Event……is it best to wash using nikwax, then use the TX direct to reproof?

The jacket seems to be wetting through….

I would use Grangers myself.

No, with eVent it’s best to wash with normal detergent then double rinse and reproof. Or even wash with normal detergent first then wash with either Nikwax or pure soap to clear any detergent residue and then reproof. If the jacket’s wetting out, it means you need to reproof it to restore the DWR basically.

I would use Grangers myself.

Is Grangers better then?

Sorry but I used grangers stuff on my north face, grangers said to tumble dry, and north face said not to tumble dry under any circumstances. The jacket came out less waterproof than ever before. What’s the procedure on stuff which doesn’t tumble?

What’s the procedure on stuff which doesn’t tumble?

I have been told to drip dry my event jacket.

The jacket came out less waterproof than ever before. What’s the procedure on stuff which doesn’t tumble?

Pretty much all the latest reproofers from both Nikwax and Grangers now don’t need heat treatment, the exception is the Grangers 2 in 1 stuff which still needs to be heated, so you should be okay. Check the instructions on the bottle.

If you do need to heat treat then the obvious alternative is a careful iron if the care label allows it. If you do that, avoid ironing over water resistant zips and reflective details as you may damage them and screw up the reflectiveness.

yeah I think it was 2 in 1 I was using. What else is there? The sprays?

Grangers and Nikwax are essentially the same stuff, Its basically just watered down PVA glue.

What BadlyWiredDog said about washing in normal detergent isnt a great idea. It wont harm your jacket, but it will leave residue making any future proofing difficult to adhere to the jacket.

Wash in pure soap flakes or NikWax Techwash then stick it in back in with some proofer. The TX-Direct stuff seems to work for me.

Sprays are only necessary with jackets that cant be washed, or have a liner.

Grangers 2 in 1 didn’t work for me, I’ve had the best results with Nikwax spray then low temp tumble dry. Also I only wash my outdoor gear using soap flakes and no conditioner in the machine, Tesco brand it Granny’s soap flakes but a few places sell it and it’s loads cheaper than tech wash but is basically the same stuff.

Grangers and Nikwax are essentially the same stuff, Its basically just watered down PVA glue

They are not the same, and I am sceptical that it’s PVA glue.

I was under the impression that Nikwax creates a coating of microscopic hairs which repel water droplets via surface tension effects, and that Grangers was a chemical treatment and the same as the manufacturers apply when they make the jacket. No idea if that’s correct though.

Sprays are best for PU membrane jackets like Goretex and most others, since they rely on water being absorbed by the inside of the jacket to work, and wash-in proofing stops this happening for a good few wears until it wears off the inside. The spray method allows you to only treat the outside of the jacket.

I don’t think it matters with eVent since its breathability doesn’t depend on water absorbtion.

Be VERY careful using ‘normal’ detergents. My jacket was seriously grubby so I thought I’d risk using normal detergent as the care label recommended it and I thought it would do a better job of shifting the muck out of the eVent material.

Problem is I used bio detergent which seriously screwed the jacket up, to the point where I was ready to return it and fight my case with Rab as nowhere on the care label does it say NOT to use bio.

In the end I just repeatedly washed it in Grangers 30 deg wash, spray proofed it and yes, tumble dried it until the water repellancy was restored.

I’ve used NikWax Tech Wash then re-proofed with the NikWax TX Direct Wash In on my Endura eVent jacket, it’s always worked fine.

Never use bio on any outdoor gear.. in fact on any clothes as it is not good for them at all.

Never use bio on any outdoor gear

Yeah, well I know that now… 8)

Would be nice if the care label of my £250 jacket had been a little more specific on that point though!

I did this to my Pace jacket, as per their website, with Tesco non-bio:

Your 3×3 likes to be cleaned regularly but MAKE SURE THE CORRECT WASHING LIQUID IS USED! Use a none biological washing liquid, machine wash and rinse. Then tumble dry as this rejuvenates the water repellency of the fabric finish. Don’t use a biological detergent, fabric softener or bleach! Visit http://www.eventfabrics.com for further details.

Weirdly the website said the IRON it afterwards. Which I did with much trepidation and…it worked just fine.

Yeah I only knew about the bio thing from word of mouth. It’s rather odd that they don’t talk about it much.

In the US no-one knows what bio washing powder is – I don’t know if that’s because none of it is bio or it’s ALL bio.

Just use this to wash from Tesco, £1.89 for 14 washes instead of £9 for 10 washes with Nikwax Tech Wash

Event used to advise using a detergent rather than soap flakes, as it doesn’t have an internal coating like goretex, the main problem is blocking the fabric with oils from the skin, the advice was that soap alone wasn’t aggressive enough to clean the oily residue from the fabrics pores.

The current advice on their website is to use nickwax or grangers, whenever I see a commercial tie in like that I am very suspicions, is it any different to hotpoint recommending persil, looks like they recomend whoever pays them.

I have always used normal detergent on my event jacket, never had a problem with it.

fabric conditioner on the other hand will block every breathable pore within a million miles.

Never use bio on any outdoor gear.. in fact on any clothes as it is not good for them at all.

I am aware that bio has an environmental impact, and for that reason alone it may be worth stopping using it, but I am not aware of it being “bad” for normal clothing, could you elaborate?

Grangers and Nikwax are essentially the same stuff, Its basically just watered down PVA glue.

I did my tent with Nikwax spray t’other day and I thought that too.
It worked though.

I am aware that bio has an environmental impact, and for that reason alone it may be worth stopping using it, but I am not aware of it being “bad” for normal clothing, could you elaborate?

Well I’ve been told by many outdoor industry people that it’s very bad for outdoor clothes, but I’m not sure exactly why. I think the enzymes are quite harsh on fibres, but that is only suspicion. I should not have been so forthright in my previous post because I don’t really know re normal clothes.

Conversely I didn’t think it was bad for the environment. Looks like ecover make it.

I avoid 2 in 1 and washing machine solutions. Grangers uses fluorochemicals which have teeny weeny filaments that stand up when exposed to heat. I think the DWR factory treatment is more like Grangers than Nikwax, but Nikwax is water based and less damaging to the environment.

The best thing in my experience is a separate tech wash and TX spray on reproofer and one of these:

Wash the jacket by hand in the tub with the appropriate amount of Techwash, rinse through until water is clear. Wash out the bucket. Then while the jacket is still wet, hang it up to drip until it’s damp, not saturated. Then with the bucket under the jacket, spray the exterior enthusiastically with TX direct. Pour the run off back into the bottle and gently use a hair dryer to activate the repellent properties (both Nikwax and Grangers work better after heat exposure). This doesn’t harass the jacket if it says do not tumble but does make the treatment more effective.

The above method uses little time, water and doesn’t involve any electricity. The washing machine method requires a clean out, empty wash and then a wash/proof cycle which is lots of electricity and water for the possibility that it’s worked.

There’s no point making the inner of the jacket repellent! Keep the TX spray on the outside, being able to collect it also means your not wasting it as run off.

I have to do this a 1-2 times a year to my jacket, over trousers and gaiters as I’m working towards my Mountain Leader award. Re-proofing this much stuff to find it hasn’t worked is expensive and frustrating! This is the simplest, most efficient way I have found. More importantly, it works!

I got annoyed by shops/Rab directing me to the eventfabrics page as its fairly useless, certainly doesn’t (or at least didn’t) mention the bio detergent thing.

Herman, thats a good post, although someone told me that it was better to use the spray on stuff on a flat surface so that it wouldn’t run/drip off.

Also, and I’m sure you’re aware of this really, but hairdriers use electricity last time I checked 😉

I have done similar to HS, but I zip up the jacket and once sprayed I scrunch it up a lot to distrubute the stuff as evenly as possible. Wear gloves mind.

You can also put an extra ‘coat’ if you like on the shoulders and back, which get the most wear.

I forgot to mention zipping up! The extra coat is a good idea, I’ll give that a bash next time. However, I cringe a bit at scrunching, I fear delamination of the membrane. My well used Berghaus jacket has leprosy of the membrane, I would be most upset if this happened to my Rab!

This doesn’t harass the jacket if it says do not tumble but does make the treatment more effective.

I wonder whether steaming the garment would also work – my steam iron chucks out 50psi of steam and you can get cheap steamers from argos, although I don’t know how good the steam would be.

However, I cringe a bit at scrunching, I fear delamination of the membrane.

Oh, I didn’t do it with any force. More like fluffing it and shaking it about lightly. Just to make sure it was all spread about that’s all.

What RAB jacket is it btw? I have this one and I’m mediumly happy with it. I had to buy it in a hurry, and perhaps something less hardcore would have been appropriate I dunno. It needs the ability to cinch in the collar a bit when the hood’s up.

I put on my wife’s much cheaper sprayway the other day and it was actually much better in the hood/shoulder area, it’s a much more flexible fabric. Oh well!

I wonder whether steaming the garment would also work

Hmm.. high pressure steam is a lot hotter than a hot tumble drier.. I’d be nervous of that – you wouldn’t boil wash the jacket, would you?

Steam 😯 I wouldn’t!

My jacket’s the Demand pull on

One pocket on the chest, elastic cuffs, 3/4 zip and a whopping 280g! T’was only £99 at Cotswolds. It’s great, not as insulating in high wind as other fabrics but that’s not what a shell’s for! I like the lack of faff and I always know which pocket my stuff’s in

eVent isn’t as insulating in high wind – cos it’s so breathable. A compromise I am prepared to make. I wish I’d seen a jacket like that – £99 would have been ideal.

I had a really nice semi-casual semi-serious TNF black goretex that I got for buttons from the USA but I lost it 🙁 The one I have now is ok but full on serious, so is a bit much for casual use. And it was expensive.

I also want a biking eVent jacket. Montane do some nice ones, but I think the Endura ones are going ot be a winner, their PTFE fabric is holes like eVent.

Washed my old altura jacket with a cup of pure soap flakes in the front load washing machine last night. Not a good idea! Foamed up like crazy and had to open the machine door to scoop the foam out manually.

Why? Foam isn’t bad, is it?

Washed my old altura jacket with a cup of pure soap flakes in the front load washing machine last night. Not a good idea! Foamed up like crazy and had to open the machine door to scoop the foam out manually.

You used a whole cup of soap flakes, I’m surprised you didn’t turn your kitchen into a foam party 😆

There’s nothing wrong at all with the machine filling with foam until it starts coming out of the detergent draw, use 30g per load in soft water, 40g in medium softness water and 50g in hard water. If you use too much expect a party 😀