acronym for Durable Water-Repellent finish, a treatment found on outerwear that forces water to bead much as wax does for a car. We use a variety of DWRs, but all for one reason: to prevent water from saturating the shell fabric, which averts potential condensation into the lining and keeps you warmer.
Durable water repellent. Usually a silicone- or fluorocarbon-based treatment applied to outerwear fabrics to help keep them from becoming saturated. DWRs require periodic touch-ups, such as medium-heat machine drying, careful ironing, or wash-in or spray-on treatments available in outdoors stores. See coated.
Durable Water Repellent. A DWR treated fabric will bead-up water on its surface to stop it soaking into the fibres. This maintains breathability and shortens drying times.
DURABLE WATER REPELLENCY. All waterproof breathable fabrics used for outdoor clothing are treated with a surface water repellent agent in the textile mill before being made up into garments. This is normally a fluorocarbon (Teflon, Scotchguard etc.). This treatment is necessary to keep water from soaking into the outer fabric and making it look and feel wet, “wetting out”. While the membranes like Gortex® will keep water from soaking through the fabric, they will not make it “bead up” on the outer fabric that the membrane is laminated to. When treated with treatments that make water bead up and roll off, garments are said to have durable water repellency (DWR). DWR can wear out and garments can begin to “wet out” or feel waterlogged. Nikwax TX-Direct in a wash in or spray on version is a treatment that restores the DWR to garments without using environmentally dangerous solvents or propellants.
Dworshak Clark Fork-Flathead 1966-2005 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Water Management Division
Acronym for Durable Water Resistant. Typically involves a fabric with a coating.
Stands for durable water repellency. This is a created by application of a coating (usually silicon or flouropolymer) to the outside of a garment. A DWR is found on most waterproof/breathable and water-resistant shells and pants and forms the first defense against water, by causing water to bead up and run off, before it can soak into the garment. The coating is often heat set when the fabric is manufactured, which improves both performance and durability.
An abbreviation for Durable Water Repellency, which is a treatment used on the SeatSaver Seat Cover that keeps moisture from soaking into the cover and down into your seats.
A Durable Water Repellent is added to the outside of the fabric for extra protection against rain and snow.
Department of Water Resources
Deep Water Route NE North East
Durable Water Repellent. A Teflon, silicone, or other treatment on the outside of a fabric to provide moderate water protection, yet maintain breathability. Available in spray cans from outdoor shops and discount stores. Christopher Wagner
Dworshak Tailrace NF Clearwater 1973-present U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
