Silpoly rainshell seam sealing advice please

[Roger Caffin]

What Jerry wrote. Commercial ‘detergents’ or washing powders are DESIGNED too leave all sorts of stuff on the fabric: brighteners, whiteners, fragrances, etc. None of these are good for waterproofing or adhesion.

I find Atsko Sports Wash very effective and reliable.

Cheers

[James Marco]

Yes, a good idea to skip the washing with detergent step. Thanks, guys!

[Matthew / BPL]

Well crap.

i decided to finally try and seal this so I washed it first using a small amount of Woolite and then ran it for an extra rinse cycle. My wife decided to do her laundry and went out there and threw her jeans and stuff in there with normal laundry detergent (Tide). I figured out what she did before the shell got put in the dryer

I’m running the shell through another cycle with Woolite right now (plus another rinse). Will the detergent hurt the jacket once it’s been washed again?

[Matthew / BPL]

Crap 2.0

After rewashing with Woolite I poured about 4 ounces of water into it and then twisted that into a bubble. Water started coming through along all of the ripstop threads.

[Roger Caffin]

Skip the Woolite and use something like Atsko Sports Wash. You may need several cycles to get the jacket really clean. The stuff they put in commercial laundry powders is very hostile to any DWR. You will also find your washing machine is equally contaminated, so you may need to wash the jacket in a clean bucket.

Yes, ripstop fabrics leak at the ripstop threads. They are too big for the surrounding threads. The whole ‘ripstop’ thing is just a marketing gimmick: they are not needed. No, they do NOT stop tears in a silicone-coated fabric. We have known this for many years from testing I and others have done and published, but getting the manufacturers to take any notice is hard. A sad case of spin over facts.

Cheers

[Sam Farrington]

Glad that Roger clarified the “sil/poly,” at least on RBTR, means silicone coated polyester, not “silicone/polyurethane” coated. Or did he? If one side of the polyester fabric is coated with polyurethane, then it should be “sil/PU/poly;” but bet we’ll never see that on BPL. Obfuscation reigns.

Matthew K – If washing in ATSKO as Roger suggests does not wash out the contaminants from the Tide (liquid or powder), and the jacket still leaks as shown in your excellent photo, then ordering another one could be a problem, as Luke’s Ultralight seems to have gone by the board. Do you take size XL? Somewhere I’ve got an XL of Luke’s WPB rainjacket (gift, never used) made I think of the same WPB material sold on RBTR. Let me know if you want it at [email protected]. Use Roger’s sticky tape suggestion to find out what seam sealer to use.

[Matthew / BPL]

Hey Sam! Thanks for the advice and the offer. Unfortunately, I’m a Large in LUL sizing.

[Author]

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