Marmot PreCip Review

Likes
We like a lot of things about the jacket. The Marmot Precip is just an all-around solid little budget jacket. At around $100 it is one of the cheapest jackets that we tested, and let’s face it, saving money is awesome.

We found that the Precip was also a good performer in our tests in spite of the low price tag. It is completely waterproof and pretty darn breathable. We had no issues with leaking water in any areas of the jacket. The seams are all taped well and the zippers are covered well with storm flaps. In addition to pit zips, there are two large pockets on the front of the jacket that have an interior mesh lining and when left open greatly increase the breathability. All the zippers on the jacket are super smooth and the pit zips were easily opened and closed with one hand. The bottom of the jacket cinches up nice and easy with a single elastic pull and the waistline of the jacket doesn’t ride up when you raise your arms. The structure of the hood is bomber and the elastic cord around the rim of the hood cinches easily. The back cinch is well…not ideal…more on that later.

The pockets on the jacket are large and have more than enough room for your belongings and the jacket packs down nice and small into one of the pockets. There’s also a little loop making it easy to attach to your harness or the outside of your pack. The sleeve cuffs are adjustable and easily closed with a Velcro strap.

Dislikes
Our biggest qualm with the design of the Precip is that it is less durable than other jackets we tested. The material just feels flimsier and we saw signs of wear earlier than in other tested products.

We also felt that the adjustability of the hood left something to be desired. While the cinches for the elastic cord around the rim of the hood were easy to use, the rear cinch (the that pulls the brim of the hood back and away from your eyes) was a simple Velcro strap that continually came undone.

At 16.98 ounces, the Precip was the second heaviest rain shell that we tested, outweighed only by its heavyweight counterpart the Marmot Oracle (17.9 ounces). If you need something light, check out the Patagonia Rain Shadow or Mountain Hardwear’s Epic Jacket.

Lastly, and a minor dislike, is that we didn’t find the Precip to be the most attractive of the jackets that we tested. It has a somewhat boxy cut and some dorky looking elastic on the cuffs. Performance and price-wise, it’s awesome, but if looks are your primary concern, the Precip might not turn any heads.

A Note on Breathability:
None of the rain jackets we tested proved to be very breathable. Almost all of the jackets boast a “waterproof breathable technology” of some kind, but please interpret these claims loosely. We found that when we wore the jackets for any kind of high exertion activity (and we pointedly took at least one hard one-hour run in each jacket in the rain, in addition to climbing in them, hiking in them, walking in them and biking in them) we found that we were promptly creating our own weather inside the jacket. The only thing that saved us from our self-made monsoon was the fact that each jacket we tested had pit zips to let out some moisture.

Marmot’s PreCip Rain Jacket has large mesh-lined pockets that can be left open in addition to the pit zips to help with breathability. While the jacket wasn’t very breathable with the vents all closed, once we opened the pit zips and the pockets there was considerable breathability with little loss on weather protection. All in all, a good design.

Best Application
Any activity in wet or rainy conditions; around town use. Can also cross over as a shell for skiing or other winter activities, but layer up. As with all rain jackets, breathability is poor so layer with a synthetic base layer in high intensity adventures or suffer the clammy consequences.

Value
At Around $100 this is a high performing jacket at a great price. All the performance none of the extra frills to add cost = awesome.

Other Versions
Marmot Oracle is the highly featured version ($65 more).