For those of you who have purchased expensive outdoor jackets, such as Gore-Tex jackets, and have had problems with how to care for them, we hope this article will provide some insights and misconceptions from the perspective of our outdoor maintenance professionals.
The first point that is often misunderstood is the difference between waterproofing and water repellency. People often say that the waterproofness of Gore-Tex clothing has decreased, but in most cases, these often refer to water repellency, not waterproofness.
Simply put, water seeping into the fabric without forming puddles is due to a decrease in water repellency. On the other hand, if water passes through the fabric to wet the interior of the jacket, the water repellency has been lost or reduced.
People often think that because a jacket is old, it has lost its DWR performance, but that is partially wrong. No matter how old the jacket is, DWR performance may not be degraded.
This is because DWR performance does not degrade over time.
In fact, it can improve over time.
However, if you feel that the DWR of my jacket is declining, there may be another factor that is causing the DWR to decline.
So what factors, if not time, cause a decrease in DWR? It is the stress caused by use. In particular, abrasion causes the yarn itself to break or the coating on the surface of the yarn to fall off, resulting in a decrease in DWR performance.
Conversely, if the coating has not fallen off, the DWR performance may be restored. The way to check this is simple. After washing the rain jacket, put it in the dryer for 20 minutes. If the coating has not dropped off, the DWR should recover. In that case, the DWR will need to be reprocessed.
There are two ways to reprocess DWR. You can either do it yourself at home or hire a professional to do it for you.
DWR treatment performed by yourself
Do-it-yourself DWR treatment can be done using waterproofing sprays or water repellents sold at outdoor stores. In some cases, the treatment is done with a spray, while in other cases it is done in a washing machine.
These are characterized by their low cost and ease of use. The disadvantage is that because they are easy to treat, they do not have high durability or DWR performance. For higher DWR performance, please ask a professional.
Another option is to have a professional perform the DWR treatment. Compared to a do-it-yourself DWR treatment, it will cost more and may not be done immediately.
However, by hiring a professional, you can expect higher performance than with do-it-yourself DWR.
However, the performance should vary depending on the contractor you request, so you need to find a contractor that you can expect results from.
Of course, the cost and turnaround time will vary from vendor to vendor. Please understand the various features of each vendor before making your selection.
Among professional contractors, their ideas vary. Some companies will aim to provide as low a price as possible, while others will aim to provide as much as possible as quickly as possible.
We developed our DWR reprocessing with a special focus on quality. Therefore, the cost will be higher and the delivery time will take longer than other companies. That said, we are confident in our quality, so if you are looking for quality, please contact us.