What is the best lightweight synthetic parka to buy and why?

I really like the Arcteyx Atom Sv and Nuclei, the fit, workmanship and well thought out features are excellent.

del

Whatever fits well and is at the price you want

They all wear out if you use em constantly …

the recent coreloft thread …

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=97540

PL1, coreloft, etc ….

Just dont pay a premim price for lesser insulation like primaloft sport/silver

;)

You haven't defined 'best', so there is no answer.
More to the point though, there is no such thing as a 'best parka' anyhow, as needs vary.

Cheers

Anything by MontBell because they are well made, lightweight and affordable.

Boy, you sure have great taste in gear Stephen! ;-)

An Arc'teryx Atom SV is one of the two shortest items on my short list. I was just showing my wife why I "needed" one online today. hahaha

I actually really do sort of need one. Up until now my backpacking cold weather clothes have been a Northface Denali fleece and an Arc'teryx Bravo softshell. The Atom SV will be warmer, lighter, and compact MUCH smaller than either of them. Not to mention I also pack a bulky fleece balaclava for sleeping with my quilt, which I can now also leave at home since I'll have an insulated hood. I can't wait to order one in "crocodile" color. :)

I thought I did define best by stating it has to have a hood, a functional hood you can cinch down, not like the phony hoods with no drawcords so they blow right off your head when a strong wind is blowing. Hope that defines it better.

Scott,

You did not mention anything about a hood drawcord, if its
a must then I would recommend the SV as the Nuclei does not have a hood
drawcord.

the older arcteryx sv's are better in my opinion. they have a neck gasket in the back of the neck, and had interior fleece around the front chin and armpit area to increase comfort and help with moisture that the new ones are lacking. also the new ones are 120g coreloft in the body, 80g in the sleeves

By "best" do you mean warmest? I have an old Golite Six Month Night Parka that has much more insulation than my newer Montbell. Both are excellent for the genre; the Golite is cetainly warmer but the Montbell packs smaller and weighs less.

For current parkas I'd probably go with a Patagonia DAS parka for the warmest.

Didn't Arc'teryx replace the Atom SV with the AR this season?

I happen to like layering my Rab Strata for active wear under my Rab Xenon when static.

"Didn't Arc'teryx replace the Atom SV with the AR this season?"

I only get Arc'Teryx stuff through their LEAF (Law Enforcement Armed Forces) program, and the Atom SV Gen. 2 is the one they have on their website. I haven't looked at the AR, but I'll check it out now that you mention it.

By the way, it took me a minute but I got a laugh out of the "dead bird" title. :)

How many paid shills for Arc teryx on this website??? LoL! Today while shopping I came across the Black Diamond Prima loft parka and it was impressive. The hood had the cinching cord locks and the jacket was puffy for a Primaloft. I might go back and buy it because they had it on sale. Has anyone used their product before (jacket wise)?

My favorite is to use a military jacket liner under a breathable windbreaker. Jacket liner is about 12 ounces. Windbreakers are typically in the 4-8 ounce range.

I've noticed that the jacket liners come out of the washer/dryer with renewed loft. The inner fiberfill seems to be stiffer and more resilient than the fiberfill in most of my jackets.

Does not appear to be any US made parka's for civilians. There is a Canadian military type company called Drop Zone that makes one and on ebay there is one made in the Czech Republic. Not sure if any USA companies make one and I am wondering if it backs up the claim by Wiggy when he says they won't market a parka unless it looks like it has seams and baffles on it. The style people do not like the no stitch line parka where there are no seams and it is just smooth fabric and very few seams.

At the risk of sounding like a paid shill, the Arc'Teryx parkas don't have baffles either. If you're looking for Climashield in specific, I know Kifaru used to make a parka using Climashield Combat. I don't know if they still do or not.

I don't currently have any puffy jackets, but I sure do like the climashield in both my Wiggy's and Kifaru sleeping bags. They drape very nicely and are cozy. I haven't done a ton of research but I wonder how Arc'teryx' Coreloft compares to Climashield and Primaloft.

As a side note, it's not really fair to call someone a paid shill for giving their opinions after you asked for opinions on people's favorite gear…did you expect that everyone was going to list only the gear that they hate? lol

Doug,

Did you not read the "LoL" after I made the paid shill comment? That means I was joking! Please do not be so sensitive.

Wiggy's makes the Lamalite coats but it appears only the super warm, heavy, and expensive one has a hood. The rest don't appear to have one.

What warmth category are you looking for?

I really like my Mountain Hardware Thermostatic Hoody at 10oz. Pretty sure it's the lightest weight synthetic hoody on the market, along with the Arcteryx Nuclei. It's my go-to piece for backcountry skiing. Adds just the right amount of warmth after a skin, or when hitting cold and windy conditions in the alpine. The hood is on the larger side, and designed to use with a helmet, which is ideal, for me. When not wearing a helmet, and just a hat and my shell hood, it doesn't blow off – so it works well in that scenario, too.

The Thermal Q Elite that Mountain Hardware uses is actually almost as efficient as Primaloft One (~.9 clo?) , so it's warmer than the Nuclei which uses Coreloft (0.6 clo?). It's also more often on clearance/sale than the Nuclei. I'd guess that the Nuclei is designed with a smaller hood for purely non-technical adventures.

I've been a fan of Montbell for years, because they tend to fit me really well. I have a Thermawrap UL Parka that's a few years old and love it. The new Thermawrap Pro models introduced in 2014 are about 15oz for the large size, and they still have 80g/m2 Exceloft throughout. I believe the ArcTeryx Nuclei is 80g in the body and 60g in arms.

Not sure where I saw this, but supposedly Exceloft isn't as warm as Primaloft One either (not many materials are). Overall though I've been pleased with how well my Thermawrap performs.

Quick note on the Thermawraps. I have an older Thermawrap in an XL: it is very compressible, kinda thin (but quite warm) and runs small (fits like a Patagonia large). I bought an XL Thermawrap Pro last spring on clearance: it Is significantly bulkier, robust (very warm) and runs large (fits like a Patagonia XL). Unexpected consequence is I can now use both at the same time for brutal cold for about the same bulk as a huge puffy and the duo is much more versatile than a single large parka. Be careful around fire especially with the older version, it melts/fries very easily (all the patches make you look like a dirt bag climber).

There are many feature sets, shell fabric and fill types. I got a Cabela Primaloft jacket last month for $35 that works great for me. You could easily spend $200+ as well.

Things to consider:
Cost/budget
Fill type/brand and weight: 60g vs 100g, Primaloft, Polarguard, proprietary manufacturer's fill, etc.
Compressibility
Shell fabric, DWR, durability
Construction features: hood/hoodless, hood sizing and adjusters, pockets, zippers, cuff and hem details
Sizing idiosyncrasies: sleeve and torso length, arm hole cut, athletic or oversize torso cut, etc
Warranty and customer service, brand name

I like 100g fill because I find 60g garments aren't warm enough. If it is cold enough to need a jacket, I need a WARM jacket. At the 60g level I would rather use a light fleecy base layer like Power Dry or R1 with my windshirt. The 60g versions are like two windshirts with a bit of fill. DWR is a big thing as I would be wearing synthetic fill in cold wet environments where down is weak.

My $0.02

I have owned and used lots of synthetic and down jackets and I find that no two are alike, with plenty of details small and large to differentiate them.

That means you need to distinguish what you need in a puffy, rather than finding the best.

Do you want it to be extremely warm for the weight? Do you need to use it while active?

Do you expect durability, or are you gentle on gear?

Do you like hoods, or not, can you deal with a half zip?

Do you plan to wear it with a shell? Without? Over many layers?

These kinds of questions determine what kind of jacket you'd want. For me, the Nano Puff Hoody is a solid favorite, as it is way tougher than it looks and quite versatile. But if I bought today, the Nuclei seems even better with more warmth for the weight and the usual rock solid Arcteryx feel.

Many like garment manufacturers PrimaLoft in its many iterations.

I prefer Climashield for its resilience. Loss of loft after repeated stuffings is the bane of synthetic fills. It's one reason so many like down, the most resilient fill known.