Hardshell Jackets

My last hiking trip was extremely wet. And my raincoat did not help me.

On the one hand, I will impregnate my rain trousers. On the other hand, I'm thinking about buying a new rain coat. Or a hardshell.

Quality Indicators

Brands

Some brands are well-known for their quality. Three I've seen very often being mentioned are:

Layers

When you look for rain coats, you can see things like "2 layers", "2.5 layers" and "3 layers". This is about the durability.

  • 2 layers: The membrane and a mesh. The mesh protects the membrane from your sweat.
  • 2.5 layers: Base fabric, Membrane, partially treated interiour. Feels like rubber on the inside.
  • 3 layers: More durable than the 2 layers

Denier

The density of fibres is measured in Denier: 1 denier = 1 g / 9000 m. The higher, the more durable but also the stiffer the material. For rain coats for trekking, I think 30D or 40D is good (?)

Breathability

Breathability (MVTR) can be measured in g/m²/24h.

Alternatively, I see RET values sometimes. It measures how much resistance the material gives to heat transfer. The lower the better. According to www.unterwegs.biz:

Breathability MVTR RET Examples
not breathable > 20
breathable 3.000g/m²/24h 14-20
good breathability 10.000g/m²/24h 6 – 13 Gore-Tex Pro Shell: 3-4 RET
very good breathability 15.000 to 40.000g/m²/24h < 6

Rain

YKK is a brand for zippers which are waterproof.

Features

Those are other features you might want to consider:

  • Storm Flap: Behind the zipper, there is a piece of cloth that prevents the cold air from rushing through
  • Taped seams
  • Pockets: If you wear a backpack, the hip belt will block low pockets
  • Length

Impregnation

For everything except the shoes, I will do the following:

  1. Put the inner to the outer to reduce possible damage to the material (German: "Auf links drehen")
  2. Select "gentle or delicate cycle" (Schonwaschgang)
  3. Use "Fibertec Uni Pro Wash Eco Waschmittel"
  4. Put it in the dryer.

Then I will use the spray "Deichmann nässe blocker hybrid".

In order to test how effective the spray is, I coated a piece of paper. I couldn't see a difference in the paper when I put water on it, but you can easily see where I coated the paper:

Impregnation of Tiles
Impregnation of Tiles

Hardshell Jackets

All hardshells should be water- and windproof as well as breathable. They all have 2 front pockets.

Water resistance is measured according to DIN EN 20811:1992 by the height of a water column (JIS L 1092 B). I've read that everything above 10 000 mm does not really make a difference, but it is important how breathable the material is (e.g. if you stick in your sweat or if the sweat is transported out of the jacket).

For longer hiking trips, 3&nsplayer hardshell jackets seem to be recomendable as they are more breathable than the 2 layer constructions.

What I have

I have a 2 layer rain coat from "Tec Wear" / Rodeo (C & A). It weights about 700g, has a detachable hood, two front pockets which I use for gloves. Additionally, it has one side front pocket and two innner pockets which I likely never used. The volume is hard to estimate ... probably something around 2 L.

The seams are not welded (see article how to do it yourself):

TODO: image

What I looked at

Name Price Layers Water Column Breathability Weight Volume Detachable Hood Inner pocket Self-pocketing Durability
Haglöfs Spitz Jacket 467 EUR 3 28 000 mm RET < 6 490 g (S) ? ✘ 1 ✘ 40D
Haglöfs Astral Jacket 290 EUR 2 28 000 mm RET < 5 615 g (L) ? ✘ 1 ✘ 40D ripstop
Haglöfs HERAKLES 374 EUR 3 28 000 mm RET < 5 455 g (L) ? ✘ 1 ✘ 40D ripstop; 114 g/m²/141g/m²; introduced in 2016
Haglöfs Eco Proof Jacket 300 EUR ? ? 15 000 g/m²/24h 480 g (L) ? ✘ 1 ✘ 40D ripstop
Montane Air Jacket 250 EUR 3 20 000 mm; YKK 12.000 g/m²/24h 350 g 1.5 L ✘ 0 ✘ rip-stop
Men's Zebru UL 3L Jacket 250 EUR 3 20 000 mm; YKK ? 198 g 0.8 L ✘ 0 ✘ 10 Denier
Men's Croz 3L Jacket II 300 EUR 3 15 000 mm ? 331 g ? ✘ 0 ✘ ?
MARMOT - Red Star Jacket 195 EUR 3 ? mm ? 425 g 1.8 L ✘ 1 ✔ 40D
Vaude Men's Kofel LW Jacket 200 EUR 2 10 000 mm ? 384 g ? ✔ 0 ✘
Vaude Men's Furnas Jacket II 144 EUR 2 10 000 mm ? 630 g ? ✔ 0 ✘ ?
Vaude Men's Yaras Jacket II 160 EUR 2.5 10 000 mm ? 390 g ? ✘ 0 ✘ ?
Vaude Men's Escape Pro Jacket 136 EUR 2 10 000 mm ? 543 g 2 L ✔ 1 ✔ ?
Arc'teryx Theta AR 450 EUR 3 ? ? 490 g (M) ? ? ? ? ?
Arc'teryx Beta AR 550 EUR 3 ? ? 455 g (M) ? ? ? ? ?
Fjällräven Keb Eco Shell (*) 320 EUR 3 30 000 mm 26 000 g/m²/24h 570g (S) less than 2L? ✘ 1 ✘ ?

More:

Haglöfs:

Fjällräven: The Keb-collection seems to be older; Bergtagen is the new collection.

I finally bought the Keb Eco Shell Jacket on 2018-12-18.

Red Flags

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