Waterproof fabrics

From snowheads

Comparing The "Waterproofness" of Fabrics

Well, the marketing droids have come up with a measurement of how breathable a material is and it's measured in millimetres of water. This ranges from 5000 to 40,000 and the higher the better.

Comparing The Breathablility of Fabrics

The measure of how breathable a material is is measured in grams/square metre/24hrs. This ranges from 8000 to 20,000 - the higher the better.

There's an excellent web page out there with loads of good info. I'll dig it out Lbt 20:14, 27 Feb 2005 (GMT) It explains why the figures above aren't all that matter!

The Fabrics

Gore-tex 

Original and very good. Waterproof to n000mm and breathable to x000 l/hr???

Gore-tex XCR 

Updated version - some say "the best"

XL.T 

Spyder's version of Gore-tex. 10,000mmH2O 8,000g/sqm/24hrs

There's a thread on re-applying the proofing.