Any experience with Alpha Direct with Wool

[Megan W]

Hello all,

I’ve been yearning to make something (pants/top) with alpha direct for ages but have resisted because I didn’t NEED, only ‘wanted’, and I worry about my contribution (however small) to microplastic polution.

But….now I nearly ‘need’ – my disliked, poorly fitting merino night-time baselayer pants have got holes, AND I discovered that RSBTR have alpha direct with 30% wool.

Has anyone used it? Thoughts? I know it is heavier etc, Does it take ages to dry? What is the warmth like (under a windproof layer)?

PS I’m not after a discussion about microplastics 🙂

Thanks in advance for helping me decide.

[Terran Terran]

I don’t. I do have the Brynje fishnet in wool. I find between the netting and the wool, it can be a little itchy on my shoulders. A little slow to dry, I treated it with DWR. That helped, but it’s still another pollutant. In my experiences, polyester wears better and lasts longer than wool. Wool gets thrown away quicker. Wool may be slightly warmer, less plastic, traditionally it’s preferred, but otherwise I don’t see the benefits in the blend.

[Stephen Seeber]

One of the benefits of alpha is its hydrophobic fibers. Why would you had fibers that absorb moisture and increase drying time?

[Dustin V]

I happened upon a Marmot Orsa pullover (damaged item in REI garage) which is Polartec Wool, is half stretchy polyester mesh similar to Alpha/half wool. It is a thick fleece but compresses well.

I haven’t worn it in rain yet, but sweat dries very quickly due to all the ventilation. It is heavy for a fleece, but very warm. That plus a shell is replacing my puffy above about 20F. So far, no odor even after sleeping in it a couple of nights.

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

Unlike Terran, I have not found my Brynje wool net to be uncomfortable at all. Moisture retention also wasn’t a big problem due to the net structure. (But I still prefer the Polypro version)  But, of course PT Alpha Direct  has a lot more material than fishnet, so it might hold a bit more moisture.

[Scott S]

I have no personal experience but it hasn’t caught on with all the places making AD garments (I’ve only seen one hat in the wool version) so I expect they concluded AD alone is superior.  RSBTR doesn’t have any AD in stock now but there’s some on eBay for not too atrocious prices if you decide to go that route.

[Megan W]

Thank you for helping me out

I expected that the ‘with wool ‘ version wouldn’t perform as well in weight for warmth or drying time, but wasn’t sure how different it would be.

I’m leaning towards the usual alpha direct and looking after it really well. – I’ll see ….

Cheers

[Nicholas P]

I have an alpha wool hat from Far Point. I would recommend regular alpha direct for pants or tops for the weight savings and maybe a bit more air permeability but I think for a hat the alpha wool makes some sense and being that it’s such a small piece of fabric the weight difference is negligible. It has the alpha tufts on the outside that protrudes from a fine knit of wool on the inside, I believe the wool backing provides a very slight bit more wind resistance than regular alpha direct which I think is welcome in a hat and I think it also allows for some sweat absorption and wicking to take place via the wool but it’s such a thin bit of wool that I’ve never really noticed it to hold moisture either.That being said I’ve never really exposed it to rain and if I’m hot enough to sweat I would just take it off so I’ve not really ever subjected it to much moisture .

I guess if you or anybody else is interested I could test it out and run it under water to see how much water it holds and how long it takes to dry but I suspect it would perform somewhere between alpha direct and octa in that regard  actually in some ways it probably is more similar to octa, in that it has one fuzzy side and one not fuzzy.

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve been thinking about alpha direct so have been reading about it

I read that some samples aren’t as good.  Its in short supply. I’ve seen it on ebay but I wonder if that’s the pieces with lower quality.  Maybe better to buy from a known vendor like rsbtr or discovery fabrics.

Someone said Octa is similar and more available

[Nicholas P]

So I did a quick and not very scientific test with the Alpha wool hat, I weighed it dry and it came to 20.3 grams I then completely soaked it and squeezed as much excess water out of it as I could with my hands without twisting it because I didn’t want to damage the hat. I then weighed it again and it came to 50.3 grams so about 2.5 times heavier now. I haven’t performed the same test on alpha direct but I have washed alpha hoodies and upon removing them from the machine it is mostly dry feeling and does not seem like it has nearly as much of a weight percentage increase after a soaking. Like Stephen Seeber said the stuff is pretty Hydrophobic and he has good data to back that up. Anyway about 15 minutes hanging in a 48 degree room it weighed 47.5 grams  and after 30 minutes it had lost another 4.2 grams I then got impatient and put it on and wore it in my 68 degree living room for another 15 minutes then it weighed in at 34.8 grams. 10 minutes after that it weighed 30.7 grams.

Not a great test but it might give a little insight into moisture performance and while it’s not terrible it could be better I’ll  say again definitely go with Alpha direct vs the wool variant.
I do think it’s  a decent enough for a hat for my use case . It’s also maybe a little more durable than alpha 60 or 90.

[Megan W]

Thanks Nicholas! That’s really useful.

[Terran Terran]

The nuances that I’ve had with my wool fishnet are relatively minor. It doesn’t get saturated and rarely itches. Just more so than polypropylene. I think overall, wool can be softer. The advantage I’ve found is wool’s tendency to shrink. Garments in this industry are often made with an athletic fit. For the rest of us, the fit can be a bit awkward. It also varies by gender. Washing wool, then wearing it while it dries, often results in a much better fit. With poly, it will stretch, otherwise it is what it is.

[Alf B]

Hi, not sure if you guys are aware of it but Alpha Direct fabric is called something completely different in the UK…Here its called “Core Next”, usually just shortened to “Core”.

I appears that there is only one UK based outdoor gear company that uses it here.  They are called OMM, which stands for Original Mountain Marathon.

I absolutely love my OMM Core gear as it’s ultralight, super warm yet very breathable so I don’t sweat in it…I have the OMM Core Hoody, The OMM Core Beany and I recently picked up a pair of OMM Core sleep/tent socks and the OMM Core liner (A really warm but breathable sleeping bag liner that weighs 175g).  I hope they bring out a pair of Core gloves next.

[Mole J]

@ Nicholas P thank you for that test. It certainly proves that for moist weather use, it’s probably not a good idea to be having The wool version. Which for me in UK means never!

@Alf B
This is not correct
Core is a range of similar fabrics made by primaloft, but not the same at all as Alpha which is made by polartec. Different fabrics by different companies.

Alpha in the UK has always been known as Polartech Alpha and has been used by a companies like RAB for well over 10 years. And Alpha Direct has been used for at least 7 years here though I don’t think they have any current models using it.
Berghaus do have a jacket Alpha at the moment

I know you are a member of trek-lite.com. there is a regular member there who has extensively used garments made of both types of fabric. And they have found them to be notably different in characteristics with real world use. Mostly to do with moisture handling capabilities. I have no experience with core myself but I do with Alpha and I really rate it.

I suspect omm have gone for Primaloft Core over polartec Alpha Direct partly because it is more readily available to them. Supplies of alpha seem erratic to say the least.

Thread ‘Polartec Alpha KoolAid Thread’ https://www.trek-lite.com/index.php?threads/polartec-alpha-koolaid-thread.5912/

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