FIELD TEST
Don’t let a cost of living crisis dampen your adventures. Choose from one of these six WATERPROOF JACKETS at the affordable end of the spectrum.
Ever felt like you need to win the lottery or re-mortgage your house to buy outdoor kit? We know the feeling. With the UK’s cost of living crisis in full flow, the price tags of high-end waterproof jackets can seem astronomically high and impossible to justify. Rab’s top-tier Khroma Latok costs £530, for example, and Mountain Equipment’s Changabang will set you back £550. Gulp. But do you really need to splash out so extravagantly for a reliable hard shell jacket? Some would argue ‘cheap and waterproof’ is an oxymoron and, of course, for the most part you do get what you pay for. A cheap jacket may shed light rain well on its first use, but can it cope with torrential downpours, and how will it fare three, six or twelve months down the line?
Yet bargains are out there if you know where to look. In this round-up we’ve selected six budget waterproof jackets under £200. That’s still a relatively hefty price tag, but we’ve tried to mitigate that age-old risk of ‘buy cheap, pay twice’. Rather than picking out cheap-as-chips jackets from unproven brands, we’ve focused instead on the budget ranges of top-performing, reliable brands like Rab and Berghaus. Each jacket selected has an impressive hydrostatic head rating of 20,000mm or higher – asolid guarantee that it can cope with a torrential downpour – and we’ve also kept an eye out for rain-resisting features such as visored hoods, zipper stormflaps, durable fabrics and sealed seams.
Due to the limitations of the testing process, more time is needed to truly vouch for the long-term capability of all of these jackets, and there’s always a slight danger that cheapo prices lead to cheapo performance in the long run. But we believe our approach here strikes the best possible compromise between price and protection. Let’s hope it saves you a few pennies and keeps you bone dry at the same time – the best of both worlds.
Helly Hansen Moss £80
This jacket is a total left field option for hillwalkers, but we’ve included it as a maverick alternative – mainly because it’s the cheapest 20,000mm-rated jacket we could find anywhere. The catch? There’s a fairly sizeable one.
While modern waterproof jackets aim to strike a perfect harmony between waterproofing and breathability, the Moss doesn’t bother trying – instead it only aims to be waterproof. Breathability is nil and, therefore, when you’re working hard it can be a complete sweatbox – aclammy, sweaty, plasticky nightmare of condensation. For many this will be a deal-breaker, but for those who walk slower (and t
