Care of Goretex..?
 

I just bought a really nice Extendo " Windstopper," cycling jacket. I saw on some thread here, somewhere -a person's displeasure with Goretex.. Said the Goretex broke down after several washings and then did not keep the rain out.. Also, said it did not breathe as well as hyped up to be....
Way to prevent this.? How should it be washed.? Is there not some spray to preserve Goretex.. Looked in my cycling catalogues on hand, did not find it....Pretty expensive jacket. hope it last at least a couple of years. How do you maintain your Goretex cycling gear?

The spray is called revivex. In my experience, it works well at restoring water resiliency if you use it in the manner specified on the label. Revivex should be available at any local outdoors store or thru companies like REI mail order.
Gore tex can "overheat" and not breathe quickly enough in some situations, although in my experience it's pretty good. If buying a gore tex jacket, make sure to buy one with pit zips if possible. These can help at times.

Any idea from your experience, how long you can expect your Goretex jacket to retain its water resistancy...? Couple years.. ? And does this spray effect the jackets breathability?

The Revivex works great but it is rather costly...shoot. Well, I just threw away my empty bottle or I would post the price and the 1 800 number to reorder direct from Gore. Oh well.
Performance used to carry the stuff and I assume they still do. One bottle is enough to treat my foul-weather shell about three times, and it's fairly simple: hang your jacket in the shower and spray liberally, then chuck it all into the dryer for about 40 minutes. I even take a medium iron to mine (gotta be careful here or things could get ugly depending on the material) and it's like new.

Gortex windstopper is a windproof, not a waterproof product. The classic gortex waterproof/breathable fabric is something else.
Goretex waterproofness lasts for many years of normal use. That is not the problem.
The surface treatment, which causes water to bead and run off does wear out. Once the surface fails to bead, the water soaks into the nylon. The layer of goretex is sound, but becomes waterlogged and fails to breath. Beading can be restored in some cases by a warm iron, or by sray-on stuff.
The surface also becomes clogged by dirt, esp the oily water from road muck.


My advice to goretex users is to use your waterproof only when it is raining. When you need a windproof, use a cheaper, more effective windproof (one of the modern microfibre fabrics). Keep your gortex jacket clean inside a plastic bag, inside your pannier.

I bought a GoreTex winter jacket about 10 years ago, and it is still waterproof. Washing instructions were to wash only with powdered detergents and not to use fabric softeners.