Washing 3-layer membranes, revisited

A snowHead

Ever since I've been using Goretex, eVent and the various competitor tissues, I've been washing my jackets and trousers with the recommended Nikwax or Grangers.

However some of the lighter-coloured ones can get persistent stains which don't come out despite repeated washing. In particular, on the last day of my Serre Chevalier trip this year the chairlift pylons leaked a lot of oil so my one of my yellow jackets could almost pass for a leopard in disguise. The spots are even visible on my dark-blue trousers.

Anything else I can use? What about washing them in detergent and then in Grangers? or other ideas?

I don't particularly want to replace a working piece of gear just because it's a bit dirty.

A snowHead

@horizon, I've rubbed some Granger's into the stains before putting the stuff in the machine, but they weren't oily, more likely to be my lunch.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The specialised products are mostly just soap - I stopped buying them years ago and just buy soap flakes instead.

IME once a garment has got to the stage you describe is will have lost its water repellent coating anyway, so if you're going to have to retreat it then washing in normal detergent should be fine - just make sure you rinse well (with no fabric conditioner) to ensure it's all gone, and yeah, maybe a soap wash might help get rid of it, although I've never tried.

But ultimately although you may make an old garment more usable you're never going to regain it's nearly-new performance once it's got to that point, so there is an unfortunate disposable element - I currently have about four or five old mountain jackets in various places, none of which I would use for skiing but are fine for kicking around in the car for emergencies, clearing the snow outside when it's still snowing heavily, pottering round between apartments when it's persisting it down, that sort of thing. I just have to remember to keep the new one away from mundane day to day uses to try and maintain it better for longer.

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@Chaletbeauroc, I was wondering about how water-repellent these things stay - though I thought the waterproofness wasn't coming just from a coating, but part of the 3-layer membrane.

I do have some orange touring trousers which don't particularly need to be water-repellent as I can use them on spring skiing days.

Fortunately the spotted leopard jacket wasn't new (now that I think of it, it may have 10 years, although used in rotation with a couple other jackets), otherwise I'd have been rather miffed!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I've been using DP Liquid Soap Flakes for a long time for washing outdoor gear, prior to re-proofing with Nikwax: - works fine for me.

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@horizon, I think I'd assume that the coating has gone and would try and treat it like any other garment: first get rid of any residual grease by applying talc, waiting an hour and brushing the talc off (best way of getting rid of grease stains) then using a proprietary stain remover. And then start again, with a normal detergent and a good rinse, followed by spray-on Grangers or similar. Might not work, but it sounds as though you haven't got too much to lose.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Just a clarification: as far as I remember, washing with detergent impacted breathability (pores clogging), not waterproofness. That remains important, in particular in spring conditions. Soap would be fine indeed, as far as I know.

After all it is free

Assuming the jacket is old enough that the DWR is degraded:

- Wash with normal detergent/apply stain remover (if required prior to detergent wash)
- Wash in Grangers/Nikwax/pure soap flakes
- Extra Rinse
- Apply Grangers/Nikwax re-proofer

Detergent leave a hydrophilic residue so you need to wash that off (using Grangers/Nikwax/pure soap flakes) and give it an extra rinse before the re-roofer.

Remember, modern DWR proffers are PFC/PFA free so will need to be re-applied more often than they used to require.

Get garment damp, scrub neat liquid bio detergent into stains, soak a few hours. Wash normally (with a bit more normal detergent) and extra rinse.

If you want, wash again with soap etc. and magic reproofing stuff. I don’t usually bother with these latter stages any more.

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I use Nikwax tech wash as it maintains water repellence and breathability. I would never use ordinary washing powder as it damages the DWR. If something is stained I pour a bit of neat techwash on and give it a gentle rub before sticking it in the machine with more techwash - no more than 2 medium garments at a time. Works very well!
https://www.nikwax.com/en-gb/products/cleaning/tech-wash/
However, I've recently got a Helly Odin jacket Infinity jacket, where the DWR is built into the fabric, so no need to use extra repellent, or tumble dry warm, or cool iron or whatever tricks we used to be advised to do...

@Leonard Smalls, just to be clear DWR is not "built into the fabric", it's simply not used.

https://www.hellyhansen.com/en_gb/journal/odin-9-worlds-infinity-shell-jacket-responsibly-made-and-professional-grade

Not sure how it differs tbh. It's still a 3 layer construction, still with a waterproof membrane. It doesn't explain how the fabric works differently in the article above.

You know it makes sense.

I've still got my old Nike ACG windstopper softshell jacket. It must be well over 15 years old and had a hard life early on. I used it just about every weekend and shot in it (archery). It is still totally waterproof, the water just slides off exactly as it did when first new. I use Nikwax Techwash and TX Direct on it. I have never used any detergent or softener.

My skiing gear is still able to be totally waterproof with the same treatment, my very old sallies are used when I board which involves quite a bit of sitting down (obviously in the middle of the piste just over a lip of course Laughing

) and they are still good, only washed once a year max.
Same with my mtb gear.

Techwash is blooming useless at getting stains out though, but I don't really care if my gear looks old/used as long as it's functional, I mean it's not going to look as old as I am, it's certainly not going to make me ski any better!

My bike gear on the other hand is a nightmare to keep waterproof once it gets old, probably something to do with just how dirty they get in normal use.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Help!!

Washing 3-layer membranes, revisited

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