ESP Drenchwear leaking

[jonboy walton]

As anyone had any trouble with the ESP drenchwears ability to stay waterproof? A friend of mine bought the suit last year, after 4 months it started to leak. He washed it using Tech wash and reproved it with another solvent, but it still leaks. Has anyone else had similar problems?

 

Jon :confused:

[Vagabond]

I thought drenchwear was something ladies wore for a wet T-shirt competition

 

Seriously though, I have never, in over 60 years of angling, found a reliable waterproof - of ANY make.

Despite the wild claims of sponsored anglers no garment stays waterproof for more than a few months.

 

Of course the "field tester" stays dry for the first few trips, and writes a rave review.

 

Repeated doses of silicone spray to the garment is the best answer I have found. Also, when you have got drenched as often as I have, you find you don't care about getting wet any more - a hip flask of brandy helps

 

:cool: (and soaked)

[Leon Roskilly]

Washing waterproof breathable garments is the kiss of death

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Specialist]

Had the suit since it first came out and havent had a problem with it at all.

 

Where is it leaking, any membrane type water proof will "leak" if water is forced theough the materiali.e if you kneel or sit on wet ground or if dirt is traped in the pores of the material then water is absorbed by this and transfered throught the membrane by it,

 

Washing will not damage any membrane type water proof. And my drench wear has been washed 3 or 4 times with no problems.

[jonboy walton]

Specialist

 

My mate was boat fishing, and found that he had a wet arse. This was before any washing whatsoever. The jacket leaked after washing, and he was forced to change at Chew the other day when it leaked on one arm and both shoulders. I have just bought the bib and brace to replace my Ventec Fox one piece, which incidentally despite being washed once a season did not start leaking until it was 6 years old, and then only around the waist and in the arse.

[poledark]

I've got a van full of "waterproof/breathable garments. At some time all of them have leaked, and if they hadn't cost so much I would have chucked the lot.

All breathable stuff will leak if you sit on a wet box or bank, or even a canvas type seat.

 

Some will even leak simply due to the pressure of resting your arms at your side!!!

 

Has anyone found the answer to walking to your swim in the rain without getting wetter inside your suit than outside? It is possible in very cold weather, but what about now, when the temp is over 10deg?

 

One partial solution I have found is to wear TWO layers of breatable garments! the inside one passes the sweat outwards and the outer one keeps the rain out but gets wet inside.

This has worked several times recently when having to walk fully loaded for several hundred yards, on arrival at the swim I stick the brolly up and remove the outer garment.

 

Den

[Allan]

I begin to wonder, if there is such a thing as a "Waterproof garment" I have given up, and now use a cheap coated nylon jacket and trousers. The secret is a 50'wavelock type brolly!

This may be a bit on the heavy side for some, but the combination works, with the bonus that your tackle is kept dry.

 

[ 21. October 2002, 07:10 AM: Message edited by: Allan ]

[Jim Roper]

I first saw the Gortex coats at the 1985 CLA Game Fair. The demonstrations were so impressive that I was determined to have one. At the 1986 event, the stand that had been booked by the people that had demonstated the material the year before was vacant. I should have smelt a rat, I suppose, but I found one of their garments at a discounted price on another stand and bought it. For a year it was everything I wanted, just one wet elbow, and that after beating on a shoot all day in pouring rain and then going to evening flight on the foreshore with the rain still lashing down.

You could even get soaking wet in just a pullover and have it dry out through the coat in the rain as long as you kept moving. By the end of 2 years, though, I might as well have been wearing a net as far as keeping out the rain was concerned.

I've heard all sorts of excuses for the material. Someone said that I should have washed it because the pores were blocked. Someone else with a coat and leggings of the same material said there's didn't leak until they washed them. Someone said it was the salt air and that the material was not used for sailing clothing, but I don't know if that is true.

I still have the coat, with a new zip it would look as good as new. The material has not a mark or tear, despite some pretty horrendous treatment from barbed wire to brambles but it leeks like a sieve. It is not a MUSTO!!

Recently, I have been buying one of those cheap waxproofs from the market stalls and discarding it after a year. You can buy a lot of them for the price of a 'top-of-the-range' breathable. Some people proof them by soaking them in new engine oil, but I've never tried it.

The woollen coats from New Zealand http://www.denewear.co.uk/shop.cfm?category=swan will definitely keep the water out but are a devil to dry out afterwards.

The next best breathable that I have had was a Perflex coat by Endurance. People who have got the latest coats from Wearite seem satisfied with them. I had one from Wearite and it was the right price and the right colour for duck shooting as was the one from Danimac, but niether was as waterproof as the Gortex by Aquabeta when it was new. No other coat I have ever had, has been as tough as that original Gortex one.

I thought about one of the Peter Storm coats from Millets but never got around to getting one.

 

The best coat I had was probably a prison issue full length mac. Just the right stone colour and fairly waterproof, but no pockets because of it's intended users.

 

Jim Roper

 

http://www.searchlineuk.com/FishList.htm

[Leon Roskilly]

129.33.97.7/published/gfe_navnode/g...gb.care.re.html

 

TL - leon

[Leon Roskilly]

Jim Roper:

Someone said it was the salt air and that the material was not used for sailing clothing, but I don't know if that is true.

129.33.97.7/published/gfe_navnode/g...i.news.all.html

 

TL - leon