knafelc wrote on May 2^nd, 2012 at 1:36am:

Why can't we recondition our older gortex stuff? Is it like a bick lighter? I'm not trying to get philosofical ,can't it be"renewed"?

Sure! Renewed to a reasonable extent anyway.

A hot dryer or iron may work depending on age and treatment. ReviveX and TX.Direct will return DWR properties.
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I had a very old North Face GT jacket I wore every day for years. I thought died but it was just the DWR coating that failed preventing vapor transmission. I washed it in whatever, dried as directed and I was really surprised. Now my kid wears it on rainy days.

Basically, the outer shell needs to bead water. Once it becomes saturated it can no longer breathe and since you're not use to getting wet in GT you think it's leaking. If you bought a non breathable, you'd get even more wet but you'd expect it 'cause you didn't pay the big bucks.

My current jacket is about 14 years old. I can get about three good days out of it before ... the arms and shoulders go first and it's very noticeable. I assume paddling and carrying packs is what wears it down in those areas.