I recently took some scraps from fabric I had laying around and also ordered some fabric samples to do some DIY, pseudo-scientific fabric testing.
I was aiming to test breathability. I realize there is some argument whether there is a correlation between air permeability of the wrong side of the fabric and actual breathability, but I decided to do some comparisons and see what I found.
I bought a fish tank oxygen pump and a few tiny measuring cups. I filled up the cups, rubberbanded the fabric over the edge (with the waterproof side towards the water), and then flipped it upside down and held the oxygen tubing to the fabric bottom to see if it would bubble at all.
I was trying to set up a DIY version like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEImV-37mSo&feature=related
I tested nine different fabrics, and what I found is:
Uncoated 1.1oz ripstop: bubbles were large and constant.
1.1oz Ripstop with DWR: took a few seconds to bubble and then bubbled similarly to uncoated ripstop.
0.9oz Ripstop with DWR: bubbled right away, with quick, large bubbles, and emptied its water in a few seconds.
Low-loft Powershield: bubbled consistently with medium bubbles, one after the other.
Fuzzy Powershield: bubbled quickly and pretty consistently with a bunch of tiny bubbles.
Gore Soft-shell: did not let any bubbles through.
Generic Soft-shell: in the vein of fuzzy Powershield in weight and feel, but did not make any bubbles.
Gore-Tex 3 Layer Pro-Shell: let through medium-sized bubbles very slowly but consistently.
Generic WP/B: let through a single bubble in about a minute of holding the tubing against its wicking side.
I took some video of it: http://www.coyotedesigns.blogspot.com/
Anyone else do any DIY fabric testing or comparison?
