Outdoor Research Echo t-shirt

Yep. Got the long sleeve 1/4 zip 2 weeks ago and it clocks in at 4 oz for a large.

Had it out in 80 degree weather hiking on the AT last weekend and it felt great!

how was the fit? true? a little large? small?

Fit is tricky. For many brands, my correct size is between a men's small and a men's medium. By that, I mean that a small is sometimes too snug and a medium is sometimes too baggy. In the OR sizing, it seemed that a small would be perfect, and that's what I purchased, and it seems perfect… just a hair looser than snug. However, you have to wash it cold. If I foul up and wash it wrong, it might shrink. Then I'd be in trouble.

–B.G.–

Wait…synthetic shirts shrink? I thought that was an attribute of cotton and wool.

I don't think that anybody claimed that all synthetic shirts shrink. Some can shrink if you wash them incorrectly.

–B.G.–

Leaving the categoricals aside, it's news to me that *any* synthetic shirt can shrink by washing it in hot water in a washing machine. So looking around, I found an eHow article that states "To shrink polyester fabric without damaging it, heat the fabric to 80 degrees Celsius or higher without going over 230 degrees Celsius."

Wow. News to me, if true (a caveat I have to add to any information I learn on the internet).

But 80C is 176F, and I think most home water heaters are set around 110-120F aren't they? Still, looks like I better stop boiling my synthetic hiking shirts on the stove…

110-120F? No way. Thats not hot.

We turned ours down to 125 F when the first baby was born, then forgot about it for years, until got tired of being able to take 1 shower before running out of hot water. I think 140-150 is probably normal.

Now ours is set at 180 F, and we can get about 3 successive showers before running out of hot water. The washing machine and dishwasher work better too. But you have to be more careful because you can really scald yourself.

Most energy auditors will measure the temp of your water and let you know two things:

1) if the water measures under 120: you could get legionnaire's from it.
2) if too far above 120: you are wasting money.

Keeping your water at 180 may help with the shower situation, but at a cost. That really hot, imho.

There are some inexpensive high efficient shower heads nowadays (1.5/2gpm). Those should help out on the running out of shower water issue. That and insulating the pipes on the way to the bathroom.

FYI,
I recently bought this shirt. I'm usually between small/medium and this fits perfect.
It's light, cool, but man… The white one is VERY transparent. Much more so than the Arcteryx phase SL I usually wear.
You can see my nips and even belly button clear as day.
Not to get too graphic, but instead of a hairy chest I only have 3-4 hairs coming out of each nip…and even those are visible through this shirt.

Unless you are very secure…I'd recommend a darker color.

Wanted to jump in here and & say that I also bought this shirt recently. XL comes in at 3.5oz. It's nice and long which is rare in most XL shirts. Breathes VERY well.

P.S. – Mine is bright blue. Thankfully, no nip viewing is possible with this color.

Ryan

Another light t-shirt is some UA heatgear i have.Havent put them on scale yet,will do,but they are pretty light and not transparent.

Here is the UA heatgear flyweight shirt:

At about 3.55-3.6 oz,polyester.

How is the UA heat gear with smelliness?
Also how is the fit? The UA stuff I tried in the past was compression fit…which is great if you have muscles. Not so good for me…

Hi folks, my membership recently ran out, and when i tried to renew, it wouldn't let me sign up as just a forum member and so i had to create another account (at least i couldn't see or figure out how to do so).

Anyways, i recently came back from a very hot and humid climate with intense sun/UV, and the OR Echo long sleeve shirt (in white and nipple proud) was one of my primary shirts that i used.

I was really impressed. Especially for such a humid climate, it was cooling in nature, and provided more than enough UV protection for my crisp easy celtic complexion. I also wore it at the beach in the water as my UV protection.

It did pretty well in the stink department, but i only wore it about 3 days out of a 6 day trip. However, i was certainly sweating constantly in it.

Normally i would wear all linen in such conditions, but wanted to try out this shirt. Because of the very high humidity, i would say this shirt did even better than my linen shirts in keeping me cool because of the combo of thinness, breathability, quicker evaporation, and uber white color. How much better is hard to say. If polyester was a more conductive material, it would simply rock. The uber thinness did help to compensate for that though.

If someone ever develops a dyneema or spectra based type shirt that wicks well, has a breathable weave, and doesn't stink, it will give thin polyester, nylon and linen a run for the money for hot, very humid weather application because it's so conductive in nature (yet would dry really fast when thin because it's so hydrophobic).

Anyways, would give the OR Echo long sleeve shirt a 9 out of 10, until the polygiene wears out… (in a few years or so?)

Would like to hear any others who can vouch for the SPF ability of this shirt. ORs website says SPF 15, which isn't very high. I wonder in a shirt like this is it OK to count on it to protect covered skin when you are out all day for days on end and just use sunblock on exposed skin? Say on a five-day backpack, can it do that?

You mean: "UPF-15"

This means the garment absorbs about 93% of UV radiation.

Even a favorite tee shirt might have a UPF of 15, if it were actually rated.

I know for myself, I've never experienced sunburns through a "shirt" (at least what id define as a shirt) before – I might have added a freckle or two.

But for those in the sunnier parts of the world, have any of you gotten major sun burns wearing a typical ling sleeved shirt before?

Here's some good info:
http://m.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/sun-protection.html

I use shirts that are in the five-ounce category. But they also have a much higher UPF rating. I just wonder of these lighter, and thus, lower-rated UPF shirts will work for a long trip where that's all that I'm wearing all day. Trips are either in Sierra's or in Southern California.

I have the echo long sleeve and have not been burned through it, though I haven't had it through a summer yet.

I read a lot of reviews before buying it and people said they had no problems with it even if they normally burned very easily.

For the record I grew up in Florida and I have never been burned through any shirt, and I do not have dark skin at all.

There are also some great deals on this shirt right now (on Amazon for one). I have picked up 3 of the short sleeves all for under $18 a piece because I love my long sleeve so much.

But I went to Amazon and found the Echo model to be $38 (some colors are much less and I did not notice this when I was there the first time). Did you Google to find the best deal? Didn't see the Duo at under $18 either. That shirt (my mistake, was thinking of the Torque) is a bit heavier and so of less interest to me since my shirts are in the weight range of the Duo. Thanks for the post.

edited for a bit of clarity. See () above. This is based on a reply several posts later.

You have to play around with the different colors to find a cheap price on amazon. For me the echo tee in supernova (orange) and echo duo tee in leaf/green were both under $18 in Large.

Also, the duo is just the echo tee with different color panels sewn in at the sides. It is all the same fabric and hence the same weight as the echo. Check OR's website if you don't believe me :P

I bought 2 of the long-sleeve Echo Sentinel shirts yesterday for about $35. Just play around with the size and colors.

First, thanks for the reply. I do appreciate the info.

And secondly, I was wrong. I was mistaking the Echo for the Torque, which is 4.6 oz and more expensive.