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To enjoy your GORE-TEX clothing, shoes or gloves as long as possible, it’s important to take care for your products. Which also means you should know how to wash and clean them correctly. That’s definitely not as hard to do as you might think.
By regularly washing GORE-TEX products the right way, you can not only increase their life expectancy, but also keep their functionality alive. For example, Gore calculates for its products an average life span of five to seven years! We will give you a helpful guide on how to wash and care for your GORE-TEX products so that they can protect you from outer elements like rain, wind and cold for a long time.
Read here how to:
HOW TO WASH GORE-TEX CLOTHING?
It’s generally said to use the washing maschine only if your GORE-TEX clothing is visibly dirty. Otherwise you can go first with refreshing your jacket or pants outside, on the fresh air. If the GORE-TEX product is not draggled but the water doesn’t roll off anymore, than you need to reactivate the water repellent function. In that case the clothes should be put into the tumble dryer for approximately 20 minutes at low temperature. The heat reactivates the upper material’s durable water repellent function (DWR). You can achieve the same result by shortly blow-drying your clothing or useing an iron (on very low temperature). Before putting the GORE-TEX product into the tumble dryer you can spray it with an impregnation On-Spray. Specially suitable are sprays by the brand Nixwash, which are available in our local Sport Conrad stores.
If it’s time for a washing program you should first read the producer’s care instruction. It is sewed inside each GORE-TEX product. Furthermore don’t put any clothes into the washing maschine witout having the right washing detergent at your fingertips. There are special unperfumed impregnating agents, like the “Tech Wash Mittel” by Nikwax that is also to find in our stores. Please keep in mind only to use liquid washing agents and avoid stain remover, fabric softener and bleaching agents. Use only a little of the cleaning agent and maximum one closing cap of the relevant laundry detergent.
Before starting the washing program you should close every zipper of your GORE-TEX product. Don’t forget about pocket zipper, hood or the ventilation zippers in the arm-pit area! Now you can wash your GORE-TEX favorite piece at 30° or 40° Celsius (please wash with temperature what is declared on the label in your textile) with gentle cycle, maximum of 400 rotations per minute. After the wahsing program rinse two times the washing agent can be fully flushed out.
To dry the clothes afterwards, leave it for about 20 minutes in the tumble dryer. If you don’t have one, the fresh air effect will do the the same for you (and save some energy for our planet). In that case you should reactivate the DWR-impregnation manually through additional heat. An iron or gentle blow-drying is the best solution. Simply place a towel or any other fabric between the iron and press it without steam.
HOW TO CARE ABOUT GORE-TEX FOOTWEAR?
Compared to all outdoor equipment wearables, shoes are the most used ones. But the functionality of footwear is as important as it is for GORE-TEX clothing because having wet feet changes every enjoyable trekking tour to an unpleasant and annoying hike.
Gore-Tex itself doesn’t produce any shoes. It manufactures the GORE-TEX membranes, which are then used by brands like La Sportiva, Scarpa, Hanwag or Meindl. Dirty shoes should be cleaned simply with a sponge or brush and warm water without any washing agent on the outside part. After watching your shoes let them dry in the well-aired room or outside. GORE recommends avoiding oil or emulsive or fatty care products because this would reduce the breathability of the upper material of the GORE-TEX shoe.
Better use impregnation sprays. The same as for clothing, those sprays reactivate the DWR-impregnation of the upper material. Remove the sole and shake the shoe up-side-down to get rid of those annoying, little stones.
HOW TO WASH GORE-TEX GLOVES?
Hands off the washing machine when cleaning your GORE-TEX gloves! Here you should go for hand washing with warm water and a bit of impregnating and cleaning agent. But be careful! Don’t use any fabric softeners, bleaching chemicals or stain removers. To get wet gloves quickly dry again, twist them beginning at the fingertips and arrange them with the opening downwards.
It’s not recommended to use the heater as a dryer or the hot sun. The heat can harm the fabric of the gloves. You should just them into tumble dryer at low heat or dry them at room temperature. Try your leather or GORE-TEX glove on when wet and form a fist. That’s how you reshape the glove so it would fit perfectly again when it dries up. Just like for the GORE-TEX clothing, dry gloves should be impregnated again. You can use the same sprays as for your clothing.
If you take out wash and care advice to heart, you can enjoy your GORE-TEX products for a long time. Use your GORE-TEX products longer, save some money and more importantly our environment from overproduction. Happy washing!
GORE-TEX SERVICE
If you prefer to hand over this task, Gore-Tex directly offers a washing, impregnation and repair service. Information about prices and everything else you need to know about this can be found directly on the Gore-Tex page.
Do you want to know more about GORE-TEX Products and the technology behind it? Get more information here:
→ How does the GORE-TEX membrane work?
→ GORE-TEX Active: The breathing shell
→ GORE-TEX Pro: The high-protective shell
*Fotocredit: © www.gore-tex.com