The maintenance rainwear of Gore Tex [Do we need to do maintenance? ]

Gore-Tex rain wear is a necessity if you aim for a mountain of more than 2500 m. Some people say that they have purchased expensive rainwear but have never done maintenance mostly? Even with expensive Gore-Tex rain wear, you can not fully utilize the precious functions unless you do maintenance at all. Let’s first understand what happens unless Gore-Tex rain wear is maintained.

For those who want to understand more, please read the following articles as well.

http://soranoshita.net/kawaguchiko/2018/01/15/how-to-maintain-gore-tex-rainwear/

Maintenance of Gore-Tex’s rainwear is essential

First of all, the contents on Gore-Tex’s website are listed below.

・How long is the life of GORE-TEX® outerwear?

Since the GORE-TEX® membrane itself hardly deteriorates, its waterproofness and moisture permeability do not change. However, in the case of the life of the outerwear, various elements such as sewing, fasteners, and other materials constituting the wear are involved. In order to patronize long, please wear it suitable for the application, please do maintenance properly.

As long as Gore-Tex itself is not damaged it has a sufficient life span as clothing. However, sometimes seam tape and fasteners at the sewn part become stiff, parts may become useless. In addition, it may become useless due to the influence of the material making up the wear. The material that constitutes this wear is a point and it means that you need to maintain firmly. Then, we will look at the functional deterioration caused by not carrying out maintenance.

Degraded function of Gore-Tex Part 1 [Decrease in moisture permeability]

Breathable is the greatest attraction of Gore-Tex’s rain wear. In the rainwear you are wearing when it is raining, moisture tends to be caught and it tends to be extremely uncomfortable. While maintaining waterproofness as rainwear, the breathable moisture function that puts out the moisture inside the wear is the greatest attraction of Gore-Tex. Unfortunately, the moisture permeation function does not function in the situation where the surface of the rainwear is soaked with water (but waterproof function that does not pass water is effective). Even if you try to let the moisture inside the rainwear go out, it will be a situation where the water film will stretch over the surface of the rain wear so it will not go outside. It is important that Gore-Tex rain wear always keeps the water rolling on the surface of rainwear.

Degraded function of Gore-Tex Part 2 [Rain wear becomes heavy]

When going to the mountain of high altitude, we will reduce baggage as much as we can. Wear is also the same, it is made to be as light as possible. Even with rainwear that is made lightweight, it gets heavy if it gets wet and contains water. Wearing heavy wear also leads to fatigue. Although Gore-Tex itself does not absorb water, it does not change in weight, but the material constituting the wear described earlier will absorb water. In order not to absorb water it is also important to maintain and keep the surface of the rainwear rolling with water.

Degraded function of Gore-Tex Part 3 [The body temperature drops]

It may not have been conscious of much, but water is a substance that tends to convey heat compared to air. As the wear gets wet, the heat of the body is transmitted through the water and body temperature becomes easy to escape. This situation is exactly the case if you have experienced clothes getting wet on rainy days and your body is getting cold. Actually this is a phenomenon similar to rain wear. Although you think that it is OK because Gore-Tex does not penetrate water, it is not directly translated that the body gets wet, but as the rain wear gets wet the area to be dissipated widens and the heat of the body gets easier to be robbed. In order not to cool the body, it is important to keep the surface of Gore-Tex’s wear in a state where water rolls.

Summary

Finally quoting from Gore Tex web site again.

・Why is the surface of the wear water repellent?

Waterproof is not to not wet the surface of the wear, but to not let moisture penetrate inside the wear. However, if the surface of the wear gets wet, it takes away body temperature and the wear becomes heavy. To prevent this, the outermost layer of GORE-TEX® fabric is subjected to durable water repellent finish. In addition to the function of GORE – TEX ® fabric, we are enhancing comfort with water – repellent finish. Water repellency gradually decreases while wearing, but it can be recovered by maintenance.

How was it? Because it is Gore-Tex, it is not all right. Because it is Gore-Tex, we can not make use of our functions unless we do maintenance thoroughly. Soranoshita conducts water repellency research and development on its own so that Gore-Tex’s rainwear is maintained and rented firmly (water repellent processing service “Drop roof”). In addition, our factory is a certified factory for cleaning, we also handle clothing as a professional. Soranoshita will continue to place importance on renting out Gore-Tex’s rain wear in the correct state, not just renting it.