LL Bean – Ultralight 850 Down Jacket Review
We all know that there isn’t one jacket or coat that we can wear for all conditions. It’s better to layer with multiple coats and jackets to achieve an adjustable climate for your body. We got to take a look at the L.L. Bean Ultralight 850 Down Jacket as an intermediate layer for on the […]
We all know that there isn’t one jacket or coat that we can wear for all conditions. It’s better to layer with multiple coats and jackets to achieve an adjustable climate for your body. We got to take a look at the L.L. Bean Ultralight 850 Down Jacket as an intermediate layer for on the mountain.
As with most mens’s down jackets, the L.L. Bean Ultralight is filled with standard down fill, DWR (Durable Water Repellent), ripstop fabric, isolated baffles, hand pockets, chest pocket, headphone port and inner pockets. The jacket also includes a self contained stowaway pocket to stuff the jacket into, that also doubles as a very nice down pillow. When it comes to summits and light weight games, the L.L. Bean ultralight is a strong choice for it’s versitily and value. Not to mention it’s laced with features like DownTek and Pertex that jackets usually costing over $300 USD.
The Jacket is available in both a hooded and un-hooded version and multiple colors and sizes. It’s also available in a regular and tall version.
DownTek™ 850 Fill
DownTek™ is an amazing down treated with a waterproof coating. It absorbs 33% less water and moisture that untreated down and dries 66% faster than regular down.
Pertex Shell
Pertex Quantum is light and strong offering a significant weight reduction without sacrificing strength and abrasion resistance. The fabric’s softness allows insulation in your sleeping bag or jacket to have more loft. Pertex uses the finest yarns available with an optimal thread count to increase density in the weave with remaining extremely light.
Pros
While the jacket is filled with 850 down (smaller amount of down to achieve the same warmth, based on the amount of air the down can trap) it still fills very light weight. This could be a pro or a con, for durability the jacket feels very prone to wear. However with the claims made by Pertext Quantum material, only time will tell how the jacket holds up.
Cons
It’s been mentioned for other brands, and over the years products seem to fade. The Ultralight compared to previous versions of L.L. Bean seems to have a bit less fill in the jacket. The jacket feels lighter, but the warmth feels the same with the 850 fill.
Also, we noticed some of the stitching near the arm was coming undone. Additional care to quality would be nice.
Fit
I am 5’10” about 170 lb and tested a size large. It fit me perfect. The sleeve length reached just past the wrist and was held up by the wrist elastic. We tried on the regular fit, and it was long enough to cover the back side without hanging out of a shell.
Great looking jacket, love the grey on lime color way.
You can see the loft of the 850 Down from the rear is very well even for as light weight as this jacket is.
Large stash pocket for beanies or gloves.
The bottom hem has a cinch cord to keep the wind out and heat in.
The Ultra light jacket can be stuffed into it’s own pocket for easy packing.
Conclusion
We would recommend the LL Bean 850 Ultralight down jacket for an intermediate layer. The jacket really shines when worn over a first base layer and with a strong shell over the top. We believe there are meny optional and optimal jackets that should be in every splitboarders closet. A warm, versatile and light weight jacket is one of them. With the small packabible size of the L.L. Bean Ultralight 850 Down, you just can’t go wrong. It compresses to take up a minimal amount of room. With it’s self contained compression pocket the jacket folds into itself with a nice pillow and lanyard to attach to a pack if necessary. After the accent, just pull the Ultralight down jacket on under your shell and it’s amazing how your body heat quickly warms the jacket and yourself when transiting to descend mode.
Travis
