I have a pretty old but still good condition jacket which has been washed and reproofed using Nikwax TechWash and Nikwax Direct several times (following the instructions to the letter) but rain just soaks through now – all waterproofing capabilities seem to have disappeared altogether.

Is there anything else I can do to resurrect it?

Rain soaks *through* or it wets the outer fabric?

Do a test to figure this out. If you put your hand inside and put water on the outside, your brain will do its best to convince you it’s leaking through because it feels cold and watery, so use tissue to figure it out.

You could contact Nikwax and ask them why their stuff isn’t working. Or post a picture of what the jacket looks like.

Then you could also try Grangers.

Rain soaks *through* or it wets the outer fabric?

It wets the fabric (rather than run off) but also leaves me wet under (ie, other layers of clothes get wet).

Sure that’s not just sweat or condensation?

The thing is, the outer coating doesn’t have anything to do with waterproofing. That simply stops the outer fabric getting wet. It’s important because when the outer fabric is wet you’re being chilled, and wet fabric can’t breathe so you’ll get damp under it. So you’re cold and wet so it might as well have leaked.

There’s a breathable waterproof membrane under the outer layer which is what actually stops water getting through. If that’s damaged or worn through then your jacket has expired. The outer treatment does not affect the actual waterproofness even though people call it ‘reproofing’.

So it’s important to try and figure out the difference. Also – seams might’ve failed letting in water, which is something else to look for.

No it’s not, I’m sure of that. The performance of the jacket is miles away from what it used to be like. I wore it recently at a school sports day where we had some pretty heavy rain and I was pretty wet underneath.

Reproofing the DWR just affects the outer face fabric by encouraging water to bead and run off.

Sounds like the jacket is so old and well-used that the waterproof membrane (which is sandwiched between the outer face fabric and the lining layer, if it is a trad 3-layer jacket) has started to break down, leaving pinholes for the water to pass through by capillary action.

No amount of reproofing the DWR is going to make it waterproof again.

New jacket time.

I’ve got an eVent jacket I no longer need, it’s 5 years old but in good nick and waterproof. £20?

What’s the jacket made of?

send it back under warranty ?

I hear North Face are much better than Specialized at that sort of thing… 🙂

PS: I have a couple of old mountain jackets which I’ve retired from serious hillwalking duties on just these grounds. They’re now worn for general knocking around in.

They can still be made pretty water resistant if you’re really good at getting the best out of reproofing them. I’ve tried several methods with a very large variation in success.

For me the best method I’ve found, is to wash the jacket alone in a washing machine with twice the normal amount of Liquid soap flakes (I no longer use Nikwax TechWash, just doesn’t seem as good and v pricey). ‘Liquid Soap Flakes’ only seem to be available from Tescos round here:

This pure soap product has no water-softeners in it like conventional washing powders or liquids, so like Tech-Wash there is no residue left to ruin waterproofing. Only way cheaper and better.

Extra machine rinse.

Very liberal coating of Nikwax Spray on to a slightly damp jacket. I find the wash-in stuff useless.

Allow to dry.

Very mild tumble dry on a low heat. People say this ‘activates’ the waterproofing. I’m not sure about the chemical/scientific basis behind that, but it seems to work better than just letting it dry.

Spray on stuff is supposed to be better than wash-in (I use Nikki wash-in but may switch). Worth a try ?

I hear North Face are much better than Specialized at that sort of thing…

😀

And at least I didn’t nick it or anything….

I can recomend this my mate sells it

The Spray-on sounds like it might be worth a try then – all I am using it for is general dog-walking duties and stuff but just want to get it proofed before winter sets in.

And thanks for the offer Molgrips – I’ll bear it in mind if all else fails (which may also involve a trip to TK Maxx to find a cheapo Berghaus/OrSomeSuch jacket…

After many years of mediocre goretex wearing, I bought my first Paramo a couple of years back. If I ever wear it out, I’ll be buying another – nikwax anaolgy seems far superior to goretex in both performance and reproofing.

If the jacket is old, it may be the case that washing it was the last straw which caused the membrane to fail. It could have been degraded for a while and the action of the machine wash just finished it off. The outer layer of material could still look brand new.

http://www.lancashiresportsrepairs.co.uk/reproofing.htm

(I’ve not used this service but I’ve used the company for a tent pole repair and they were superb.)

I’d have Paramo if a) they weren’t so warm and b) they didn’t look like a shell suit.

Cougar: I’d be interested to hear from that company as to specifically why their system is different to Nikwax etc.. the site is a bit light on info.