Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. Today I went for a ride with one of these panniers and got caught in a rainstorm which was useful, because I discovered that the panniers are also not waterproof in other parts (not just the top). Quite a bit of water seemed to come through the bottom. So I will most likely retire them/give them away and buy some new ones. (The Ortlieb prices here are pretty competitive so that helps). Might well still use some additional plastic bags inside panniers if I'm expecting particularly bad weather, or need to protect something especially vulnerable/important.
I would look into this 40% of repairs:
https://www.ortlieb.com/en_us/repair-week
Ortlieb doesn't do coatings that I can ever recall it has generally for a long time been PVC or similar material so no need. Maybe reach out again and show them the pictures and say hey they are no longer waterproof what are my next steps. They should be able to help out in some regard if not take them to a repair center as shown above or your local dealer and see if they can help out in any way.
In terms of waterproof panniers I still put any mission critical items in another waterproof bag inside of say an Ortlieb or something like that. Good to have a back up to the back up and never hurts to have an extra bag in case something comes up.
Thanks, unfortunately I am not in any of those countries at the moment - would have been worth trying.
The local distributor does not seem to assist with repairs.
Yeah, using an extra bag is sensible. Will probably consider that for some items/bags. Having said which, it can impede function. E.g. I keep a camera and binoculars in the handlebar bag for easy access. If I put those in another completely sealed bag then I lose the easy access. But the camera is definitely one of my most vulnerable pieces of equipment. Happy to say that it stayed dry during a downpour today so that's encouraging!
Originally Posted by
SpedFast
You can buy spray cans of material waterproofing, but my experience with them on PVC hasn't been the greatest. It turned my bright red panniers pink and lasted less than a season. I made my own solution with paint thinner and pure silicone, but once again, PVC doesn't absorb so it went flaky after a while and now they look like, well we won't go there. Good luck. If they were laminated and the thin laminate has worn through, there probably won't be much you can do with them. But keep us posted on anything suggested or tried, TIA
Right, this is in line with the information I have been able to find. Today I went into the local Ortlieb distributor who said they don't assist with repairs and just suggested I go to buy a waterproofing spray from Merrell, which was rather unconvincing. I think I may just suck it up, buy a new pair and give away the old ones.
Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Yours look like they are all fabric, not the PVC sheeting on my classic rollers.
If you have no luck with Ortlieb offering help, my suggestion would not waterproof them, but may help improve water resistance. Something to make them more hydrophobic so in a drizzle, the water is less likely to soak in. But might not work in a heavy downpour.
Something like spray on Nikwax
https://www.nikwax.com/en-us/product...rect-spray-on/
I agree with VeganBikes, redundancy may be the answer. I always use a waterproof compression sack for my sleeping bag which goes inside the waterproof panniers. If my panniers looked like yours I would probably use an extra waterproof bag for clothing inside the pannier.
In my current setup I have all my sleeping gear in a waterproof duffle/rackpack (older version of this:
https://www.ortlieb.com/en_us/rack-pack+K63H6) which I got secondhand many years ago but seems in solid condition. I'll probably take a couple of large bin bags as well just in case.
Originally Posted by
staehpj1
I was going to suggest that treatment, but why wouldn't you treat the inside of the ortleib pannier? It looks like that is where the old coating is on these pannier in the pictures. Were your panniers fabric with a coating like the pictures or slick PVC on both sides? I wouldn't expect the silicone to take well on slick PVC.
I recall way back when I had a tent floor that had the coating go bad and peel. It also smelled really bad. The manufacturer suggested running it through the washing machine a few times to get he old coating off before recoating using silicone caulk thinned with paint thinner. I never got rid of the stink so I didn't bother recoating and just retired the tent. I do not know how well the recoating will work over top of the old layer of peeling coating. If the alternative is retiring the panniers it may be worth a try. If it was me I'd go with a pretty thin mixture and try to get it to soak in well. Maybe try a small area to see how it applies. Also maybe experiment with trying to peel off as much of the old coating as possible.
Maybe you could coat the outside if it is fabric, but that isn't the typical way to go. It might take better, but it might be ugly. Test a small area to see how it goes.
Not slick PVC so in that sense there is more chance of a treatment adhering. But it also means the treatment would need to do a lot more work to seal what seems like a relatively permeable fabric.
In parallel I am actually resealing my MSR Hubba Hubba that had very similar looking flaking of the seam tape. But with the tent there is very clear manufacturer advice on how to deal with that (
https://www.msrgear.com/blog/tents-1...-seam-sealing/) and the area needing to be resealed is smaller/better defined.
Originally Posted by
Pratt
Modern waterproof fabrics are so good that, when I had the rain covers for my non-waterproof Beckman panniers copied, I saved about half a pound. Based on that, if I were in your situation, and did not want to simply buy new, I would get covers made. They could even be in high visibility fabric.
Yeah, I thought about finding some covers. But with panniers being as exposed as they are to road spray and direct rain it seems less straightforward than, say, a backpack.
Originally Posted by
Chuck Naill
Insert a appropriate size trash bag. I've done it for decades with backpacks.
Right, this is my fallback. Or using a more robust sack liner. Downside is that the panniers will absorb and retain water, a trash bag tears fairly easily and a thicker liner is unlikely to fit snugly.