In reply to Ramon Marin:
> It will be really interesting to see how the move to PFC-free pans out, as I understand there's EU mandate to phasing them out? I've heard it has some retailers quite worried about it, apparently the PFC-free DWR are nowhere near as durable and jackets "wet-out" within the first season? Hence they are worried people will take the jackets back... Would be interesting to know more. Btw I do support not wearing carcinogenic coatings... however I do also like to be dry and for jacket to last
1. PFCs levels in rain and snow in Antarctica and Tibet already exceed Europe's municipal drinking water limits for PFCs.
2. Not properly caring for a jacket (i.e. not applying DWR a bit more frequently) is not a warranty issue – it's just user dumbness in most European jurisdictions and should be thrown out if it ever got to court, as in your hypothetical. Just like not properly drying out your full‑grain leather boots after a proper stomp in a bog and later complaining the leather disintegrated is just the user's fault.
3. Even the actual "legendary" PFC waterproof breathable membranes of old (not just their DWR coating!) required a pretty stringent regime of frequent cleaning, because any accumulated grime on it – eVent or Gore‑Tex – did make the membrane leak, because of physics (guess what, a microporous membrane that solely depends on the hydrophobicity of its pores, any grime in them counters that). Both companies were pretty clear you should properly wash their gear quite often for optimum function of the WPB membrane itself. Might just reapply a safe NikWax DWR during or after that necessary wash cycle anyway...
4. Any and all PFCs are just plain evil, due to their total persistence in the environment and their prevalence and bioaccumulation. Let's keep their use to the minimum in the industries that can't really work without them (some biomedical and lab industries). We don't need them in outdoor gear at all.
Post edited at 00:31