SHELL GARMENTS
If you are misfortunate when out on adventure and get a rip or hole in a shell garment, a repair with tape or a specific repair kit can be carried out. The important thing is to make sure the fabric around the hole, is properly cleaned and that you wipe it off with a drop of spirit (not aceton or petrol, it destroys the garment), to make sure the repair patch will stick properly. Also, the repair patch should be at least 2 cm larger than the hole and it’s a great advantage if you round off the corners of the patch to decrease the risk of the corners to come off and rip the patch off.
Dry your shell garment in a drying cabinet or tumble dryer, since the heat re-activates the water repellant treatment. If you don’t have a drying cabinet or tumble dryer, an iron on low heat can be used.
It’s important to remember to reimpregnate your shell garment to sustain its properties and to increase its length of life. This can be done either in a washing machine or with a spray. Follow the instructions on the impregnation package carefully and make sure it’s meant for garments with breathability. Important for all types of impregnation is that it is exposed to heat after being applied, to maximize the effect. Be careful to only reimpregnate clean and washed garments since the impregnation otherwise with capture the dirt.
Specific care instructions from Gore-Tex® is available further down in this article.
| Shell Garments with Fluorocarbon Free DWR
More and more garments are treated with a fluorocarbon free DWR, please see the product description here on the website to find out what’s applicable for your shell garment. These garments need to be impregnated a bit more often. But it’s worth it in regards to the environment.
Fluorocarbons are often used as impregnation on textiles to repel water and dirt. Impregnation changes the surface tension of the garment so that water forms droplets and runs off. The disadvantage is that these chemicals also have other, less desirable, properties, for example they are broken down very slowly in the environment.
Garments with fluorocarbon free DWR (PFC Free DWR) need to be reimpregnated with a fluorocarbon free impregnation after about every second wash. The fact that the impregnation needs to be renewed more often is an alright compromise for that we don’t use fluorocarbons in the garment.
Flourocarbon free impregnation gives a good protection against water since it makes the surface hydrophobic and so the water pearls and runs off the fabric. If you experience that the water does not pearl and run off the surface, it is time to reimpregnate the garment. Fluorocarbon free impregnations lack the properties to resist dirt in the form of grease, oils and ketchup.
We recommend you to use a spray-on impregnation, not the type you pour in to the washing machine. With the spray you will need less impregnation, no unnecessary chemicals are washed out with the waste water and you can spray some extra on specifically exposed surfaces, such as shoulders and seat.
To a certain extent you can also re-activate the impregnation with heat. Dry your shell garment in a drying cabinet or tumble dryer. An iron on low heat can also be used.