Gear

Please could someone advise me as I feel like i'm gonna kick someones buttcheeks!! I bought a pair of brasher ladies gtx hillmasters at christmas as I have started walking a lot more, mostly low level walking, and they started to fall apart within 2 months wear!! I took them back to the shop where the manager noticed that they hadn't been fitted properly as there was a great deal of room and movement around the toe area of my foot, this is where the boot started coming away from the sole. Anyway I immediately got fitted for a range of boots which turned out to be quite soul destroying as I have quite a slim foot and found that no boots were fitting me properly. I settled on a pair of ladies gtx Raichle scouts which fitted me like a glove. This was just over a week ago and today I took the dog out for a walk,and as it was quite muddy I decided to clean my boots by wading through a small stream. Much to my disappointment the boots are not watertight around the tongue area and are damp inside!!! These boots are fabric and I stressed to the people in the shop that the one thing I was looking for in a boot was that they had to be watertight hence purchasing goretex boots. I never experienced damp or letting in with brasher, I don't know if thats down to them being leather or not. What should I do? Has anyone else experienced these problems with boots before??

they are either faulty or you got water in over the top of the goretex bootee insert which may not cover the whole area of the boot.

let them dry then wear them standing in the bath, running cold water until you feel it come into the boot. that will be where the bootee ends.

Hi Jules, sorry to hear you are having boot troubles.

My gf has a pair of those raichle boots and complained her feet we feeling wet so ifilled the sink up with water and put the boots instuffed with some paper to see if that got wet.

i left it for 10-15mins and came back and no water had come in so we put it down to condensation/sweat. she hasnt tried the boots out in wet conditions since so we wont know for definate until she does

it might be worht giving that a go and see what happens.

The best way of testing them is to dry them out then fill the boot(s) with water ensuring you do not go over the gore-tex 'sock' you can see inside. If water appears on the fabric - they are leaking. I think its something to do with hydrostatic pressure, having to do it this way round

I had to do this for some Meindls before I returned them - excellent cutomer service from them as they were replaced.

If they are Gore tex does it not make sense if the water does leave the boot, as this makes them breathable? I got told this was a good way to clean the gore tex membrane of the boots.

Exactly how does water leaving the boot show that they are breathable? If water came through the roof of your house would that make it well ventilated.

The gore-tex membrane is a microporus membrane not some kind of fancy directional clothing system.

It shouldn't pass water unless you either exceed the hydrostatic head for the membrane or vaporise the water. I doubt that filling the boots will do the first (even at the base) and to avoid the second I would advise not using boiling water.

Thanks guys. The water did not pass over the ankle of the boot so they are definately leaking. I called the store I bought them from and told them what had happened. They said they will do a test in store (filling the boots with water)and if that does not work then they have to be sent away for proper tests. Moggy my feet didn't get soaked through or anything but the inside of them were definately wet/damp just at the start of the tongue (i am certain this was not sweat)> Perhaps this is a common fault with Raichle? I have went off fabric boots because of this, I think I will stick to good old leather boots from now on.

Jules,

You hit the nail on the head.

Get yourself a good pair of leather boots.

Scarpa Deltas.

Trust me.