Gear

My husband recently fell and damaged his new expensive Goretex overtrousers on the first wearing. It has caused 2 small corner-type tears but they have not gone right the way through all the layers; only the top one.
Has anyone out there managed to repair Goretex. I believe it cannot be heated or I would have used wonderweb on it or an iron-on patch.Of course I may be wrong!

I believe you can pick up Goretex repair patches from most good outdoor shops. If I remember correctly they are glued in place using something like seam sealer or the like.

Thanks Michael. Do you know if it requires heat to seal it?

A little research and I cam up with the following from Needle Sports

http://www.needlesports.com/acatalog/Mail_Order_Repair_30.html

Spinaker tape also works.

Cut a patch to size and round off the cormers so they don't lift.

I glue it (the tape)for a more permanent repair.

Use a water resistant impact adhesive.

A lot of folks jus use a blob of lue on smaller holes/tears.

A goretex patch/seam sealed repair can be effected if you send it away.

Just repaired my ripped jacket with Gaffer tape, the waterproof version, which comes in a choice of colours and you can get it at B&Q.
Easy, effective, and discrete.
If the white adhesive shows on the patch edges, paint it out with a marker pen.

Thankyou everyone for your suggestions and especially to Michael for spending time researching for me.

If the over-trousers are 3-layer, the easiest, neatest and cheapeat way is iron-on seam seal tape, available from Pennine Outdoor or Point North. At about £1/m, it'll do lots of repairs. Iron it onto the inside using a warm iron, protecting the iron with brown paper.

I've been recommending this method for years, and have lots of satisfied 'customers', here and at ukclimbing.com. A search on this forum should give hits, or even at ukclimbing.com (although non-registered searches are limited).

2-layer construction means you either have to fight past the lining fabric, or put the tape on the outside.

Mountain Hardwear repaired my paclite trousers when I ripped them. They didn't charge much, and the repair was excellent - much better than I could have done with DIY patches. Perhaps it would be worth phoning up the distributors of your husband's trousers to see if they can repair them.

'customer feedback' for iron-on seam seal method:

Ridge the neophyte, Jan 2004
Ridge the evangelist, Mar 2006
nb290 the evangelist, FedUp the neophyte

Gore-tex can withstand a resonable amount of heating; it has to, as the original seam taping is iron-on, effectively.

Just don't go mad and set the iron to 3 when you apply the iron-on tape; start at 1 and increase the temp until the glue melts. About 1.5 usually does it.

did someone mention 'ironing' ?!

Thanks to Michael's research we ordered something called 'Tenacious'(a sealing & repair tape) from the needlesports website. It can go on the inside or outside and is clear so doesn't notice much. We've yet to test it in the outside world!
Captain Paranoia - thanks for the customer feedback ref. found for iron on seam seal. However I couldn't access the info'n without registering and since we had already sent for 'Tenacious' I didn't register. If 'Tenacious' is not successful I will register and see if it is suitable. It needs to be the same colour or clear as it is only the top layer of 2 that has been damaged.

Don't bother looking at the UKC 'feedback threads' if you don't want to register (I had forgotten that UKC had had a change in policy regarding open access to their archived threads); they don't say anything more than I've already said, other than showing that the method works for other people. Iron-on tape is available in clear form.

Good luck with Tenacious; sounds like it will do the job.