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Top Calfishing.com Float Tube/Kickboat Forum topic #11445
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Subject: "RE: Breathable Waders" Previous topic | Next topic
grrlfishThu Nov-07-02 08:21 PM
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#11452, "RE: Breathable Waders"
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Try to treat your wader like a piece of equiptment. Different intervals require different maintenance. Also if you read any of the tags that came with your wader, it should have come with "care and feeding instructions" if you still have them it is best to follow those.
However, most major manufacturers use a very similar fabric from each other. A breathable wader has 3-5 layers of technical mumbo jumbo synthetic/polyester materials sandwiched together to make it breathable.

For your regular cleanings, you can just hose down your wader (inside out) on your front lawn or whatever. If you are a saltwater fisherman, you need to hose down both sides. Salt crystals are your enemy. If I'm on the beach, I try to use the outside shower the surfers use to wash off the sand. Then I hose down the inside when I get home.

For deep cleaning, put the wader in the washer on cold with just a teeny bit of mild detergent. You need enough detergent to break up any oil buildup from your body. Basically just take a small handful of detergent and throw it in.

Okay now here's the tricky part. Drying. If you have a 5 layer fabric wader you need to renew the DWR coating on the outside. Unless you're a geek (like me, who just knows), how would a person know if you have 5 layers? The easy tip off is if you spent over $200 retail for the wader... you most likely have a DWR coating. The DWR coating is the waterproof part on the outside, renewing the coating is a normal part of maintenance. In order to renew the coating you run your wader through the dryer on LOW. Low is really important! HIGH will FRY! About 10-15 minutes will do the trick.

Also, check your seams perodically (on the inside). Where your seams come together, there should be a seam tape over it. Sometimes you'll see dot patches too, they usually cover the suspender attachment. Keeping the integrity of the seams are important because if you're going to spring a leak, it will be on a seam. Regular cleaning is important because the salt from your body will crystalized in the space between the tape and the inside fabric, it will accelerate the separation of the tape. If you see any separation of the tape from the seam, you can buy a glue for it (at any nicer outdoor shop). If it's big separation, send it back to the manufacturer for repair or if you're under warranty they'll replace the wader.

  

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Breathable Waders [View all] , woodsac, Thu Oct-31-02 05:32 AM
 
  • RE: Breathable Waders, Lake, Oct 31st 2002, #1
  • RE: Breathable Waders, swampy, Oct 31st 2002, #2
  • RE: Breathable Waders, Clint, Oct 31st 2002, #3
  • RE: Breathable Waders, jsmith, Oct 31st 2002, #4
  • RE: Breathable Waders, grrlfish, Nov 07th 2002, #5
  • RE: Breathable Waders, swampy, Nov 07th 2002, #6
  • RE: Breathable Waders, grrlfish, Nov 07th 2002 #7

  • Top Calfishing.com Float Tube/Kickboat Forum topic #11445 Previous topic | Next topic
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