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Water-repellent and water-attracting surfaces

Whether a surface attracts or repels water decides what soils it, how it soils, and whether the cleaner you apply ever touches it.

In detail

Surfaces divide by what they do to water. A hydrophilic surface — clean glass, bare ceramic, cotton — is wetted readily, so an aqueous cleaner spreads and reaches everything. A hydrophobic one — wax, a fluoropolymer coating, an oily film, a treated outdoor fabric — repels it, and water arriving on it beads and runs off carrying very little with it. Three consequences matter. Cleaning a hydrophobic surface with a water-based product achieves less than expected because the product is not in contact for most of the area, which is why a surfactant is needed even where there is no grease to emulsify: its job there is wetting rather than lifting. Hydrophobic surfaces attract oily soil preferentially, so what accumulates on them is greasy rather than particulate. And repellency is frequently a deliberate finish rather than a property of the material — a water-repellent treatment on outerwear, a sealer on stone, a coating on glass — which means aggressive cleaning removes the function along with the soil. That is why technical-fabric care guidance excludes fabric conditioner, and why the stone trade calls its sealers repellents rather than sealers.

Why

Sources for this page

Sources

  1. Outerwear Care Instructions

    W. L. Gore & Associates (GORE-TEX brand) · Manufacturer documentation

    Relied on for: That water-repellent performance on technical outerwear is a finish which cleaning products can impair, and that fabric conditioner is excluded. (states this directly)

  2. Care & Cleaning of Natural Stone

    Natural Stone Institute · Trade or professional body

    Relied on for: That sealers are impregnators, repellent rather than a sealer, making stone more stain resistant and not stain-proof. (states this directly)

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