Bought a Merrell Moab soft shell a few weeks ago, seemed a good bit of kit. Dwr coated soft she’ll with a thin fleece lining. So I took the dog out for a walk today in the drizzle, not even heavy rain. After about 100m my arms felt wet inside the sleeves and by the time I finished the walk I was pretty much wet through. I thought dwr was meant to be pretty good stuff? Just put the jacket in the dryer for 20 mins on the cooler setting.

Anyone else been unimpressed with dwr or is it more likely to be the jacket construction / fabric ? It wasn’t even the seams that leaked it just seemed to come through the arms.

The DWR is all about the water beading as opposed to keeping it out (I think).

DWR isn’t one thing (like Windstopper or eVent) it just stands for Durable Water Repellent. AFAIK different manufacturers can use different methods of achieving it.

For instance, Patagonia used to coat the fibres before weaving the fabric for some of their stuff (no idea if they still do), which made it VERY durable.

I had a pair of Berghaus that lost the WR part of DWR after one outing. When I spke to Berghaus customer service they advised to reproof “using Nikwax or something”. I’ve not bought anything made by them since and don’t plan to.

Bottom line is that some DWR treatments will work better and last longer than others.
Tumble drying or ironing (on cool settings) can help to restore them (to varying degrees) but your best bet is probably to reproof the jacket.

HTH

Si

DWR is an acronym rather than a specific ‘stuff’ so no doubt good and bad implementations. Lots of variables.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durable_water_repellent

A good one is very good but the all wet out at some point.

Spary on reproofer and tumble dry works well.

Yup, Durable water repellent, just means that the water should bead up and roll off reasonably well. Not the same as water proof. The idea is that you’ll stay comfortable, not that you stay dry.

So it’s a water repellant coating that at first hint of rain actively soaks through. No wonder it was in the sale. I wasn’t expecting it to be fully waterproof but i expected a bit more resistance than 100m walking in a bit of drizzle. Merrell fail.

So…. Anyone suggest a non cycling specific soft shell type jacket that IS decent at keeping the wearer dry?

I saw this in the Macpac store a while ago…..

http://www.macpac.com.au/mens/jackets/sabre-hoody-2011-m.html

So it’s a water repellant coating that at first hint of rain actively soaks through. No wonder it was in the sale. I wasn’t expecting it to be fully waterproof but i expected a bit more resistance than 100m walking in a bit of drizzle. Merrell fail.

So…. Anyone suggest a non cycling specific soft shell type jacket that IS decent at keeping the wearer dry?

softshell is really just a fleece with a bit more protection for changeable conditions.

if you want to stay dry walking the dog then a hardshell jacket is the way to go.

Aphex – I’d strongly suggest looking using Grangers or Nikwax stuff to reproof it.
Yes, it’s a pain but if you’re happy with the jacket other than that (cut, price, etc) then a few quid to make it more water resistant would be money well spent.

It would need doing at some point anyway.

Si

As above, what you want if you aren’t going to be climbing mountains or exercising hard in it is what is dismissively known in outdoors shops as a dog walking jacket, i.e it actually is waterproof and windproof rather than sacrificing one or both for weight and breathability like most of the high end stuff does. The good news is jackets like that are much cheaper.

Yeah si I’ll keep it just miffed that it’s so new and leaked on its first mildly wet outing. I’ve got a helly Hansen jacket which is about 15 years old and has never leaked.

DWR softshell is not in any way waterproof. A DWR coating just means it should not get soggy. It’ll still admit water like any other non waterproof fabric if there’s any sort of pressure on it.

It is likely to be the fabric, to be honest. If it’s say a fleece, which is open fabric, then it’ll never keep water out. A DWR coated pertex or similar might fare better.

Also worth noting is that DWR can wear off in transit and storage, when the jacket’s folded up in a box (apparently) so you often need to reproof when you get it depending on how long it’s been kicking about the supply chain.

Tumble dried it for 20 mins last night and it seems much better. Nothing soaking in just beading off. I guess it’s been in storage a while and as it was in the sale probs had all manner of greasy paw prints handling it.

I should be water resistant. They went to great effort advertising the special waterproof zips and taped seals and DWR weatherproof coating which seems silly if the jacket is going to crumble at the first hint of moisture.

My rab vapor rise lite beads off water really well. It’s a nice jacket and worth a look if you decide to replace.
I started a post about a month ago when I started looking for a new jacket. some good suggestions were put forward.

The shop’s happy to have it back and change to a different one and pay the diff.

I think merrell stuff might not be as good quality as it was. My Moab boots leaked from early on and if you look for recent reviews it seems a lot of people have the same opinion.