I washed my new Altura jacket for the first time last week and I used normal Persil liquid tabs. Wearing it this mornind and I nearly died of heat exhaustion.

Do conventional laundry tabs impact the breathability of waterproof materials?

If so, how can I restore the breathibility and going forward, whats a decent washing liquid/ tab to use?

If it’s a laminated type jacket rather than just coated, it will still be waterproof. However, it’s not really going to do the DWR any favours. My suggestion would be either to gte the proper techwash or just wash it in warmish water with no detergent.

I belive that using detergent you will negate the DWF properties, as detergent draws water into the fabric, rather than allowing the DWR to repel it.

If a garment is waterlogged (when it goes matt, rather than beading) then it will be unable to breath properly.

If it wasn’t raining I’m not sure. It’s possible the detergent is filling in the gaps which air would escape through? Try washing it in soap flakes, or some tech wash if you prefer.

Some garments require a spin in the tumble dryer to reactivate the DWR, check your label.

-10 for management speak

Yep. Normal washing powder blocks the pores in the jacket so limits breath-ability and they strip off the DWR coating that lets the water bead and run off your jacket.

Nikwax and Grangers make specific washing liquids for waterproof stuff. Soap Flakes work pretty well as well.

Oh and whatever soap product you use make sure you wash your jacket on its own or with just one other item to make sure it gets rinsed off properly.

You overheated cos it’s Spring! Well not officially Spring until Sunday but hey. I now overheat in anything more than two layers and shorts, cool!!

What do the washing instructions inside the garment state?

Over time, regular detergents do normally affect breathability and waterproofing (I’ve gone through 2 water proof jackets in 7 years from washing them too regularly with normal detergents).

Places like Blacks and Milletts sell stuff you can wash the jacket in to re-waterproof it. I’ve tried a couple of them, but can’t say they were brilliant. Ended up buying a new waterproof jacket which I haven’t washed in over a year. When I do wash it I will probably just machine wash it in cold water without detergent (or half the normal amount of detergent if it’s really dirty).

I’ve got some Nikwax wash stuff but it’s bloody expensive! I think I’ll wash the jacket again without any detergent, the give it a wash with the Nikwax stuff.

Going forward I guess it’s probably best to wash it without any detergent?

I’ve used Grangers 2 in 1 (cleaner and re-proofer). Worked fairly well on two old jackets (Raceface and Helly). They only recommend a 40 degree wash so the Raceface still niffs a bit (think hotter wash would have helped and there’s nothing stopping you using a higher temp, just Grangers say it has no benefit).

To get the re-proofer / DWR to take you have to tumble dry. Wearing both jackets since they bead better than they did. Haven’t used them a lot since doing so can’t comment on how durable the re-proofing is.

If it’s just mud, it’ll come clean in plain water. I just whack my waterproof stuff in on a 30deg C wash with no detergent.

Wash it in just Comfort concentrate, tumble dry and it’ll bead again.

If you’ve already used detergent, then it’s best to follow these rules:

1/ Put the washing machine through a short/hot/empty wash to remove all traces of detergent.

2/ Wash the jacket in some Nikwax tech wash to remove all detergent from the jacket.

3/ Now re-proof the jacket using the Nikwax or Grangers re-proofer.

4/ Either tumble-dry or warm iron the jacket (see instructions) to activate the DWR.

In future, you can mostly get away with washing in ordinary soap flakes (a little) and avoiding step 3. However, it’s worth doing a complete re-proof once a year or so, depending upon wear and tear.

So can you use a warm iron instead of a tumble drier? I don’t have a drier and don’t want one but I do want my jackets to stay waterproof!