UKC

Does any body know if you can Dye Gore Tex ?. Ive got a green bivvy bag and want to know if i dye it black will the dye take to the fabric and will the fabric still have the same waterproof and breathable qualities. Have you done it does it work ?

In reply to Chris B:
Just buy some new glasses if you cant find it against the grass. Give it a coat of yacht varnish, it will not let water in but you will have a lovely coat.

In reply to Chris B:

would nae advise it. might damage the gore membrane

In reply to Chris B:

anything that will fix a dye to gore will have to overcome its water-repellancy hence knackering your bivvi bag. paint a criss-cross shape on some gaffa tape with tipp-ex and stick that on a couple of bits of the bivvi if you want it to be more visible on grass.

In reply to all: I would just like to thank everybody for those words of wisdom.

In reply to Chris B:

Looking at interactive product selector at the Dylon website advice page:

http://www.dylon.co.uk/advice/index.htm
they recommend their multi-purpose dye for nylon (which is most likely face fabric for a GTX bivi bag). The instructions for this (found at http://www.dylon.co.uk/colourcentre/index.htm ) involve simmering water (i.e. practically boiling). Cold dyes are unlikely to be effective on nylon, as the dye will not be taken up into the surface of the fibre, i.e. you have to be pretty brutal to get the dye to take to the fibre. Prolonged exposure to boiling water is very likely to damage the membrane-to-face-fabric and seam seal adhesives.

So, it looks like the simple answer is no, you can't dye GoreTex.

In reply to captain paranoia:

you can't dye gore-tex! It's famous for its ability to reply pretty much all chemicals.
But then you wouldn't want to dye gore-tex. You may want to die the outer fabric, which is there to protect the inner gore-tex membrane (which is a white very thin material - exactly the same as white plumbers PTFE tape)

Gore-tex is chemically inert, so there should be no problem dying the outer fabric, but give Gore a ring first - they're very helpful...

Nik

In reply to Nick Ward:

Aha, a pedant. No, of course you can't dye the Gore-Tex _membrane_. Chris B wasn't asking that - he wants to change the colour of his bivi bag from green to black. That will be the face fabric. It's nylon. Nylon on its own could be dyed BUT in order to do this, you would have to heat the nylon/Gore-Tex laminate. I am suggesting that this would cause delamination of the membrane from the face fabric, and cause the seam seal tape to unbond.

that'll teach me to skim read messages - lol


I worked in retail for a while - and did the gore training
gore - tex is pretty bomb proof.

But the best plan is to ring them up. They're very helpful...

In reply to captain paranoia:
Isn't the PTFE stuff the same as some kinds of non-stick used for cookware, and therefore should be rather resistant to heat. On the other hand, the structure of the micro-porous membrane might get damaged.

More important surely is the taped seams, which will probably unstick immediately you add hot water.

In reply to aph27:

everything is heat sealed and chemical resistant... however as was pointed out before, applying heat - whilst not damaging the gore-tex (same as non-stick...) would possibly cause it to de-laminate.

In reply to Nick Ward: But to dry a Gore-Tex jacket the recomendation is to tumble dry it - that gets it pretty hot!

In reply to Robin: good point - and to re-activate the DWR, ironing is recommended.

best bet - if interested, is http://www.gore-tex.co.uk/home.cfm

In reply to aph27:


As I said in my first post:

"Prolonged exposure to boiling water is very likely to damage the membrane-to-face-fabric and seam seal adhesives."

Okay, being somewhat pedantic here, but I don't want people to ruin their stuff due to misunderstandings.

Gore-Tex fabric is a laminate of the PTFE Gore-Tex membrane, a face fabric and a scrim in the case of three-layer. This laminate is held together with an adhesive, usually applied as an array of dots.

The seam seal tape uses a hot-melt adhesive. This must melt at a temperature low enough so as not to damage the face fabric or scrim, so probably below 100C.

If you expose the item to heat, either in a hot wash, in a hot tumble dryer, or under a hot iron, you risk damaging the face fabric, the seam seal and the lamination. I know of someone who had the misfortune to hot tumble his jacket; the tape came adrift, shrank and ruined the jacket.

Gore and garment manufacturers recommend cool or warm iron, and cool/low or warm/medium heat tumble, and a maximum 40C wash.

Whilst Gore might reply to your enquiries, I have found them to be rather unhelpful when you start to ask sensible questions (e.g. "We recommend that you use a washing powder that does not have a softner agent"), or to politely offer suggestions for improving their website. Their website gives poor advice on washing, such as using a normal powder detergent ("The important thing is NOT, whatever you do, to wash your jacket in conventional detergent in the first place - you can wreck it in one wash" - Nick Brown, MD of Nikwax), and no explanations of _why_ you should or shouldn't do something ("Rinsing <multiple> times will not remove the detergent because it is linked on to the fabric chemically. It can be removed by washing with the right non-detergent soap, or even with Lux Flakes" - Nick Brown).