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Mine are losing their water repellency quite quickly.
What do you wash them in to keep them going? I had used cool washes but (a little) regular detergent. Would an expensive tech-wash help?
Do you re-proof them with anything?
a tech wash should help, although I haven't bothered with mine.
It might be worth pinging an email to Alpkit. Their customer service is exceptional (or at least, was last time I dealt with them).
visit their website?
Yeah I've had a look at their site since. To summarise:
wash with normal detergent, no softener. The jeans will lose their water beading properties after a few washes. Tumble dry.
So; I have done nothing wrong, there is nothing wrong with them and I don't have a tumble dryer.
Tumble drying will help restore the water-resistance.
Iron them carefully, same effect as tumble drying, less abrasion - guess what all that fluff that comes out of the filters on tumble driers is? Yep, fibres from your clothing.
comfort fabric softener was recommended as a DWR by one of the outdoor mags a while back, might restore the water repellancy?
Or nikwax tx10
mine lasted a month before returning to regular - but badly shaped (wiiiide) jeans.
not very helpful at alpkit either - although that totally goes against my experience with then re other stuff. normally very good.
It's not a conventional DWR, the fibres are silicone encapsulated which is a nigh-on permanent treatment. Heating them reactivates the silicone stuff.
The fabric is called Epic, there's some care info on this page: [url= http://www.nextec.com/nextec_care.html ]http://www.nextec.com/nextec_care.html[/url]
and it says there [b]not[/b] to use conditioner or reproofer, sorry 😳
Some of you really need to learn to read the bumpf before you buy, they are not proper waterproof trousers, yes the coating does wear off.
I have 2 pairs, both have lost their original waterproofness, am i bothered? In short no, they are still very good jeans.
-I find the fit to be ok, i am tall with proper cycling calves (if you have skinny legs buy those stupid looking 'trendy' drainpipe jeans).
-They are quite wear resistant, been using mine on the bike all winter so far and no damage, even from chainrings.
-They come up nice and clean after washing (chain marks begone!)
-When they do get wet they dry very quickly. I can get soaked riding to work and they are dry in an hour (This is due to the way the fibres are individually coated, rather than an after-treatment like many waterproof trousers)