This was the only part of football that was paid for by the district. Everything else we had to fundraise for. When I coached in AZ it was not a law but every school reconditioned every helmet every year, and the districts paid for it.

Now I am coaching in North Dakota and the culture in this state is to have 25% of your helmet stock reconditioned every year. This means helmets get reconditioned about once every 4 years. So some players actually play in the same helmet from their freshmen to their senior year, with out having it reconditioned. I thought this was horrible and wanted to have all of our helmets reconditioned, the administration thinks I am insane. I am going to compromise with them and recondition half of my stock this year and the other half next year. They want any less than that and I won't coach. With the amount of negative attention that has been in the news about concussions, you would think all schools would not have a problem with this bill.

But to answer the question about cleaning them. Dip them in a tub of water and disinfectant (Bleach) to clean the inside. And I use Goo be Gone and a buffing pad on my drill to polish the outsides.

This ^ is insane, why would a school do that
How many helmets will they let you buy per year?

It is recommended every 2 years, hs Helmet will last 10, junior high spec helmet only 7
We try and send off any helmet that was used in.
We also go through at the end of the season and inspect every helmet even before he reconditioning guys get there and throw a few out dated and some that just don't seem up to snuff.

After year one I am purchasing 6 new helmets.  Now we only have about 35-40 players in grades 9-12 in the program, so that is not bad.  We also have our Junior high team that has 7th and 8th graders.  When I got here they were putting these kids in any adult helmet that wasn't used by the high school.  I thought this was about as dumb as it gets and I raised money to purchase 25 youth helmets.  I am just curious as to what the other states have as their reconditioning requirements.  I find it funny that there are rules and regulations for how many stripes I can have on my away jerseys, but there is nothing written down about the quality of the equipment that the players must have.

Please recite the laws you are referring to.  You may be misreading the code. Education code 17581 states the all equipment must be nocsae certified. No reference to how often they need to be recertified.
Education code 17579 states that all equipment must be cleaned and sterilized once a year. The code does not mention "Reconditioning" the way you define it here. 

As far as I know, the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (http://nocsae.org) sets the reconditioning guideline nationwide. They require helmets to be re-certified every other year. I do not think this is well known because:
A. most reps want your money from reconditioning
B. everyone is so afraid of concussions and lawsuits they do not want to take on that potential liability or PR nightmare

I have only ever had a Riddell rep tell the truth regarding the re-certifying guidelines. Our rep comes in at the end of every season, goes through every helmet, and will take out 10-15 helmets (typically that were not used or will expire at the end of the next season) from the piles of helmets to be sent off. In all honesty, those would be the last 10-15 helmets I would give out because of CYA.

The other item of concern if a helmet is not up standards the will fail, even if it is new. We recondition all our equipment through All American: Helmets, Shoulder pads, Shoes, everything