Hi everyone.
It's all in the header really. I have a set of Akito desert clothing which has lost all its ability to repel water, in fact it now seems to attract water. Is there an after market product or service available to restore my faithful clothing to its prior waterproof reliability.
Thanks again for all you help in relation to my newly rekindled love of bikes, biking in all weathers and adventures.
Ben

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No, not really. There are products out there which you can buy at outdoor stores or a good supermarket. Throw everything in the washer and it is better than before, but not waterproof. Sure, it's better but not like it once was.

I usually do this once to prolong the life one winter or a fall and then ... I'm wet and cold and buy new.

Alex

Yea, may not be worth it to mess with it.

In USA we have Scotch Guard, from Scotch 3M. You may have heard of them. This is a spray on product that works pretty well, but won't ever make it 100% waterproof ... more like water resistant and only for one season or so.

I've used it on non waterproof canvas travel bags. It helps.

Since Akita is pretty much a bottom of the barrel product to begin with ... this may not be worth it. Using such products like Scotch Guard will also prevent the product from "breathing" ... which it probably never did that well anyway. So Hot weather will be even worse than before.

For hot weather riding get Mesh riding gear with good armor and carry inexpensive rain gear with you for rain.

If you only ride in Rain and Winter, then a proper Winter rain jacket or outfit is best. You need gear for at least TWO seasons. WET and DRY (HOT and COLD)

The water inside .. it is not just condensed sweat?

The material may have lost its ability to 'breath' trapping the moisture inside. Usually dirt blocking the breath holes. A good wash can sort that out .. use a specialist soap .. some soap residue does the same thing - fills up the breathing holes.

www.mcnett.com has products for restoring waterproofing .. how well they work?

Maybe contact the maker and see what they say ? info AT lloydlifestyle.com

Their in the Lake District so not that far away ... and every time I've been there it has rained so they would not be lacking a testing environment.

+1

There are three types of construction;

Barrier jackets have a Goretex liner. This is a plastic filter so fine the air round your body can get out and water barely gets in. The actual outer layer is just nylon there to protect the barrier which is mechanically poor. When this is dirty the barrier is blocked so you trap sweat and pool water trapped in the outer. Wash it with techno wash stuff designed not to ruin the barrier.

Waxed cotton is what it says. The wax stops up the gaps in the weave. You wash out the old wax with detergent then put wax back from either a spray or painted on. The seal is good enough for water but let's air through to some extent.

Over suits are nylon where heat has fused the structure. Close to air tight hence you boil. Clean with a wet sponge and washing up liquid.


Andy

Of course it's more complicated than that....

Modern waterproof-breathable fabrics include several crucial features, any of which can be done at any level of sophistication and function. The one everyone pays attention to is usually some sort of membrane like Gore-Tex or eVent. You can't renew this. In my experience the membrane usually splits or degrades in some other manner with time and use, allowing liquid water to penetrate. When it's broken, it's broken for good. Quality construction will slow this degradation, but it'll happen with even the most expensive gear.

Another factor is the surface treatment, generically named "durable water repellant," i.e., DWR. When you buy a jacket brand new, water beads up and slides off it without wetting the fabric fibers themselves. That's the DWR coating at work. You can renew this coating using stuff like Scotchguard or (far better) wash-in products like Nikwax. This will really help, although your gear will never be as good as it was when you purchased it. All manufacturers include instructions for renewing DWR treatments on their products.

Then there are weatherproofing construction features. I've worn lots of gear which leaked due to basic construction defects--zippers located right where water pools in use, vents which aren't adequately protected against drips or blowing rain, that sort of thing. One way Gore promotes its (somewhat misleading) "Guaranteed to keep you dry" slogan is by tightly controlling the physical construction features in garments authorized to advertise their Gore-Tex membranes. Other companies have their own proprietary membranes, therefore their own design standards. Read up on Patagonia brand design features some day to get a sense of how a high-end manufacturer deals with waterproofing issues.

I'll add only that I find motorcycling gear sadly deficient in this realm--lots of very basic design defects compared to boating or skiing clothing. For example, no boating jacket would have pockets which admit water without drain holes to let the water out. Not only will un-drained pockets fill with water which will eventually find its way into the interior of, say, a jacket, but anything you store in that pocket will float around in its own little lake until you notice that your registration and insurance documents have turned to illegible mush.

Waxed cotton is a very different approach, and it's been so long since I went this route (heavy, stiff, waxed cotton tents and tarpaulins were state of the art before the advent of urethane coatings, then breathable membranes like gore-tex) that I can't really address the issue.

Caveat: the above represents a hasty assemblage of half-truths and vague hints at the complexity of the subject. People spend their entire professional careers working on this stuff--either providing better products or obscuring basic inadequacies of the ones they're hoping to sell you. All I'm really offering here is a caution against settling for simplistic answers...and hopefully offering a framework for looking into the issue further.

Mark

Excellent summation Mark. It IS complex. Motorcycling is a tough one for gear manufacturers. Not many other sports blast you with water at 65 mph, then freeze you, then ROAST YOU ... and we need a gear that will handle it ALL.

Gore-tex does indeed wear out. The inner liner on my very expensive SPIDI jacket did just that after 6 good years of service. The Gore Tex liner began to flake and split as noted above. Even so, still marginally effective.

I used recommended wash products and Nik Wax during it's life ... overall an excellent jacket ... but the pockets leaked (made before waterproof pockets!)

Now, most good jackets have waterproof zippers everywhere ... like my First Gear Rainier jacket. It's not a Gore-Tex jacket (uses First Gear's own breathable system) but keeps one fairly dry, flows air well ... and the pockets never leak!

Probably not as good as some with Gore Tex liner, but half the price.

Many forget Gore-Tex was invented for "Active Winter sports": Cross country skiing, Hiking, Mountain climbing, Ice Skating and such. It's really Winter gear designed to exhaust moisture from exertion in super cold weather ... never made to handle lots of sweat in 100F temps with 80% humidity ... and it won't!

Mesh gear works well for truly hot temps, especially if working hard riding off road. In super cold, just sitting stock still on the motorway, you don't really need Gore-Tex either ... in freezing cold you want to be sealed up if inactive.

Quality is possibly why I'm finding wax cotton or a cheap overrsuit works best.

Simple things like collars that close properly and adjustably help.

Andy

I use the Nikwax double treatment, both the wash and the reproofing in the washing machine for my 15 year old Rukka Jacket. I do this twice a year to keep it clean, as goretex leaks when it's dirty. Pleased to say it appears to be as water tight as it was when new, except at the neck, but there's a big hole there, and as hard as I try I always get a bit damp round the collar. I think Nikwax is brilliant, works for me.

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Also a fan of Nikwax, infact if you do their free to enter online quiz they will sewnd you a free sample. Ive won loads of samples from tent proofing to leather proof for boots.

The only true waterproof is an oil skin like fishermen wear and it does not breathe but most garments ability to shed water can be improved.

I even treated my Aldi denim/kevlar jeans to a wash and it held the rain off for a little longer than normal!

I think the best thing to do is get yourself a full one piece non breathable waterproof oversuit and just wear it over your re proofed gear that way you have crash and extreme weather protection for a small investment.

I have used something called Neverwet sold at lowes. That stuff is amazing. I put it on my boots and the water just beads off. Not sure how it does on clothes. I have read professional swimmers have used it on their swimwear.

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