The fabric is the heart and soul of breathable waders. No matter how flash the design is, if the fabric has been skimped on, then you’re wasting you’re time and money. DryLINE waders are the only wader that uses a breathable fabric that is ISO tested. While most other waders will quote a gms/24 hours (grams of water per square metre of fabric per 24 hours), we use a fabric that is ISO tested. The reason being a gms/24hours figure is easy to manipulate by changing the water temperature, air temperature and pressure, and humidity. By changing these you can get your fabric to have a much better rating than it might deserve. That doesn’t mean everyone does this, but how do you tell the “honest” ones from the rouges?

By using an ISO tested fabric, everything (water/air temperature, humidity etc.) has to be the same, no matter who is testing it. The fabric is tested to meet ISO-11092. The result of these test’s is a rating of 330 m2pa/w, which means you can walk continuously in comfort, at a temperature of 20 deg C for at least 75minutes, at 15 deg C for 100 minutes, and at 10 deg C for 240 minutes. This information reference is taken directly from EN-343 recognised standard for foul weather apparel.

Microporous is the ability of a fabric to pass water vapour through, but not water liquid. The fabric contains millions of pores less than one micrometer (one millionth of a meter) in diameter—less than one fiftieth the size of a human hair. A water molecule, such as from sweat, is 700 times smaller than the pores, which mean they can freely pass through the fabric, but water found in lakes, rivers and rain is a liquid made up of droplets, each of which contains trillions of water molecules. So a single water drop is about 20,000 times bigger than the pores in microporous fabrics, so there’s no way it’s coming through!

The only problem with a microporous fabric, is for it to work, the water needs to be in the form of a vapour. If your working hard, your sweat will condense on the inside of the fabric, and it will stay there until it is turned back into a vapour. That’s where the hydrophilic property comes into play. Hydrophilic means water-loving, so it is able to attract water to itself and then using capillary action moves it to the outside of the fabric. This even works while the outside of the fabric is submerged in water.

Given enough pressure, water can be forced the wrong way through the breathable fabric, so it requires strength to stop this. DryLINE breathable fabrics are able to withstand a hydrostatic pressure of 10,000mm. This means you can have a column water up to 10 metres high on top of the fabric, and it won’t come through (leak). While some fabric’s will quote far higher ratings, 10,000mm (or 10 metres) seems to be the standard for breathable fabrics used in waders. Normally the higher the rating, the lower the fabrics ability to keep you comfortable from moisture build-up. Remember, you are only wading to a depth no more than your chest!

As an added extra, the breathable fabric also has a Teflon coating added to the outside of the fabric. This gives the fabric the ability to shed of dirt and water. After time this layer becomes clogged with dirt and salts form the body and will need to be cleaned. Unlike most other fabrics, you do not need to reapply this coating after washing your DryLINE waders. Just simply heat with a warm iron, and the coating is reactivated again. This saves on having to wait for the reapplied coating to dry, and on cost by not having to purchase further products to keep your DryLINE breathable waders in excellent condition.