Waterproof vs Water Resistant

Shazril Shukri
Nov 1, 2016
2 min read

The cloud are heavy and you anticipate that there will be a downpour.

Thinking your 'water resistant' backpack will survive, and you decided to continue your ride.

You are wrong! And here is why...

Water Resistant :

able to resist the penetration of water to some degree but not entirely

So, in this case, what's that means?

Now, picture this, your bag have a thin layer of protection sheet. Yes, it will survive a water splash, but in a downpour? It won't stand a chance.

But... the manufacturer said it is water resistant! Yes, you are correct, and that doesn't meant that the manufacturer lied to you.

It is simply because; a water resistant item, are build to make sure that water will have a difficulty to get inside it. Difficult, but not impossible. In simple way, if we expose a water resistance item too long to water, it will.... yes, you are correct, it will get wet.

Waterproof :

impervious to water

Waterproof in other hand, are materials that effectively keeping water from entering it. Obviously, the terms are straightforward.

So, waterproof items such as let say... backpack, will it stands against a downpour, yes! Definitely. Why?

It just depends on the materials that used to fabricate it. For example, most waterproof bag are made out of 100% vinyl.

Example : A waterproof backpack from North Face. (Click Picture to View Site).

After all this misconception of the two terms, make sure you really know what the items can do.

Try find its Ingress Protection Rating scale (or IP Code). This scale assigns items a rating from 0-8 in terms of how effective the device is at keeping water from entering into it.

Here is the rating guide :