So it's time for a follow up, partly because I had an opportunity for a real test ( with mixed results ), and partly because I think rain is a pretty important issue for bike commuters. We can go out for an evening ride, get soaked, and come home to a warm shower and a change of clothes ... but that's not usually the case at work.
Last night, I spent about an hour and a half, cycling in the ( sometimes driving ) rain. The pants ultimately soaked through, although this took about 20 minutes longer than normal for the situation. My jacket, however, is not waterproof, but comes with a healthy DWR treatment, and didn't let a drop of water through over the entire ride. At first, the water did indeed bead up, however, the beads were too small to roll off. Also, while I sprayed the front and back of the pants, the insides of the thighs twist out a little bit when I sit down, so my lap hadn't got any DWR love, and soaked much more quickly. Also, I wonder if 30 minutes in the dryer was long enough to fully "activate" the treatment? I'll do more testing and let people know if/when I hit on the right combination.
Now for some Q&A:
Originally Posted by
cyclokitty
I'm guessing the DWR will wash out when you put them thru the wash cycle. Let us know how it works. This might turn out to be a neat experiment.
In theory, a coat of Granger's is supposed to be good for 10 washes. For things like jackets, you're generally supposed to apply a new treatment once a year. I wash my pants a lot more often than that, of course!
Originally Posted by
CliftonGK1
On the upside, you can re-coat DWR fabrics and usually renew them back to original functionality. Nikwax makes a great wash-in re-coating solution I've used on my hiking gear.
Spray on solutions too often contain silanizing compounds, which stink to high heaven and can cause allergic reactions in many people due to the suspending agents.
Clifton brings up a good point. I have some Stoic wool base layers, which all come with a Nikwax treatment, and a few Arc'teryx jackets and pants, which use and recommend Granger's. These work very differently ( both of them work well ), and I'm not certain Nikwax is technically DWR? I know Nikwax is actually a wax coating, which obviously repels water, while Granger's and other DWRs coat your clothing with some type of fluoride molecules, and then use heat to bind to the clothes. This increases the surface tension of water, making it much more difficult to soak into the fabric face. I've always heard recommendations to avoid the wash-in types, because they'll coat the inside of your clothes, making them repel the sweat you're trying to shed.