My wife accidentally grabbed my muddy rain jacket and threw it in the washer and then the dryer. It was a nice REI jacket. I just wore it the other night for the first time since it was washed and it seemed to hold water, not have all water bead up.

My first thought was to use something like Camp Dry and see if I can get another few years out of the jacket. I presume it would work. Is there anything better out there than Camp Dry?? I again I assume there is but I do not have a lot of first hand experience.

DWR finishes on most rain jackets get a bit revitalized after being dried in the dryer due to the heat.

quote nathan_ollman: "DWR finishes on most rain jackets get a bit revitalized after being dried in the dryer due to the heat. "

Really? The minute I realized it was in the dryer I grabbed it out. Do you think I should put it back in by itself for a little while to see if it helps?

Here is what the Gore-Tex folks say. Interesting that they even mention ironing as a revitalization method.

I washed mine yesterday, and dried it on low heat.

I'd try washing it in Nik-Wax Wash-In stuff

Is your jacket Gore-Tex or something else?
I had Ultrex raingear once upon a time and, unlike what they say in the prior link for Gore tex, I wasn't supposed to use liquid detergent. Didn't know that and ruined it. Subsequent treatments - wash-ins, sprays, etc helped make it useable for awhile but not anything like it was originally.

use this.

Nik wax

Great idea!

The jacket is polyester and raylene. Packable/lightweight. I still paid well over $100

I thought it was the dryer that screwed up the waterproofing. Looks like it is detergent that messes up waterproofing. Thank you all for info.

Some of my gear has washing instructions that advised NOT to use liquid laundry detergent. Powder doesn't seem to bother the coating as much.

We have washed our coats before and used the Nik Wax with bad results. Didn't work. Resulted in both us of needing new rain coats as we had major rain coat failure in Quetico. We find the spray on kind (not kind you wash in) works better to revitalize our coats. I think we got our spray at Fleet Farm or something. My lesson learned, leave the mud.

I threw the coat in the dryer for 15 minutes. I went back in the rain and water beads off. It's Ike a new jacket.

The issue is washing it in detergent - powder or liquid. You have to wash items with a dwr coating in soap, not detergent. Detergents actually makes the dwr useless and your jacket will wet out....search some of the backpacking forums like backpacking light, and various camping forums from England for more info. Some guys use Ivory bar soap. You used to be able to get Ivory or Downy powdered soap at supermarkets but haven't seen it lately - they've changed it to detergent it seems....check the labels.

I was surprised when I learned that detergent was a problem, as it is mentioned as okay on the Goretex site itself! But several name brand jacket companies do say not to use it. Also, nikwax etc is basically just liquid soap! And from the research online I did a couple years ago, it appears the Graingers dwr products are superior to nikwax stuff.

Moonman.

I believe the caution with using the dryer is with high heat damaging coatings, and with fabric softener which can also damage the coating.

Low heat, no softener is the way to go.

+1 on using either Nikwax or some other wash in DWR finish. I do that yearly to my rain gear.