I've got an old berghaus fleece which I used to wear for horse riding, but haven't really worn it for the last 5 or 6 years. It doesn't look too bad and as its been stored in a breezy attic it smells ok too, not a whiff of a horse! But I bought a nikwax fleece waterproofer the other day and I'm tempted to try to proof it - anyone used it before? Also I'm supposed to wash the fleece before I proof it and I'm just not sure about washing fleeces in general - does it make them bobbly? I also bought a secondhand windstopper fleece, so was thinking of giving it a wash and a proof as well... but I've always been of the view that you wear a fleece until it gets up and walks away, rather than washing it. So - is it ok to wash fleeces, and if so on what settings and what drying method? and is the fleece waterproof stuff any good?
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 Follow the guidelines on the fleece, i presume your talking about the nikwax polar proofer for fleeces? You should wash them using pure soap or a 'technical' wash you can do this by hand as well as machine and then proof in the same way.
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 your normal fleece give a very thorough wash in detergent (absolutely NO conditioner) to clean it properly. rinse well then wash in pure soap/tech wash to remove any detergent traces, rinse well again and then proof. tumble dry on a low setting. thereafter wash in techwash. washing fleeces doesn't make them go bobbly. wash inside out with any zips done up.
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Also bear in mind that you can't waterproof the fleece. The best you'll do is make it a bit more water resistant (and possibly make it a little less breathable?).
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ok guys, I'll give this a go at the weekend - and you think it'll be ok for the windstopper fabric too? 
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 How often should you wash a fleece?
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 I bought a Patagonia synchilla jacket soon after the stuff was invented in the late seventies or early eighties. By about 1990 it was so old I used it as a saddle blanket while riding a horse over the Sierra Nevada in Spain. My girlfriend wears it every day, and it still looks much the same as it did when it was new, although the elastic around the wrists is a bit stretched. So How often should you wash a fleece? As often as you want.
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I have a Craghoppers and Berghaus fleeces that were so comfy I wore them to work and washed them every week or two and they thinned out very quickly. That said, not the cheapest fleeces.
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windstopper AFAIK actually should be washed pretty frequently, like eVent, otherwise your body oils start clogging up the pores in the membrane. I use grangers/nikwax, depending on the day of the week, to wash my fleeces in, particularly my 2 powerstretch ones for a bit of extra water repellency. I don't think it has any effect on breathability.
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 I use grangers/nikwax, depending on the day of the week,  what am I missing?
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"I bought a Patagonia synchilla jacket soon after the stuff was invented in the late seventies or early eighties."
Me too, and it's since been washed numerous times with detergent, soap flakes and Nikwax/Graingers, and it's still in excellent condition, apart from the knitted cuffs and hem which are no longer very elastic. Doesn't seem to make the slightest difference what you actually wash it with.
That said, I've been told different manufacturers use different quality fleece, even if it all has a Polartec logo, and washing methods might have more effect on the poorer stuff.
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ah, there's not much difference between the two. Granges works better if you can tumble-dry the stuff, it seems. If you can't, meh.
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 I liberally used Nikwax TechWash and Nikwak Polarproof on a heap of fleece type stuff years ago. That does help produce a drizzle-resistance which works rather well and reduces how much gets soaked up from rain and from sweat so dries out quicker. I have a Berghuas fleece which took this very well and is soft & comfy. I also did it on a wool jumper for "smart" occasions. I'm not sure however as technical solution you need to do such thing to a fleece, it's not meant to really to need waterproofing surely the layer above to keep the clean stuff out and the layer beneath to keep the dirty stuff spread out to evaporate from body heat? FWIW, I Nikwax'd my fleeces last winter, its handy to have shower-resistance in something you wear indoors so you can simply shake it off as you do stuff like go to corner shop, etc.
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