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PHD “Wafer” super-ultralight down gear


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Home Forums Gear Forums Gear (General) PHD “Wafer” super-ultralight down gear

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  • #1302362
    J C
    BPL Member

    @joomy

    Just got the PHD newsletter in my email and it seems they have adopted a new 10d fabric along with 900 (EU) FP down to make some pretty ridiculously light clothing. A full body suit including a hood and booties would weigh under 500g in fact.

    Some more info here http://www.phdesigns.co.uk/waferdowngear.php and here http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/gear-news/phd-launching-new-ultra-light-down/10874.html

    Strange though, they haven't posted temperature ratings for this stuff, like they do with all their other clothing and bags. My question would be how useful this gear actually is. Sure it's lighter than a fleece but it can't replace your 150g+ fill jacket. I suppose if you were hiking in mild climates (like 10C+) you could take these as your primary warm at half the weight of even PHD's own ultra pullover, but without temperature specs it's hard to know what they compare to.

    #1981856
    Velimir Kemec
    BPL Member

    @velimirkemec

    Hi,
    yeah got the same newsletter as well but still not disclosure from PHD on the amount of down
    used in all of the above new down garments!
    Still keeping it as a secret:).

    Cheers

    #1981865
    Stephen M
    BPL Member

    @stephen-m

    Locale: Way up North

    Phd only advertise how much down they put in there sleeping bags.

    #1981884
    J C
    BPL Member

    @joomy

    But they usually have a temp rating for their clothing which is absent from this Wafer stuff.

    #1981886
    james
    BPL Member

    @jamesbhikes

    Locale: London UK, Greenville USA

    lol. It's always great to see people walking around camp in a fully matching down suit and booties. People laugh, until they have to climb out of their warm sleeping bag and scurry around in the cold to answer the call of nature. Forget silver jumpsuits. Mark my words; in the future people will almost certainly be running around wearing silver cuben fibre down filled bodysuits.

    Anyways, that is a really light jacket for sure especially considering it has two zippered hand warmer pockets and with a hood would be only 7.4oz. Really awesome that it is made in the UK too. Personally though, I tend to avoid jackets with a fill rating higher than 800. I have found that down of 800+ rating does not seem as resilient to moisture, humidity and repeated compression (depends on your local climate though). I assume that is european as opposed to american fill power rating? I'm also a bit surprised they don't mention anything about a dwr coating or fill weight.

    #1981969
    Stephen M
    BPL Member

    @stephen-m

    Locale: Way up North

    strange there is no rating.on them.

    #1983076
    Anthony Britner
    Member

    @ant89

    Locale: North Wales, UK

    It would be good to see some temp ratings. But based on the discription of being "spring/autumn" gear I'd guess that the rating is no lower than zero Centigrade, but until they tell us who knows for sure.

    They would go well with a minim ultra/minimus by the sound of it though.

    #1983102
    Greg F
    BPL Member

    @gregf

    Locale: Canadian Rockies

    Looks very comparable to the Montbell ExLite which I find good down to zero C

    #1983645
    J C
    BPL Member

    @joomy

    Hey Greg,

    That looks like a pretty comparable jacket (lighter, even). I thought PHD was pushing boundaries but it looks like Montbell beat them to it.

    Actually that also gives a good idea of the fill weight, 1.8oz/50g in size M for the Montbell, I'm guessing slightly more in the PHD, maybe 70-80g, based on the Crux Pico, which I also forgot existed: http://www.crux.uk.com/en/down-clothing.php?range=16&product=34

    #1984454
    Peter Fokkinga
    Spectator

    @nitto

    Locale: the Netherlands

    I was interested in this jacket, so I asked them if they could give a temperature rating

    "Thank-you for contacting PHD, it is hard to give a typical operating temperature for the wafer range as the jacket in particular has been designed to replace a pullover or fleece layer. It is not as warm as the Ultra pullover as it contains less down but will be a fantastic addition to a layering system."

    Not very helpful IMO. Maybe it would be warm enough for me, maybe it won't. I'm not going to pay $300+ just to find out.

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