Companion forum thread to:

PHD Mountain Software Yukon Down Pullover Review

Just to add that VAT has increased from 15% to 20% in the UK recently, so US folk can deduct that from the price of UK gear.

I ordered one a week or two ago and had 17% deducted for the VAT.

Strangely, they do occasionally do a variant of the Yukon in their sales with a lightweight M1 fabric shell instead of the drishell... but then also use a (presumably larger amount of) less lofty down for the fill so the final weight ends up being pretty much the same for the same effective insulation.

They are quite happy to do modifications to their garments, however... they'll make you a Yukon in an alternative material if you're willing to pay a bit more, but at that point it probably ceases being price competetive with the Nunatak.

Me, I like the safety factor and piece-of-mind that the drishell gives in this case. Its a good bit tougher than pertex quantum, and the down will stay dry much longer in the event of any incidents. I don't ever anticipate being a SUL-er, however ;-)

"One ounce of down of this quality expands to 900 square inches (0.58 m2)"

I think that the test is how many CUBIC inches an ounce of down expands to when a "piston-type apparatus weighing 68.4 grams is placed on top of the down". Given that, 900 cubic inches is 14.7 litres, not 0.58m2.

In practice, is the tube they measure it in that big, or do they just extrapolate?

"Price includes VAT; if the item is to be delivered outside the EU, VAT does not apply and 15% is deducted from the price"

"I ordered one a week or two ago and had 17% deducted for the VAT."

They dropped VAT from 17.5% to 15% and then after the GFC hit they hiked it up to 20%. From the website of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs:

"The standard rate of VAT was temporarily reduced to 15 per cent on 1 December 2008 and returned to 17.5 per cent on 1 January 2010. On 4 January 2011 the standard rate increased to 20 per cent."

So, for quite a long time (at least a decade) it was 17.5%, it was then temporarily reduced to 15% for two years and then recently increased to 20%.

The rate that would be deducted depends on the age of the goods - some old stock still around was taxed at 17.5% so if you're getting that stock then the reduction is 17.5%, not 20%.

In any case you'd expect that 15% wouldn't come off, because that'd make the stock more than a year old.

Edited by Arapiles on 03/25/2011 18:06:55 MDT.

To answer your question D W, I've visited PHD's factory and seen their Lorch machine, which measures fill power. It's pretty small, so those figures will be extrapolated.

I would like to add that down fill-power is different when measured using different tests. There's the US norm and EU norm, which utilise different conditioning processes and use different standard pressures. The EU method generates fill power ratings that are lower than the US method, so fill power ratings on European jackets will generally be equivalent to slightly higher US ratings. For example a jacket rated at 900 FP under the EU norm would test at something like 970 under the US norm.

Now, PHD are a European company and they use a Lorch machine, which is the standard apparatus for the EU norm. There's more to it than just the type of machine used, but assuming they comply to the EU standard PHD's 900 FP down is closer to 15% warmer for the weight than the 850 used by most high-end US manufacturers like WM or FF rather than merely 5-6%.

Edited by Joomy on 02/20/2012 20:32:23 MST.