Is eVent effective on down jackets?

Would a waterproof breathable material such as eVent, epic, or quantum be worthwile, or would it just hold in moisture and not let the jacket dry out?

Would a nylon or taffeta shell be better, or are most jackets inner lined with some sort of nylon, making it easy to just turn inside out to help dry?

Thanks,
matt

Matt,

Ryan Jordan may wish to make more comments about this, but you may wish to check the Backpackinglight G Spot forum regarding E-Vent & Down Parkas.

Edited by naturephoto1 on 01/12/2005 10:13:47 MST.

IMLE (In My Limited Experience) yes. I have used eVent this fall and winter as a shell over my primaloft vest. If works significantly better than anything else.

What remains to be seen is in a bag, under extreme cold, will the outer surface of the eVent on the bag be cold enough and the eVent material itself clog up like Ryan talked about happening with the epic fabric. Perhpas not but don't have a physics degree, so I defer.

I'd ask Feathered Friends about eVent -- they offer the material on their down jackets. They also offer Epic and Quantum, but neither is exactly waterproof. Both are water resistant.

I'm doing a jacket in Quantum, which is extremely lighweight and will allow the down to fully loft. EVent is heavier (leastways, the stuff on my shell jacket is). I think the real determination is whether you really need waterPROOF shells on your down jacket. Most of the time that I'm going to be wearing down on a backpacking trip, it's going to be *seriously* cold, which also suggests pretty dry.