Lifestyle

On Test: Muc Off Fabric Protect Re-Waterproofer

Can this clever product revive a jacket that just doesn't do the job anymore?

Good quality water resistant cycling kit can be a ride-saver, but it can also be pretty expensive so it’s annoying when you find that it stops being effective.

Water resistant and waterproof clothing is treated with a finish that causes water droplets to form tiny beads on the surface of the fabric, making it work effectively. You can tell that the water resistance is lacking because the droplets will no longer bead but instead leave big round splodges.

Once this happens, the fabric will lose not only its water resistance, but also breathability as water blocks all that lovely technical fabric from doing its job.

The good news is that this does not mean you need to shell out for a new garment. Firstly, you can try treating the fabric with carefully administered heat. If this doesn’t work, there are a number of products available to help you bring your clothing back to life – one of which is Muc Off’s Fabric Protect.

The spray restores fabrics with a ‘Hydrophobic Nano coating’ – which protects it from fluids, as well as potential stains from oil, grime, and apparently ketchup.

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You can use the spray on leather, suede, cotton, polyester and breathable fabrics and Muc-Off claim it contains a higher level of active material than most. So we put it to the test.

We started out with a Castelli Gabba long sleeved cycling jersey that was clearly no longer beading water effectively…

As Muc-Off advise, we applied the product in a well ventilated room – hanging the jacket up against an open window.

Muc-Off instructions tell us to spray the fabric evenly three times, for just a few seconds per application – leaving ten minutes between each spraying session.

So we did exactly that, then left the garment hanging up in position for a further 2-3 hours before putting the re-waterproofing to the test.

Coming back to the jacket a couple of hours later (Muc-Off actually advise 24 hours for optimum results) we were pleased to find that droplets of water beaded on the surface of the jacket once again.

There were a couple of areas which still produced some splodges, but we expect with another treatment and a more even hand our Gabba will be pretty much as effective as it was the day we bought it.