My Marmot Essence leaked after 1 hour of a downpour

If you’re looking at 2.5 layer jackets with good ventilation, another jacket you might want to consider that’s reasonably priced is the BD Stormline Stretch Good length coverage with pit zips at 282g/9.9 oz. About $110 on sale. The pockets are on the low side so may fall under your hip belt if you find yourself often using hand pockets on rain shells.

Patagonia has a 6-7 oz 3L shell without pit zips called the Storm Racer that was made for trail running. I just handled one and it’s really thin. Not sure if you want to trust it for the first time on a very wet multi-day trip. If you try it I’d size up one size from your typical for a bit better length coverage and layering room.

I’ve had a Marmot Precip fail pretty early on years ago and it may be that they are hit or miss due to uneven production quality. I used the Montbell Peak Shell for years and it never wet out. With pit zips came in around 12 oz in a large. There are similar models in the Montbell line that took its place. I’d say it was reasonably breathable – more breathable than the Patagonia shell I wore before that, but the Peak’s pit zips and front zipper always provided far more breathability than the membrane.

Thank you all for the answers. I read through all of them.

Yes, I understand about ventilation-vs-breathability. The Essence jacket wetted at shoulders and I felt uncomfortable cold. I was not sweating at all. I wore underneath Ice Breaker Merino 200 long sleeve base layer, microfleece hoodie (Mountain Hardwear something). Temps were around 2-3 degrees Celsius and there was some wind, not that strong.

Essence jacket does have pit holes (not zips) to facilitate ventilation.

What I think – if the weakest parts of a waterproof jacket are shoulders and head, what if we make it waterproof – non-breathable, for example by applying many strips of sealing tape from inside? Maybe there is such a jacket already? I think a more heavy duty fabric on shoulders will also help with abrasion from the shoulder straps of the pack.

There is a Rab Flashpoint 2 Jacket on massdrop right now ($160 instead of declared $300). Is it any better?

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/rab-flashpoint-jacket?utm_source=linkshare&referer=WN4RCK

My wife and I have had decent luck with our Marmot Rain shells. We both recently go their new one (Ecclipse) with a new DWR that they claim does not wet out. We have not tested it yet in really bad weather.

But the precip stuff does have a limited life, it begins to de-laminate.My wife’s standard precip jacket lasted about 10 year, maybe 11. For a hundred bucks (at the time)-happy with it.