I braved the weather yesterday – partially motivated by the new Gore Goretex Active jacket I picked up cheap in Evans’s sale.

It was biblical. But guaranteed to keep you dry, right?

Utter Bollocks. Less than a week old and wetted out. I thought maybe it was sweat that was making me damp, but got home and the only dry area on my teeshirt was where the rucksack straps had prevented the rain hitting the jacket.

Does this sound right to you guys!?

I have a Goretex Active Shell jacket and it’s perfect. Which one did you get?

Remember that even Goretex can’t breathe when it’s under water 😉

null

one of these!

Were you wearing a cotton t-shirt? There’s you’re problem. Gore-Tex of any version only works if you’re wearing a fabric that allows sweat to pass away from your skin and though the Gore-Tex (a process called wicking). Cotton soaks up sweat like a sponge.

If you weren’t wearing a cotton t-shirt then I dunno…

It’s a red Fusion that I have and, as I say, it behaves perfectly as expected.

If it’s biblical rain then Gore-tex doesn’t work except as an expensive plastic bag.

See where you guys are coming from- water from the inside not the outside- but it doesn’t tally with everything being wet apart from where the rucksack was. The other way round in fact, that should be the sweatiest bit.

I was dubious prior to purchase – I really wanted a something with Polartec Neoshell, but they were all mad money locally – so I ended up with an outlet store Patagonia Active Shell and it’s fantastic even in the recent end-time torrents.

It wasn’t a cotton teeshirt I had on. It was one of the salomon base layers that wick sweat. Northwind has hit the nail…I would expect the rucksack strap area of my shirt to be the sweaty bit. But my shoulders and chest were soaked with the exception of the strap marks.

It definitely seemed to bead water off for the most part, then just gave up and looked wet. When I tried again in my controlled environment (running it under the tap when I got home) – it was back to beading off.

I’ve got a newish Mountain Equipment jacket which does this. I do re-proof after every few washes, but I’m always dubious about how waterproof it actually is. I walked the dogs in it yesterday morning and hung it in doors near a radiatior to try, pre-bike ride and the sleeves had wicked water up the inside by the time I went out again, which is a PITA.

And I’ve also experienced similar issues to those described by the OP. I’m thinking about a Paramo next time…

That’ll happen but goretex isn’t dependent on its water shedding to stay waterproof (when the outer shell wets out it gets less breathable but it should stay waterproof).

Awww no…just ordered one of those from Amazon in black! Doh.

What NW said.

Waterproof fabrics are only waterproof to a point – this does vary, and the more breathable ones are less waterproof. It’s expressed as a number like 15000 or 28000 but I forget what the number actually means.

Only an issue in extreme rain or when sitting on something wet, but sounds like you had the former.

Waterproof fabrics are only waterproof to a point – this does vary, and the more breathable ones are less waterproof. It’s expressed as a number like 15000 or 28000 but I forget what the number actually means.

mm H2O, i.e. you could put a 15m column of water on it and it wouldn’t leak (but the fabric would probably rip).

Breathable fabrics are usualy 3 or 2.5 layer laminates, the inner one is usualy a wicking mesh (0.5 is IIRC the cheap way of doing it by flocking the inner surface), the middle layer is a PTFE membrane which does the ‘breathing’, and the outer is the actual fabric. The fabric needs to be water repellant to stop it wetting and forming a continuous layer at which point the jacket will stop breathing (and any collected water will find it’s way in eventualy).

Maybe the straps were dry because that was the only bit that was dry on the outside and the straps are breathable enough that the jacket could still work?

Take it back, they’ll replace it or send it for testing (then replace it), Goretex has a lifetime guarantee.