Poster: A snowHead
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I'm looking for a new casual jacket for using round town and for going to work. Although not really skiing related i figured someone on here is bound to have some idea of this. I'm looking at one that claims to have 1kmm repellency. Now this seems pretty low as far as i can tell but it's a bit meaningless to me. Does anyone have any idea of what sort of repellency that relates to in reality? Is it going to do anything at all when it starts to rain or is it nothing more than a wind breaker? Cheers
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I'm not an expert, but I know that my waterproof shell (Goretex, Haglofs and £150 in a sale), is waterproof to 20 000mm.
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1kmm is not really that showerproof.If it's practicality that you are after then I'd aim for 5kmm as a minimum.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Gore-tex has a hydrostatic head rating of 20,000mm (gore tex pro may be 25,000mm if I remember). Unfortunately to legally call a jacket waterproof it only needs a rating of a measly 1,500mm. Then you also have the issue with breathability. Lower price jackets tend not to be as breathable. Which then causes the problem of getting wet from the inside.
My recommendation would be to look at a jacket which has Gore-tex, eVent etc (some of the bigger brands also do their own proofing which is pretty decent) membrane. You get what you pay for unfortunately. But as you are looking for an around town jacket, you should be able to get something for around the £150 mark which is decent and will do you out on the fells too without being to technical.
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Hmm, thanks for the info. It wasn't meant for anything super demanding so not really looking for anything really fancy but 1k seems a bit pointless so I guess I'll steer clear of that. Out of interest though, is it possible to improve the repellency of a jacket using nick-wax or whatever or is it just possible (in theory assuming perfect application and whatnot) to get it back to as good as it was originally? I'm assuming the latter but just wondering.
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I've used most DWR reproofing products, some are better than others but IMO none of them are as good as the DWR proofing that is applied by the OEM.
Also depending on how old and worn the jacket is, it may be worth trying a quick wash and tumble dry(low heat setting) to rejuvenate the original DWR coating.
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