Recommendations for DWR spray

the fluorocarbon based C8 chain treatments are highly toxic and persistent in the environment and have been banned in the countries where they are produced... they lasted a lot longer than the new C6 chain chemicals. some fabric manufacturers are looking at using stronger polyester materials for their rain shell because the DWR chemicals bond better with polyester might have been marmot, cant remember that has a material with DWR built into the fabric rather than applied columbia use polyeurethane material as the face fabric that repels water better.

I use Gecko Guard from Earth Sea Sky. Not sure about the toxicity etc, but it seems to work alright on my 10yo jacket which has seen a fair bit of use!

@Mosley59 Thankyou. Does it stay on for a good amount of time?

Seems to. Water beads nicely for a while and then stops, but jacket remains waterproof.

the dwr treatments have nothing to do with waterproofness they are used to reduce water buildup on the surface of the jacket the waterproofing comes from hte inner membrane covering the woven face fabric, there may be a knitted layer covering the membrane on the inside the membranes wont let water vapour out once the outer fabric has wetted out.. so the dwr keeps allowing the water vapour to move through the membrane.. water will only get through the membrane from the outside in high wind conditions or in some situations depending on the membrane from a lot of pressure on the fabric, some cheap ones, sitting on the membrane or pack straps will be enough to force water through. sometimes when theres moisture building inside rainwear people think its water leaking in, when its sweat not getting out. hwen you're exercising hard, a closed up rain jacket will not let all the sweat out even before the face fabric wets out. high humidty slows the amount of moisture that can get out of a rainshell, low himidity allows more through, also colder weather works better for letting moisture out. the figures for moisture transfer through membranes are from ideal conditions in laboratories.. when its raining a lot and you're exercising hard esp in warmer weather dont expect to stay dry even if your DWR works...

I get that it’s the inner membrane, my comment was not well worded. Basically my experience with the Gecko Guard is that rain beads off like a champ initially hen starts to bead less effectively - it doesn’t cling but is slower to run off. I couldn’t give you figures about how long it lasts as I don’t really keep track of that, but I figure it must still be effective in maintaining the breath ability of the membrane as I don’t get that sweat buildup that you refer to.

its hard to get DWR back to what it was when it was applied in the factory. good dwr usually needs a lot of heat for it to get it to work properly you may have to iron the material or put it in the dryer.. it seldom lasts long when you reapply it... things like how shiny the fabric is affects it a lot,, a lot of nylon materials have a mat finish to avoid the shiny tacky look, but i find those fabrics dont retain DWR well in general...

Just had an interesting experience on this issue today - I was shopping for a jacket after my 1-year old REI jacket started showing signs of wear at the shoulders under the pack straps (gggrrrr). I'll probably be shot down in some way for saying this but - I went to the earth sea sky sale and as I've just been paid out my annual leave from my job I quit - thought I'd get something good - ie: a jacket i could (hopefully) trust. We then talked about waterproofing and the issue of the C8 vs the C6 chain treatments came up - as waynowski mentions above. So all treatments now are C6 chain based rather than C8 chain - and also - apparently all the stuff that is imported is also water based as this is all that is allowed to be imported into NZ - importing spirit based stuff isnt permissible. So it sounds like pretty much all of the imported DWR treatments may the be much of a muchness. Earth Sea Sky also make the Gecko Guard in NZ, so they can get around this issue - and its the stuff they make and recommend for their jackets - so thats the stuff I'll be using when I need it. (Of course, I'm aware that its earth sea sky, and they are recommending a product they make for other products they make...)

you are free to choose. its a legal product and you're entitled to buy it. pollute the environment or go without DWR. the c8 chemicals are now spread through the environment and don't break down quickly. and the c6 chemicals break down to toxic compounds, its all marketing hype when they call chemicals safe,