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Comment by le-mark | Hacker News Reader

Isn’t it actually “water resistant” though? I spent a lot of nights cold and wet in gore-Tex gear. It would stay dry for a few hours but always soak through.

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It is, but after a certain point the face fabric becomes saturated with water and breathability drops to ~zero. At that point your body’s own moisture can no longer escape through the jacket and you become wet from the inside.

That's true of the 3-layer designs (the inner layer is goretex but the outer protective layer can soak through eventually). There are newer products that are only two layers and goretex is the outer layer (under the "Shakedry" brand). Those don't have an outer fabric to saturate with water, so they stay breathable better.

It's waterproof if you maintain it. There's special detergent and whatnot.

We use Gore-TEX jackets in the Marines, and in the field you can tell who washed their gear correctly and who didn't.

The term to google is "durable water repellent" (DWR). In sport shops you can buy sprays or washing liquids to treat the jackets.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durable_water_repellent

Also note each jacket has a different thickness of the gore-tex layer which conditions how many hours of rain it can withstand.

Yeah. Nikwax is a big brand.

You can also get "Shakedry" Gore-tex products, which don't have an outer layer needing DWR treatments at all.

dwr != gore-tex wash. DWR is the cheaper/non-permanent waterproofing solution (likely containing PTFE) to add waterproofing to an otherwise non-waterproof jacket (or to make the outer layer waterproof)

Traditional gore-tex outerwear is made of 3 layers. The middle layer is the goretex, but the other layer is some fabric treated with a DWR that needs to be maintained for the jacket to work well (or the outer layer saturates with water and prevents the middle layer from breathing).

So yes, you need to treat most goretex jackets with a DWR periodically.

Wow, I had no idea the US military is that well equipped. Somehow I always thought the military have to tough it out while the civilians get all the fancy outdoor tech.

You wouldn’t happen to have the official Marines Goretex washing manual handy, would you?

The US Army also issues Gor-TEX branded jackets and boots. You get them your first week in the Army, and every year you get a clothing allowance you can use to get new Gor-TEX products.

No, no book, Sir. I guess I just followed the crowd at chow time.

Wash in Nikwax Tech Wash, hang dry.

Why would you think so?

They have the combined budget of the next 10 militaries.

Price is NOT a high priority for their procurement team, unlike most shoppers.

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