How to Restore Durable Water Repellent (DWR) on a Waterproof Jacket: Gore's Official Steps, and What DWR Does Not Do

If your rain jacket has started to look soaked rather than wet-beaded after a shower, the jacket itself is probably fine. What has likely worn down is the durable water repellent, or DWR: a thin coating applied to the outside of technical garments that causes water to bead up and roll off the outer layer instead of being absorbed. According to Gore, regular wear and tear as well as exposure to dirt, sunscreen lotion, bug repellents, detergents, campfire smoke and cooking odors diminish this water repellency over time. The good news, in the brand's words, is that a DWR treatment is not a permanent property of most outerwear — periodic care can bring it back.

This guide follows the steps as the GORE-TEX brand states them on its own care pages, for jackets made with its membrane. Other brands and materials have their own instructions, so always check the garment manufacturer's care tag too — Gore says its own advice does not replace it.

Step one: test before you treat

Before washing anything, find out whether the DWR actually needs help. Gore's suggested test is simple: sprinkle some water on the jacket. If the water beads up, the DWR is in good shape. If it soaks in and darker patches appear, it is time to restore it. Gore also advises testing all over, because soaking can occur from any breach. How long a DWR lasts depends mainly on use — a jacket worn hard several times a week will lose its repellency sooner than one used a few times a month, and the factory-applied treatment typically outlasts reapplications.

Step two: wash it properly

Restoring the factory DWR starts with a wash and heat. Gore's washing instructions, as given on its outerwear care page, are:

• Before washing, zip the front, pockets and pit zips completely, and fasten loose flaps and straps.
• Machine wash in warm water, 105°F/40°C, with a small amount of liquid detergent — about one ounce/30 ml per load, depending on water quality and load size.
• Do not use powder detergent, fabric softener or chlorine bleach.
• Gore suggests a second rinse cycle so all detergent is rinsed out, and says a gentle cycle with reduced spinning (400 rpm or lower) minimizes creasing.
• The garment does not need to be washed alone; similar, not heavily soiled garments can go in together.

Step three: reactivate with heat

Once the jacket is dry, heat is what revives the coating. The sequence, in Gore's words:

• Line dry the garment first, or tumble dry it on a warm, gentle cycle.
• Then tumble dry for 20 minutes to reactivate the DWR on the outer fabric.
• If you cannot tumble dry, iron the dry garment on a gentle setting — warm, no steam — with a towel or cloth between the iron and the garment. Gore recommends low temperatures (the ironing symbol with two dots).
• Gore recommends line-drying as its default because it uses less energy, with the tumble-dry step serving the reactivation purpose.

Step four: re-apply when heat no longer works

Sometimes the factory treatment can no longer be reactivated by washing and drying. In that case, Gore says to apply a new water-repellent treatment to the outer fabric — available as a pump-spray or a wash-in product — and always follow the reapplication product's own instructions, then activate it with the same tumble-dry or ironing step. On choosing between the two formats, Gore notes both work, but that wash-in products also coat the inside of the garment, which may compromise how well the interior fabric wicks perspiration and may affect breathability. Check the jacket's label to verify the appropriate option.

The exception: no DWR, no heat

GORE-TEX garments with a persistent beading surface, such as SHAKEDRY products, follow different rules entirely. These have no textile outer layer — the outer layer is the membrane itself, so there is no DWR to restore and no treatment to apply. Gore's instructions for them are to machine wash on a delicate cycle at 105°F/40°C, and not to dry clean, tumble dry, iron, bleach, or apply DWR treatment. If your jacket is one of these, skip every heat step above.

What restoring the DWR does not do

This is the point most worth internalizing: restoring the DWR does not make a jacket more waterproof. Gore's own answer is a plain no — DWR is a surface treatment and does not impact the performance of the waterproof membrane, and when the DWR wears off, a waterproof jacket is still waterproof. What a well-maintained DWR does, per the brand, is help the jacket breathe efficiently by keeping the outer fabric from saturating, which keeps you more comfortable and prevents the clammy "wet out" feeling of heavy, saturated outer fabric clinging to your skin. So if your jacket leaks, a DWR refresh is not the fix — but if it feels soggy and stuffy, it very well may be.

To check your own result, repeat Gore's sprinkle test after the full wash-and-heat sequence: sprinkle water on the outer fabric and see whether it beads up and rolls off. If it does, the DWR has been restored; if it still soaks in and darkens the fabric, that is the signal to apply a new spray-on or wash-in treatment — and to re-run the same test after activating it with heat.