I've got a pair of the MLD eVent rain mitts on the way. I've seen numerous posts about how difficult it is to do a good, clean job of seam sealing them. So I got to wondering, is there any reason why you couldn't or wouldn't want to dilute the seam sealer with mineral spirits first and apply it with a stiff brush? Seems like it would be easier to apply without creating a mess and would maybe allow the sealer to work it's way into the seams more.

We all know it works well for silnylon, so how about eVent?

Pointless exercise imho. There's this great big hole at the end where your hand goes in. Rain and snow gets in there too well. If the cuff is inside you get rain up your arm; if the cuff is outside you get rain in the mitt. Either way, water gets in.

But the rain mitt will shed most of the rain, and that is usually quite sufficient.

Cheers

I can tell you what NOT to do. Do NOT seam seal them and then hang them in the garage over a bin of grass clippings and then let your kid slam the door on the way in the house. Sloppy sealing job or not, trust me when I say they look FAR worse when it looks like grass is growing out of all the seams.....

Edited by regultr on 02/12/2011 14:15:39 MST.

I would ignore Rogers advice.

Pack them with paper or cotton
Balls.

Put sealer in a syringe.

Seal them over two days.

These mitts ate awesome, unless you don't seal them, then they are pointless.

Unless you walk with your sleeve openings towards the sky, Rogers warning about the opening is irrelevant. Your jacket covers that opening.

These MLD mitts are useless without seam sealing.

Edited by redmonk on 02/12/2011 15:24:49 MST.

I would add this advice, also.

Get an extra tube of Seam seal, and practice applying it on some other fabric. As you mentioned, seam-sealing the MLD mitt isn't easy!

Watching a video on how to do it will not help as much as you'd like, either, hehe. We, of the owning-MLD-mitt club, can attest to that.

Love my mitts, hated seam-sealing them.

I seam sealed my MLD eVent miits them with a commercial tube of Seam Seal or somesuch (some McNett thang), the first time I've not mixed my own. Just turned the ol' thing inside out and it was easy, simple. I took extra time to make sure the beads were extra thin. Just took my time after dinner one night, put them over pint glasses overnight while still inside out, and no problems. Just used them XC skiing up in Yosemite in both heavy, wet snow and icy cold conditions and they performed like champs...with the drawcords tight, even over my shell's sleeves they didn't ride up or get displaced when falling into snowbanks. High 'n' dry, baby.

Planning a trailrun in the rain with 'em this coming week (fingers crossed for more rain here in NorCal!)...

Edited by atomick on 02/12/2011 15:38:35 MST.

Turning the mitts inside out is a great idea!

I think maybe I thought that it would not seep into the threads as easily when done this way. Ah, too long ago.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I'll look into getting a large syringe and trying to apply the seam sealer that way. Seams no one has any first-hand experience with diluting the seam sealer to apply to the mitts. Not sure if I want to be the test subject...

Cheers,

Nick

I have these mitts and seam sealed them with silicone.

I turned the mitts inside out and stuffed them tight with newspaper.
I diluted about 3:1, mineral spirits to silicone, and poured the mix into a 10 cc syringe. I worn vinyl gloves for the entire application process.

I then carefully applied the mix to the "center" and watched it wick through the stitching to each side, helping a little where needed.

Because the mix does wick, you will get occasional bonding of the newspaper on the other side. Scrape it off and be happy, it demonstrates excellent penetration.

It will look a lot better than if you had seam sealed the outside.

Edited by greg23 on 02/14/2011 08:17:59 MST.

I stuffed mine with paper towels (a lot of them) before sealing the outside. I wish I had thought to turn them inside out. I didn't dilute the seam sealer and applied it with a small brush. My results, while effective, were not pretty. In spite of powder, dust, and dirt they still stick to themselves in places.

After doing it I realized why Ron didn't include seam sealing them as an option...

Greg,

Thanks for your detailed description. This sounds exactly like what I was leaning towards doing. Good to know that it worked well for you.

Pointless exercise imho. There's this great big hole at the end where your hand goes in

+1

The truth about gloves

Cheers

Though this thread is old, I just found it and thought I'd post my experience in seam sealing these mitts. I bought mine prior to my 2009 PCT thru-hike and mainly used them to keep my hands warm. Though 2 days of rain in northern Oregon on the unsealed mitts convinced me that I should haved sealed them though my hands stayed warm even when wet. So after my trip I sealed them.

I used a toothpic to poke a tiny hole in the sealant tube and layed it on its side on my porch table. I used the tip of the toothpic to work in some sealant along a 1/2 inch seam, repeating as necessary over 1.5 hours. When I needed more sealant, I lightly touched the tube which caused a small amount to come out that I could coat the toothpic head with. I had to resist the temptation to try to use too much inorder to speed the job up. Overall, the results were excellent. I was able to get a consistant thin bead along the seam that was worked well into the threads. They don't look bad at all though you can see the few spots where I tried to use more sealant on the toothpic.

The mitts have held up well and I'm about to use them on a AT SOBO thru-hike.

Edited by Miner on 07/16/2012 16:56:37 MDT.