Steven Featherkile wrote: > > I just read in a guidebook for paddling around Vancouver Island, BC, > that waterproof/breathable fabric looses it's waterproof capability in > saltwater. That is news to me. Anyone have firsthand info? Steve Cramer answered: >>I don't, but the Gore people do. Go to www.gore.com and do a search on salt water. About 1/2 way down the results page you will find this sentence: "GORE-TEX® Fabric Is Not Harmed By Salt Water!" Unfortunately, the link it points to is being remodeled. There was a bunch of nonsense about this on r.b.p recently, including someone who claimed that the salt crystals lodged in the pores and stretched them open. If you believe that salt water hurts waterproof/breathable fabric, you wouldn't dare sweat in the stuff, would you? Of course, othere manufacturers may say differently, and, as always, YMMV.<< Back from 1977 until 1980 I was production Manager at Early Winters, the first company to make outdoor products using Gore-Tex. I was also the company troubleshooter and I'm here to tell you there were many things that made "first generation" Gore-Tex leak, and I discovered several more by doing some testing using a device originally used in the promotion of Gore-Tex. Sweat was one of them. Detergents that didn't rinse out well, Suntan lotion, mosquito repellant, urine, snow crystals (self arrest practice) were some others. Salt water fishermen soon found it leaking (but some of that may have been due to the fish-oil soaked into them. Natural hair oil made all the hoods on the garments leak. The buzz among kayakers was that while it started out waterproof that during a salt water trip it seemed to lose that waterproofness over time. It was unclear at the time if it was salt build-up in the fabric or contaminates in the salt water causing the problem. The "second generation" of Gore-Tex reduced the pore size and breath ability somewhat but hydrophilic oils (like in sweat) weren't such a problem with it. I'm sure there has been many generations since then and I would bet it is far better today but I understand why Gore-Tex may have gotten that reputation (among old-timers anyhow). Funny how early on everyone who believed in the breath ability God (widely preached at the time just prior to the introduction of the new "miracle" fabric) thought there would be no condensation with a waterproof/breathable tent fabric. Same folks probably noticed how beautiful a bejeweled spider web looked on a cold humid morning but never connected the two. We may be getting a lesson in "Ad Speak" here. Gore says: "GORE-TEX® Fabric Is Not Harmed By Salt Water!" This may just mean that salt water does not harm Gore-Tex permanently, it just makes it leak until you can wash or rinse it completely out of the fabric. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jun 01 2000 - 22:05:20 PDT
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