3-in-1 Jackets

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Just a heads up before my review - I am not a big fan of 3-in-1 jackets, they tend to be bulky and heavy. I rate that 3-in-1 jackets are better suited to social and home use than to mountain use. Nonetheless, I have taken this jacket on quite a few hikes as a basis for my review. Hope it is of use to some of you

Ghaznavid wonders if the smilies work in the quote heading, so :woohoo: is what he wrote (edit unfortunately they don't work) so he wrote: HI-TEC sent me a HI-TEC Deryl 3-in-1 Winter jacket to test.

My first observations of the jacket were as follows:
1. It is rather heavy, although this is quite normal for a winter jacket.
2. The inner fleece is fully detachable – this is a key feature on such a jacket, it adds greatly to the versatility of the jacket. The fleece can be used separately from the jacket, but the elastic loops on the wrist and neck (to connect it to the jacket) do look a tad strange when you use these separately. The fleece on its own is nice and warm.
3. The jacket includes a collar. This may sound like a strange feature, but is key when hiking in winter – the ability to cover ones neck when a hood is not required comes with a few benefits, most notably: sun protection and wind protection, a hood will often blow off, or even be an irritation, but a collar serves this purpose quite nicely.
4. The hood folds into the collar. This is becoming quite a common feature on jackets – and I have never been able to figure out why. If it is for practicality, I have never come across a situation where my hood gets in the way. If it is for fashion, the collar becomes incredibly bulky when you fold the hood away, in fact this actually looks rather funny. Nonetheless, this feature doesn’t add any significant weight and thus I am quite happy to laugh it off.
5. The jacket has ample pockets. There is a chest pocket on the left side, placed in such a spot that a backpack doesn’t prevent its use – this is a nice feature. There are 2 hand warmers, which are always useful. There are no pockets inside the main jacket, but the inside of the fleece pockets is completely sown to double as a pocket – this is useful when hiking in wet conditions if you listen to music along the way (i.e. you can put your MP3 player inside the inner and run the headphones inside to your ears.
6. The jacket specs refer to armpit ventilation. I am guessing this refers to the 2 small underarm holes in the jacket. One of the issues I have found with this jacket is that it is not very breathable.

My field testing of the jacket has concluded the following:
1. The 2 components are easily separable, so one can use the raincoat without the fleece and vice versa as required.
2. The fleece is exceptionally warm.
3. The raincoat doesn’t breathe well enough to use the jacket while exercising. It is necessary to keep the jacket open when using it for warmth or a windbreaker.
4. In rain/mist/drizzle, the raincoat is fully waterproof and did not let any water in during my field testing of the jacket. In cold wet conditions it is a very good jacket.
5. In summary, the jacket is great in cold wet conditions, but not in windy or warm conditions. But seeing as it is a winter jacket, this is not exactly a problem!

For social use or more casual outdoor activities it is great. If you are looking for winter hiking equipment and are able to spend a bit more, I would suggest a down jacket combined with a hard-shell raincoat that is one size too large for you (i.e. to fit over the down jacket if required). I personally used the Hi-Tec Solitude Pass Down jacket under a hard shell raincoat on the summit of Kilimanjaro and it worked very well.