Re: [Paddlewise] Evaporative cooling with Goretex

Dave Kruger wrote:

snip of Ralph's comments
>Hmmmm, Ralph, you are making me think again, darn it!!  <G>
 more snippage
>Ralph makes a good observation:  that evaporative cooling from body
>perspiration, passing through the Goretex, will increase cooling.  In my
>experience, most of my sweating occurs when I am working hard, and I am
>*plenty warm* at those times.  So evaporative cooling is not a problem
>then.  Sometimes, after working up a sweat, and stopping for a while
>(lunch, etc.), I cool off a little.  Usually I put on a warmer hat or
>something.  During those rest breaks, the Goretex is still transpiring
>water, so evaporative cooling is a significant heat-transfer mechanism (re:
>conduction, anyway), but because I temporarily don some warmth, evaporative
>cooling is not a problem then, either.  When I go back to paddling, I
>generate some warmth, and evaporative cooling is again not a problem.  At
>the end of the day, my insulating garments are a little moist, but are
>still highly functional in insulating me,  **because the Goretex has
>allowed my body moisture to escape.**
>
>That's where I think the Goretex would be vastly superior.  In a fully
>coated garment, I think all my insulation would be a *lot* wetter, and I'd
>have to shed it while setting up camp and unpacking (etc.), and deal with
>drying it out somehow.
>
>The other factor which may negate any advantage the fully coated stuff
>might have is that rain, paddlesplash, etc., will wet the outside of either
>garment, giving lots of evaporative cooling from non-anthropogenic water.
>
>So, what is the experience of others?  Is the fully coated stuff warmer,
>despite what I *think* will happen?  (A good theory is just a good theory;
>experience judges theory.)


  I no longer own my coated dry suit, but it seems to me that it might have
been a little bit warmer than my Goretex drysuit _while I was wearing it_,
but the disadvantage of having all that extra moisture trapped in my
insulating layers was quickly evident as soon as I took the drysuit off on
cool or windy days.  As long as I kept the drysuit sealed up tight I stayed
warm..... wet, but warm.
  As DaveK mentioned in his post, I too am usually more than warm enough
while I'm paddling, even at 15-20F (which is about where I draw the line for
fun cold-water paddling).  Overheating while paddling is often more of a
concern for me.
  So while I'll agree that a fully coated suit may be warmer than a
comparable Goretex suit, I don't think that the disparity is great enough to
make a substantial difference and the benefit of having drier insulating
layers when I peel out of the drysuit is more important to me - especially
on multi-day trips.  The slight difference in warmth is easily offset by
simply adding an additional insulating layer under the drysuit.

Dave Seng
Juneau, Alaska


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