Rainjackets

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As the summer has been a let down with the down pour I've decided to invest in a rain jacket for the coming months.

Any suggestions to good ones? North Face is one but they're bloody expensive, £95 for a jacket!!
 
I've got a Berghaus Goretex jacket with a removable fleece insert. Very warm in winter with fleece and cool in spring/autumn without. A little too heavy for summer though.
I was a bit expensive but I got it on sale and it has lasted 10 years without signs of wear so has turned out a great buy. It's a tough coat and has suffered no damage in many conditions. It has lots of pockets and covers bum area well in rain showers.
In fact it's my second Berghaus and the only reason I changed it was because I got bored with red, so got a blue one. The old one is still used by SWMBO sometimes when the weather's bad.
I've never got wet wearing one and it is breathable like they say. The only negative is that it makes a noise when moving arms around - a bit like the noises you hear when walking round a hiking clothing shop in the Lake District.
 
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Damn...thanks a lot for showing me Berghaus

Just been on their site and seen their Smoulder III jacket, absolutely perfect for when I go shooting.

Another load of cash spent cos of TSR

Still at least its all good stuff I learn about here, lol
 
They look good but cost £100! I'll be asking for this for Christmas at this rate, and even then I'd be lucky to get one!
 
North Face and Berghaus are good, but yep, very expensive. Worth looking out for on sale around this time of year or check MandMDirect for discounted Berghaus gear.

Regatta do similar products but at a much reduced price and the quality is decent.
 
One of my "interests"....has, for years, been collecting waterproof gear. Not cheap...especially if you want to achieve any sort of effectiveness. And it could make you wonder why you bother much of the time. Goretex...a topic which would occupy a fairly thick (and rather boring) book is the one everyone has heard of...but it's by no means the Holy Grail. If I had a pound for every time I've got wet wearing Goretex I'd be a fair few quid better off. Then there's eVent' material...as found in a lot of Rabgear. http://www.eventfabrics.com/ To be honest I've tried loads of them. £100 is at the cheap end of the market for a half decent "waterproof" top. And don't be fooled by the term "waterproof". A dustbin liner is 100% waterproof...but it makes you sweat rather a lot. The Berghaus Cornice is indeed one of the standards that go back years. It feels like I've always had one...but for some reason have had to buy bigger ones as time passed - can't imagine why :) ...and they're OK...the present one was around £100 but you need to search to get one for that money at the moment.

I reckon one of the best for keeping the weather out is Paramo. The Cascada is an all time standard...like the Cornice...but IMHO is better and more effective. But a tad heavier. Best place to get Paramo is on Paramo's Ebay "Seconds" shop. See here - http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ParamoSeconds. A lot of Mountain Rescue people use Paramo.

I used Buffalo gear for years...one of their tops got me the length of the Pennine Way... http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/buffalo. The Mountain Shirt is a bit of an icon. Have had several of them. A totally different principle of keeping you dry and warm though. Rather like Paramo is a very different principle compared to Goretex.

Ever since the pair of us got soaked through by rain coming at us horizontally on Seaton beach I have striven to stay dry. And would probably say the failures outweigh the successes by a considerable measure. And have spent a small fortune along the way...... Ex Army gear, Goretex, eVent, Paramo, Buffalo and all sorts of coatings and treatments...but there's no one perfect answer.

A huge topic that would take hours and hours to research on the net...everyone has their own view and I think the expression YMMV is appropriate.
 
Some of it depends on whether you wear a rucksack.
I find it soaks through where the pressure is.
The cheaper waterproofs often slowly wear out and become less waterproof.
As they get a bit older, water slowly soaks through.
The only things that I have ever found truly waterproof are my old wax jacket (not a barbour, but dry)
I have worked and walked in torrential conditions in it. The only water is via it getting in at a neck or something rather than it coming through the material.
Actually, not entirely true, when younger I had a cheap waterproof made of a fairly thick plastic.
It was actually totally waterproof. However, you sweated in it (even in cold weather the, condensation)
was so bad you might as well have taken it off.
 
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