Durable water repellent finish

Chemistry not stated by the term

Coatings and finishes. Also written DWR, durable water repellent, water repellent finish, beads water.

A finish sprayed or padded onto fabric so water rolls off it rather than soaking in. The industry has been moving from fluorinated chemistry to silicone and hydrocarbon alternatives, and a listing that says only DWR has not told you which era it is from.

Fluorine-free versions exist and are now common, so the finish is not automatically a PFAS finish. What the data shows is how rarely anyone says. This is also the finish most often named in the state restrictions on our law timeline.

What the makers actually said

Of the 1,391 graded products whose materials record a DWR finish alongside a coating or finish, 100% name no coating chemistry anywhere in their published materials. This is a count of what companies published. It is not a statement about what any product contains.

Named a fluoropolymer
0
Named a coating that is not a fluorochemical
0
Named no chemistry at all
1,391

A further 14 products record a DWR finish with no coating or finish at all, so there is nothing for a maker to have disclosed. They are outside the split above.

Free to quote with a link. Of the 1,391 graded consumer products that record a DWR finish together with a coating or finish, not one of them names a coating chemistry anywhere in their published materials, according to PFAS Authority's October 2026 spec sheet decoder edition.

How those 1,405 products graded on our rubric

These are model-based estimates, not laboratory tests, scored on one public rubric. Read the spread against the categories underneath it rather than as a verdict on a DWR finish in the abstract, because the rubric gives every category a baseline and a term concentrated in one category will carry that category’s spread with it.

Median grade 20 out of 100, across 56 categories.

GradeProductsShare
Excellent20.1%
Good302.1%
Poor35425.2%
Bad1,01972.5%

Where a DWR finish turns up

The 6 categories holding the most of it, out of 56. Each one links to the live ranking for that category, best graded first.

Best graded with a DWR finish

One per category, best first, so the list is not five of the same thing.

Worst graded with a DWR finish

One per category, worst first. A low grade here is usually something else on the product, not the term.

Decode a whole listing instead

A product usually names several of these at once, and the one that matters is rarely the one in the title. Paste the full materials line into the decoder and it will pick out every term it recognises, the most open-ended first.

Other coatings and finishes

Edition 2026-10-08, read from 11,337 graded products carrying a material string, and frozen at that date. A term is matched against the material and construction string recorded for each product, written from its published materials, specification and ingredient list rather than from a laboratory test. Products count under every term they match, so the totals across terms overlap. Found something wrong? Tell us.