Reconditioning *tex jackets

[jacob]

I've tried various "tech-washes" and sprays to make my almost 30yo Goretex jacket "good as new". However, none of them seem to do the trick. At best, the sprays&washes briefly and partially restore the water peeling effect. Yet without a functional outer layer, the tex layer soon fails to do its job once the outer layer gets soaked.

I'm assuming that the problem is not in using the wrong product or using the right product wrongly but that I'm not using enough of it to restore the jacket close to its original state. I get maybe 20-30% there.

Does the forum have any known solutions before I give up on techmology and default to my wax/wool backup?

[loutfard]

Not really an answer to your question, but you may want to look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikwax_Analogy as a more durable alternative to most *tex water peeling clothing. Paramo (UK brand) has a rather nice outlet store. I would still be using the jacket I got there if it hadn't been very very torn in a cycling accident.

(I'm now using a jacket sourced for free from an unclaimed lost and found box at an event I help organise.)

[theanimal]

+1 to Nikwax. That's what I've always heard as the best option from others and we've used it ourselves. Fwiw, it is also what Gore-tex recommends for reconditioning.

[Jean]

I use nikwax, it works not very well. I'll make myself a deer cloak and hood as soon as i'll have killed enough of them.

[Sclass]

I would inspect the inner layer of your fabric if you can get access to it. Thirty years is really old especially if you’ve been wearing the garment regularly.

I made a pair of Goretex pants that stopped working after twenty years of seasonal use (annual ski trips and occasional rainy motorcycle rides). When I deconstructed them I found that the inner white layer of the Goretex had little cracks. Especially at the areas that flexed a lot. It filled the liner with a white powder which may have been micro plastic forever chemicals.

Another theory is the textile spray I used broke it down. My understanding is they are forever chemicals suspended in solvent. I don’t think you get water shedding with things that easily dissolve in water. Any chemists in the house?

Shedding water is just one level of the fabric’s water repellent quality. A lot of the magic happens under the surface. I suspect this stuff just wears out.

[jacob]

My problem is specifically the top layer. Once that gets soaked, the tex-layer underneath does diddly (because physics). It's a three-layer jacket btw. The innermost liner is mesh fabric.

These are the products, I used
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019GOLO0 (nikwax spray on waterproofing)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LN5O8O (nikwax tech wash)

I have two hypotheses:
Either the jacket is beyond rescue OR one bottle of spray is not enough. I do not that I've practically never maintained water repellency(SP?) with regular sprays.

So I was wondering if there was some kind of service (anti-ERE) that would use enough "product" to soak the fabric. The equivalent of dry-cleaning vis-a-vis DIY "dry-cleaning" in your bath turb.