LightHeart Gear Rain Jacket Review | Quality Where It Counts | Light Heart | First Look 

I’m so glad you showed the packed jacket. I absolutely love Light Heart Gear. I have a tent, pack cover and rain kilt. I going to get the duo tent for when my hubby and I go out. And we’re both getting the rain jackets. Very good review. Thank you.

I've been debating about this jacket for YEARS now, and I don't really know what's stopping me outside of just horrible experiences with my other rain jackets, 6 in total. Outside of my OR jacket, which heats up and makes you sweat like you wouldn't believe cause it doesn't have pit zips (granted, it does the job), all the jackets I've tried are... Oh boy, one major issue to another. And I wear glasses and brims are another peeve. It's the one item that pisses me off the most out of all my gear, just aggravates the shit out of me how most people are happily dissatisfied with them so the market doesn't do any necessary corrections. Every time I see this jacket though, it's just intuition, you know it will work. Should just bite the bullet. Great review. Cheers!

I bought one in blaze orange, XXL, even though I wear XL in most everything else, both for layering in cold weather and air flow in warmer weather. I wore it once last year on the AT in an all-day, soaking rain, and, between me sweating, the fabric being non-breathable, and the zippers being mostly closed because of the tropical downpour (though it was in the 50s), I got thoroughly soaked inside, which is to be expected in those conditions. If I had been able to unzip the pit zips, or if the front zipper had a double slider and I could have unzipped it from the bottom, it might have made a difference, but I couldn't, because the rain was so intense! I had sealed the seams from the outside, so the jacket didn't leak except at the pit zips. The fabric doesn't. Once you stop moving in 50 degree weather with 100% humidity, with just a polyester t-shirt underneath, you get cold quickly. The performance was what I expected, having owned many rain jackets in my 40+ years of hiking. Working outdoors and having spent hundreds of dollars on Gore-Tex and eVent garments, I learned that they didn't perform any better and were heavier and required much more maintenance to maintain their almost non-existent "breathability" - if the surface DWR isn't maintained, the fabric will "wet out", iow, the rain will form a solid sheet rather than bead up and roll off, effectively plugging the breathable pores and making it non-breathable, just like silnylon. The good-The Lightheart Gear jacket is light, packable, 100% waterproof, once seam-sealed, except for the pit zips, although 100% non- breathable (with excellent ventilation from the huge pit zips, however) and pretty durable, with no maintenance necessary. The bad - the tooth zippers snag the fabric with great regularity, the arms are about 2" too short for the XXL, the front zipper lacks the ability to unzip from the bottom, limiting the breathability, and lastly, the fabric, being so supple, is very clingy once wet inside. Compared with a Frog-Toggs product, with the slightly fuzzy interior surface and stiffer fabric, the clingy nature of the Lightheart rain jacket, again, only when wet from sweat (the fabric doesn't leak, but the pit zips do, eventually allowing your arms and lower torso to get wet). This makes it annoyingly uncomfortable against bare skin. Oh, and the outer pockets don't have zippers or rain flaps, which is strange and inconvenient. Whatever you put into them might not stay there, and will definitely get wet. It's a well made product that needs a little tweaking. Years ago I bought one of Judy's solo tents (a prototype at reduced cost) and made some ventilation modifications regarding perimiter pull-outs which I suggested to her and she implemented, in a much more professional way, and the tents are great designs, and, now, in silpoly instead of silnylon, shouldn't sag or absorb moisture when wet. Polyester should also be used for all rain gear, since nylon, by nature, absorbs water, while polyester, by nature, does not (as much, at least).

That front zip is a YKK Vislon zipper. Just saying.

Hia thanks for the really clear and detailed review. Im looking to buy this jacket and I was wondering if you've had any trouble in heavy rain when carrying a weighty pack. I saw a video where a guy says the pressure of the shoulder straps forces water though the low hydrostatic head of the material. I do find it confusing that the jacket is described as being completely waterproof but has a hydrostatic head of around 3000, very low compared to most rain jackets. I always thought the HH defined how waterproof a material is, the pressure of water it can withstand. Cheers.

Very nice review. Unless it's a down pour I rather hike in the rain (summer), don't like the condensation but as a layer over my puffy is a good idea, thanks again for and informative review.

Thanks for the great indept review! I'm sold!! I was, I say (was) looking for a new ultralight rain jacket for my up coming 2022 A.T. thru hike and I found it! Thank you again for the video/review!

Great video - nice info 😊

I bought this and was really disappointed because it leaks along the pit-zips. You definitely would not want to wear a down puffy under this during a heavy rain. I tested this in the local woods a couple of times during a heavy, cold rain, and both times it failed. I have taken it on a few backpacking trips in the summer and it worked okay during light rain, but do not take this when hypothermia is a possibility. If you want a truly waterproof jacket for a third of the price, check out the Frog Toggs Extreme Lite (not the cheap version), which is actually waterproof.

Great review! Ive been looking for a UL rain jacket to replace my Outdoor Research Foray; this looks like an absolute winner

Nice review. Thanks for sharing!

Would the zippers need to be sealed?

Yeah boyyyyyyy

great review and totally agree that unlike most kit a rain coat should do one job and do it well.. the only other thing i allow this luxury to is a windshell. lightheart have really done a great job here and i really like their tents too! cheers for the introduction

Thanks for the thorough review. I looked on their website and have a few questions . They have like three different fabrics to choose from. Do you know the advantages and disadvantages of each? Also the pits zips aren't waterproof. How would you keep water out during a soaking rain? Before I saw this video I was looking at the anti-gravity gear rain jacket. What I like about it, the zippers are waterproof. Also there's just one fabric, so no decisions to make their. A drawback is no hand or inside pockets, not mentioned anyway. I do like how the lightheart gear is made in USA.

How does the size/fit run? what size did you buy and how tall/weight are you?