Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting GoreTex garment: should I Scotchguard it?

I just picked up a new Cabelas Revolution Fleece jacket. It is low-nap fleece with their version of GoreTex (i.e. DryPlus laminate).

I was wondering if I should Scotchguard the exterior of the garment to give it a water repellent finish? Does this "clog up" the laminate pores?

I use Scotchguard on just about everything else I own, and have always found it very useful.

There is a product made for Gore-Tex or other waterproof, breathable garments that restores the DWR finish to the garment w/o affecting the breathability of the garment. I used some of it once on an old, worn mil surp parka I bought. It works fine. I think it's made by Nikwax, but I could be wrong. Any of the better mountaineering shops should have it.
Some will tell you that Gore-Tex is no good because it wears out. Not so. What wears out is the DWR finish on the outside of the garment.
I've never tried to increase the water repellancy of a garment buy using this stuff on it. Don't know if it will work. I much prefer to use a shell garment to stay dry. However, the mountaineering crowd has gone to what they call soft shells which work in a similar fashion. I have two super light (3 oz.) parkas which are built like this. They work alot better than you'd think to keep me dry. But they don't breath/vent any thing like a good hard shell with pit zips. E

Your jacket should have some sort of DWR on it but as Eremicus pointed out, at some point that wears off. I've used the Nikwak stuff as well as something that I think was called ReviveX. Having done it both ways, I HIGHLY recommend the wash in version rather than the spray on.

You shouldn't need to put anything on it yet.

E,

What parkas do you have? I'm assuming they're some model of Patagonia?

I never had much luck with any spray waterproofing; I have used GT parkas since 1978 and I am VERY happy with them, for snow camping. I want to try an eVENT jacket as my buddy has one and it is superb.

My current GT parka dates from winter-2000 and is a Jack Wolfskin, it is the best of the four I have had and I keep it for snow camping. That Revolution parka from Cabelas looks very interesting, I bought Microtex basic pants, henley and shirts last year and loved it on a wet November hunt on the BC Coast; I would like to try that setup.

If it's new, I wouldn't mess with it. If it doesn't work as advertised, I'd return it. Otherwise I'd wait until it's old and needs rejuvenation.

I've used Camp-dry with good success.

Kutenay
When I stopped in Stewart, BC a few years ago, the residents spoke a great deal about a process called "Hyderized" which was pioneered in the adjoining town of Hyder.
Do you know anything about that process and its effectiveness against moisture??

TIC

Royce

In 1972, before the Stewart-Cassiar Highway was finshed, I spent the fire season on Bell Lookout, above Bell-1 crossing; this was chopper access only, "B" machines and REAL wilderness in those days. I was there for 86 consecutive days, alone and with ONE mid-season supply trip. It remains one of the highlights of my life as I was 26 and I LOVED it, even the vile weather and bouts of loneliness, I read Joyce's "Ulysses", a lot of Ezra Pound, Eliot and various biology tomes and hiked all over those gorgeous mountains whenever the rain allowed me to leave the lookout cabin.

I DID walk over to Hyder AND sat in that "throne" and drank the "Everclear" shotglass full with beer chaser, that was being "Hyderized". I used to really enjoy drinking and taverns like that, the "Glacier Inn", IIRC, and could handle my share of "hangover juice".

The "Grande Duc Mine" near Stewart was still going and Hyder was a busy little place, VERY fine folks and I still, 35 years later, remember "Dave" the bartender, a helluva nice, big bear of a commericial fisherman who would buy US about every third round....you would NEVER see that in a BC pub!

I was last in that country in 2005 and my buddy and I "might" be up there again this coming summer. We are trying for a Dall's Sheep draw north of there and "hope" to get a week when he is free of work to drive up and backpack into a couple of drainages; maybe go to Whitehorse, if his schedule permits.

The effectiveness against moisture seems to be all "in the head",.......

I would not spray scotch gaurd on it at any time if you want it to breath. DWR is like a wax that coats the out side causing water to bead of and to keep the water from wetting out the material that allows vapors to breath though. A lot of gortex and other material can be rejuvinated (sp) by ironing the coat or throwing it in the dryer. Check with cabelas customer service they can give you a recomendation. Scotch gaurd is good for nylon type of material becasue it seals the nylon. But it won't breath.

I've had superb results Scotchguarding my wool and fleece garments. They have all seemed to breath the same as normal after the treatment. It is especially useful on wool, as most moisture except a downpour will bead on the surface and never get absorbed.

Maybe we're talking two different treatments here? I've used the spray on stuff in a can "for fabric" that can be bought at WalMart.

Gortex is a different animal to breath it has to be able to push the air though a tiny pen holes. If you spray it you seal up the hole and then the it can't breath it may be water tight but it won't breath. Does this make sense? I don't know why DWR works better maybe some one with more knowledge can explain it.

" each square inch of fabric contains 9 billion pores. Each pore is 20,000 times smaller than a raindrop but 700 times larger than a molecule of water vapor, otherwise known as perspiration.

DWR keeps the water beading up on the outside of the fabric so that the PTFE laminate can do its job. The fabric you see on a Goretex jacket is in itself not waterproof; it's the PTFE laminate that's sandwiched to it that provides the waterproof/breathable barrier. PTFE is a thin membrane that on microscope has pores which are too small for liquid water to pass through, but large enough for water vapor (perspiration) to pass through. That's the so-called 'miracle of goretex'. "

I think the DWR works the same way as a Silicon spray I can't find any thing that says don't spray with silicon. I know that I have heard its not good so I can't give you a good answer sorry...

Lloyd

I used to spend at least 100 days a year in a goretex drysuit and used the Nikwax wash in as well as the spray on product. There is a large difference in comfort (warmth) in a newly treated suit versus one that gets wet, it's fairly expensive to maintain but certainly worth it at the end of a long day.

ehunter, thanks for the clarification. I suppose I've had such good results on non-GT garments due to their larger fabric pores.

olypen, how often did you have to wash your garment to maintain its extra warmth? Also, did the spray on work as well as the wash in Nikwax? Further, how did you tell when it was time to restore the garment?

I use the drysuit for creek boating here on the peninsula so I never had to wash it but used the washing machine to soak it with the treatment in the water, because of the gaskets it can't go in the dryer which is the best way to reactivate the dwr finish. The soak method lasted longer then the spray but the spray is a lot easier and I probably sprayed it some every few days of use. The gasketed drysuits really show the difference between goretex brand and cheaper copies and of course non breathable nylon is unusable if you do any hiking around at all.
I used to scotchguard the cheap non breathable drytops and thought it worked pretty well.