Sprayway Lightning Waterproof Jacket

Ta me anseo

Recently bought one of these in The Great Outdoors. Wore it recently on a walk and had to take it off about an hour into it becuase everything inside it was soaked with sweat including my map!! Absolutley no breathability whatsoever.

Has anyone lese had this trouble with Sprayway stuff or is it just my own fault for buying cheap gear??? :rolleyes:

Alun

What were you wearing underneath it? You need breathable, wicking underlayers as well, or you may as well not bother with a breathable outer layer at all.

Ta me anseo

I had a wicking thermal baselayer and a fleece underneath. What I ended up with before I took the jacket off was loads of small water droplets sitting all over the outside of my fleece. The inner mesh of the jacket and some other areas near the zip and inside the sleeves had soaked up large amounts of moisture, so much so that it took about 3 hours sitting inside out on the back of my chair in the kitchen before it had dried out.

Once the jacket was off, I dried out in about 20-30 minutes although the wind was fairly brisk at 1,800 feet! The remainder of my walk (about 2 1/2 hours) was trouble free so it would seem that the baselayer and fleece were behaving adequately on their own.

Alun

I don't really know that jacket, but there's nothing wrong with Sprayway as a make in my experience. Both my full weight winter jacket and my lightweight summer one are Sprayway, and I've had both for years.

My lightweight one uses GoreTex Paclite and I've noticed that it seems to be designed for use with a minimum of layers underneath, and that if I overdo the layers I do sweat quite profusely in it, so I try and keep it to a thin next-to-the-skin baselayer and an intermediate layer, or at the most a thin (Lowe Alpine Aleutian) fleece layer. If I have anything resembling a 'normal' fleece on as well then, apart from it being a bit on the tight side, I'll sweat like a pig. I get the feeling it's designed more as a jacket to put on and take off as the need arises to keep out rain (and maybe wind) than as something you'd necessarily wear all day.

Personally I find that for those days when all you need is a bit of warmth and protection from the wind rather than from the rain, a good wind blocking polartec fleece alone is the ideal compromise.

BeardyGit

Alun is as usual on the money on this one.

A shell is not suitable for day long wear, especially not when you're active. I've a latest generation €400 Goretex Pro-Shell based jacket and it'll be soaked inside within a couple of hours when I'm active.

If I want to stay warm and protected from the wind for day long activity I wear a Buffalo or Montane Pertex based garment. You can go for several different weights and you will find nothing better on the market for the climate we endure here in Ireland.

For lighter weight, look at a Buffalo Pertex 5 Windshirt. For heavier weights (possibly too heavy here) go for a Pertex 6 based smock from any of the manufacturers. Montane make the heaviest from personal experience.

Shell jackets are great with more traditional layering systems but of late I've found the whole practical application of such systems to be distracting and far too easy to get it wrong. With a superlight base layer underneath and a Buffalo on top, I can adjust my temperature to an acceptable level all day long. Even when I'm effectively 'wet', I'm protected from the wind unless I open the vents to deliberately cool down....

I wish I knew all of this years back.

Gil

Ta me anseo

Alun wrote: »

I don't really know that jacket, but there's nothing wrong with Sprayway as a make in my experience. Both my full weight winter jacket and my lightweight summer one are Sprayway, and I've had both for years.

My lightweight one uses GoreTex Paclite and I've noticed that it seems to be designed for use with a minimum of layers underneath, and that if I overdo the layers I do sweat quite profusely in it, so I try and keep it to a thin next-to-the-skin baselayer and an intermediate layer, or at the most a thin (Lowe Alpine Aleutian) fleece layer. If I have anything resembling a 'normal' fleece on as well then, apart from it being a bit on the tight side, I'll sweat like a pig. I get the feeling it's designed more as a jacket to put on and take off as the need arises to keep out rain (and maybe wind) than as something you'd necessarily wear all day.

Personally I find that for those days when all you need is a bit of warmth and protection from the wind rather than from the rain, a good wind blocking polartec fleece alone is the ideal compromise.

Perhaps using the jacket only when necessary is a solution. I used it in Carlingford on a walk to the summit of Slieve Foye. I was working pretty hard climbing up to Colwyn Gap and was pretty warm by then, but walking the ridge was completely exposed with a strong westerly breeze. The wooly hat came out then bacuase the breeze was so cold!! I zipped the jacket all the way up slowed the pace down a little for the next 20 minutes or so, but by the time I got to the top I was soaked. I had expected the jacket to handle 1 hour of constant use without too much trouble and I certainly could not have gotten away with just a baselayer and fleece along the ridge (it was cold enough for there to be small areas of ice and snow near the summit). I have a (very) cheap Peter Storm jacket which I used last year on 3 hour walks in warmer conditions and never had any trouble.

My Sprayway does not have Gore-Tex. It uses "Hydro-Dry" which is their own cheaper version I expect for their lower end range. Yet it still costs 3 times what I paid for my Peter Storm jacket yet it can not handle internal moisture??

BeardyGit

Oh yeah, that's worth noting too - Breathable membranes (Aquafoil/Goretex/HydroDry etc) all work better when it's warm and dry, not when it's cold and damp. Silly, I know, but that's how it is.

Ta me anseo

Thanks for the reply Gil_Dub.

The only bit I don't understand is what you are supposed to do if it rains throughout your walk? I would need a shell for the duration then. Surely you can expect a shell to handle constant use to allow for this?

A couple of years ago, I bought cheap over trousers for playing golf. They were absolutely rubbish. After 10 minutes, you were likely to be wetter inside than out. So, I bought more expensive over trousers. Still cheap by any standards but better than what I had. These new ones could be worn for a full round in wet or dry conditions and I will still be bone dry underneath. So, a company creating properly breathable materials seems to be possible.

It's just that I expected my jacket to be capable of doing something similar. What use is it to have in my pack if I'm walking if it is unable to handle 30 or 40 minutes of wear. Surely I should expect at least this much rainfall over a 4 or 5 hour hike?

Or am I missing the point entirely??? :rolleyes: (probably!)

Interesting comment about the warm & dry vs cold & damp...........

BeardyGit

The point of wearing something other than a multi-layered system is realising that no matter what you do here, when it's raining, you might as well accept you're going to get wet.

The most expensive commonly available Goretex product on the market right now is Pro-Shell, and I'm telling you from experience that when you're active and it's raining (or even just a bit drizzly or whatever), you're going to get wet inside it. I've had my Mountain Equipment Ogre jacket for a year now and if suffers almost as much from the problem as any other Goretex shell I've owned over the years. The simple fact is that it works for a while and then breaks down as it gets wetter and wetter on the outside. I've done the whole cleaning, drying with gentle heat, reproofing etc etc until I'm blue in the face. It has to come down to how much I sweat and I suspect that most blokes will find the same. I'm not a big soggy mess the whole time normally, but inside the shell jacket, it's only a matter of time.... I'll wear it when it's particularly cold or windy, or for a shortish shower. Apart from that, I don the Buffalo and enjoy the warm windproof experience, even if it's damp. Seriously, it doesn't matter if it's damp - It'll still do a better job than a wet raincoat at keeping you warm and snug inside, especially when active.

My experience with pants is that they won't suffer as much at all. I usually just wear one layer under them and find that they cope really well no matter how much I exercise. The ones I wear are either some Patagonia Goretex XCR ones or my newer Berghaus Goretex Pro-Shell ones. Both perform the same.

Anyway, don't know what else to add really. If you have the chance, check out a pertex jacket/smock and I honestly believe you'll never look back.

Ta me anseo

Gil_Dub wrote: »

If you have the chance, check out a pertex jacket/smock and I honestly believe you'll never look back.

I'll do that! Thanks Gil....