Cycling UK Forum

My bright yellow goretex jacket is looking pretty grubby - chain oil in particular. I'm having real problems shifting it.

Has anyone had any success with this?

Thanks in advance.

If anything the oil will improve it's effectiveness so why get rid of it?

Initially I'd try neat washing up liquid rubbed in with a finger.If that fails White Spirit on a rag rubbed in followed by washing up liquid again then rinsed off.

A bit of chain degreaser sprayed on, left for a few minutes, then wash the jacket in the machine. This has worked for me a few times, doesn't work on oil stains that have already been through the wash though.

"Goretex" (and similar, e.g. eVent) is a laminate of the waterproof membrane and face fabric(s). Your stain will be on the face and it'l like getting a stain out of any other woven fabric. There are various things you'll find in the Cleaning Products section of your local supermarket which should do the trick.

Most of what will shift it will, I'd guess, be detergent based and detergent does just the opposite to the DWR coating used to help water bead up on the outer face. That doesn't keep it waterproof, but helps stop the face from getting saturated which adds to the weight and also reduces the breathability significantly, so after you've used whatever to get the stain out I'd wash it in pure soap with extra rinsing to get the cleaning agent out.

(Personally I just let them get grubby as a badge of honour...)

Pete.

have tried the specific cleaning products from either Grangers or Nik wax.

NUKe wrote:have tried the specific cleaning products from either Grangers or Nik wax.

Probably not much use for this. The Magic Thing about them is they are pure soap rather than detergents so in routine use don't tend to counteract the DWR finish on the face fabric. But at the end of the day they're just soap, and don't do that much against an oil stain.

Another point about them is, being pure soap with no special additives, you can het the same results by paying much less. Soap flakes are cheapest but do tend to foam up a bit much for a modern washing machine, but there are various pure liquid soaps (e.g. Dripak Liquid Soap Flakes) that are still much cheaper than the Nikwax and Grangers ones.

Pete.

Have you tried rubbing swarfega or similar into the oil then washing

Have you tried rubbing swarfega or similar into the oil then washing

That's what I do and find it works well.

Swarfega - see this previous thread:-
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=117469&p=1165838&hilit=swarfega#p1165838

pjclinch wrote:

NUKe wrote:have tried the specific cleaning products from either Grangers or Nik wax.

Probably not much use for this. The Magic Thing about them is they are pure soap rather than detergents so in routine use don't tend to counteract the DWR finish on the face fabric. But at the end of the day they're just soap, and don't do that much against an oil stain.

Another point about them is, being pure soap with no special additives, you can het the same results by paying much less. Soap flakes are cheapest but do tend to foam up a bit much for a modern washing machine, but there are various pure liquid soaps (e.g. Dripak Liquid Soap Flakes) that are still much cheaper than the Nikwax and Grangers ones.

Pete.

but Soap will often remove oil, Never had a problem with any of mine, I suppose it depends how engrained you have let it become, OK use Dreft or one of the other, but I would certainly try before smearing with any other chemicals.

Thanks very much for all the suggestions. Hopefully one of them will do the trick!

Isopropyl Alcohol shifts oil from just about anything. You can buy it online.

steady eddy wrote:Isopropyl Alcohol shifts oil from just about anything. You can buy it online.

Thank you. I have some of that. I'll try it.

All of my waterproof kit has lost it’s effectiveness from washing or spot treating with anything other than liquid soap flakes. In a machine on a cold wash.