How hot?

I plan to dye a plastic canopy with Rit dye. How hot should the water be? Near boiling? Hot enough to stick you hand in (without the dye, of course )? Tap water hot? Got a recommended temperature?

Ron,

I do mine around 100 degrees. Maybe a bit over. Not boiling as you may deform the canopy, but certainly too hot to put your hand in.

Ron:

Not that hot! If you have trimmed some extra from your canopy or a junk canopy of about the same thickness, save it and try it for color & intensity and temperature. I get it to the point where the sample distorts the from heat, let it cool until another small sample stays straight, then dip the real thing. You can use these brief samples to figure how long to leave it in the dye for the intensity you want. It's actually a quite forgiving process and only takes a few minutes.

By the way, leave a little tab on the flash of the canopy to hold on to when you immerse it. Otherwise you'll have a mark.

If you don't want tinted hands, I'd suggest gloves. You will likely splash some and it is very, very permanent---both on hands and clothes.

Ron:

I see another reply in between that makes my reply confusing.

By "Not that hot" I meant not boiling. Do get the water hot as the instructions say to dissolve the dye, then let it cool to the right temp.