Best rain jackets of 2025!
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00:00We've come to an outdoor velodrome on a pretty rainy day to test some of the
00:05best jackets currently available and of course I've linked all of our top picks
00:08down below. Now a waterproof jacket has to be waterproof obviously but
00:14breathability is also important and if it's warm then that's a real bonus but
00:20the Holy Grail would be also good value and that would be the real win. So Joe I
00:25think it's time for you to go and do some laps and show us why these are some
00:29of the best jackets currently available. Go!
00:48So Joe we are now back in the warmth of the studio. Thank goodness. And you have
00:53tested a lot of jackets and you've landed on four as being your top picks
00:57across those select few categories. I think it's important to note though that
01:02all of the jackets that Joe was testing were PFAS chemical free now that we have
01:07essentially experienced the death of the shake dry jacket. So Joe what I want you
01:13to do is run us through them and tell us what we've got. Okay so first and I think
01:18to a lot of people most importantly we've got the Rafa Core Rain Jacket 2
01:23which wins our award for the best value rain jacket. Now with Cycling Kit being
01:27quite as expensive as it is nowadays I think Rafa have done a really really
01:30good job here at bringing fantastic performance, lightweight and some really
01:35high-level features to a rain jacket that retails for £115. That's pretty
01:40good it's not often you hear Rafa associated with best value so that is
01:43nice to see. Run us through briefly though talk us through the materials and
01:48the technology of the jacket. Okay so this is a two and a half layer
01:51waterproof fabric. Now what exactly does that mean? Well we have a nylon fabric
01:57with a DWR coating it's a hydrophobic coating with laminate layers and then a
02:01printed layer on top. Now this often sort of represents the best value products in
02:05sort of waterproof categories. Three layer constructions do tend to be a
02:10little bit better functioning often better breathability but they do come at
02:14that added cost. So this product is Rafa's way it's sort of hitting that
02:17middle part of the market which is something that's still really yeah as I
02:20say good quality impressively waterproof in our testing whilst not being too
02:24expensive. In terms of features there's a few really nice bits and pieces here
02:28so it's got a YKK Aquaguard zip which I found again to be really really
02:33water-resistant. Also as well there's a lot of kind of small niceties on the
02:39Rafa Core rain jacket too that just sort of makes sense. So first of all you've
02:43got an adjustable elastic cord around the waist which is really nice and
02:47they've even printed sort of like a slight just a rubber gripper on the
02:50inside so I found it just really like it holds your waist well doesn't ride
02:54up when you're riding. They've also added a number of sort of perforation holes
02:59under the armpits as well which is fantastic because as I said two and a
03:02half layer fabrics sometimes don't breathe quite as well as the more
03:06complicated fabrics so adding those sort of ventilation holes in the important
03:11areas is really good. As well the grippers on the arms are fantastic the
03:15cuffs are really comfortable they're quite a tight fit which I like on a rain
03:19jacket I think especially for those who race or sort of more performance focused
03:22not having the air sort of chase up the arms and blow your jacket up is really
03:27really important and also aesthetically I really like the look of the jacket as
03:30well I think it's classy as I say the fits really well for myself so I'm six
03:35foot and about sort of 68 69 kilos I hover around there so fairly lanky but
03:40but yeah I found the fit to be really good as well. So you mentioned you'd
03:44conducted some stress testing on the jackets how did this perform? So yes
03:48that's exactly right what I did for all of the rain jackets on test was I
03:51conducted a sort of makeshift water column experiment now what this
03:55consisted of was getting a glass of water and putting the rain jacket over
04:00the top of the water and turning it upside down with a couple of elastic
04:04bands around to make sure there was no leaking but what's different about this
04:07compared to like standard industry testing is I did this right on the
04:11shoulder seam of every product now truth be told a lot of the waterproof materials
04:16we have today are really pretty good pretty good at their job where products
04:22tend to fall down though is in the seams now inherently when you're making holes
04:26in fabric or stitching things together that is going to be where water is going
04:30to get in right so what brands tend to do is they tend to weld the seams to try
04:35and avoid water ingress as best as possible but depending on the quality of
04:39the manufacturing process this can change and this again is where I was
04:43really really impressed with the raffer jacket so it actually performed second
04:46best in our in our testing in a 10-minute time span I basically had as I
04:52said had this upside down on a piece of kitchen rolls I could really easily see
04:55even the faintest drop of water there was a tiny tiny tiny amount of water
05:00seepage but nothing compared to some of the other jackets on our list and that
05:05was consistent with outdoor testing as well yeah and I mean the thing to
05:08consider there is that that's a full submersion of the fabric correct whereas
05:12when you're in the rain obviously it's not going to be quite as intense so I
05:15think what we've got is a pretty lightweight jacket nice and packable
05:19fits well isn't gonna cost a load of money one of the cheapest on test in
05:24fact wow there we go and it clearly has performed really well exactly yeah as I
05:30say 126 grams 115 pounds fantastic performance hard to fault next up we
05:36have the seven mesh cash jacket now this I believe has one best for
05:41breathability tell us why that's absolutely correct so yes the seven mesh
05:45cash jacket is made of an air map fabric that's air maps PFAS free fabric it's a
05:51three-layer construction on the main body with a two-layer construction on
05:55the undersleeves and the side panels that's to sort of save a bit of cost
05:58where it's kind of less important now it's important to note this really is a
06:04very different jacket to the raffer jacket we just spoke about this is a much
06:09heavier feel 360 grams it feels a bit more premium a little bit more durable
06:14and it's very very breathable too due to the lack of chemical coating like you
06:19see on the raffle one the downsides of this however much less packable the fit
06:25is a bit more relaxed as well so I would put this more in the realm of a bike
06:29packing jacket or more of a typical sort of active wear jacket but of course as I
06:34said really breathable so if you know you're riding in sort of hot really
06:38muggy conditions that might be something that's a little bit nicer to
06:41go for yeah absolutely and this cut this jacket does kind of look like the thing
06:44that you could you wouldn't necessarily have to be on a bike to wear you know if
06:48you wanted to commute in it if you want to go bike packing as you say I feel
06:52like that's a much better fit I am surprised to see that the weight is
06:54obviously a big step up I especially compared to that raffer jacket but this
06:59kind of just feels like a more stereotypical jacket rather than being
07:02kind of like something before performance it's a much more typical
07:06jacket style item we've got pockets on the sides again similar to a normal coat
07:11or something we've also got an internal pocket on the chest which is just about
07:15will fit a phone okay it's not massive yeah it's not big enough to fold the
07:19jacket into for example but still really useful and then a couple of the things
07:24are really really like the neck actually has a sort of felt liner so it's nice
07:28comfortable yeah nice and comfortable and the waistband as well is another
07:32sort of elastic adjustable elastic band which just is I think just the way it's
07:36designed it's just really nice easy to use and again feels premium so how did
07:40it stack up in your submersion test so in submersion tests has to be said it
07:45didn't do quite so hot these air map fabrics weren't quite as waterproof in
07:48our seams testing now whether that is because the material itself is a little
07:52bit harder to work with or it just so happens that the brands that have used
07:56it haven't managed to get that quite right yet I don't know but yeah so in
08:00the seams test it kind of performed I think second or third last and in the
08:04zip test it kind of performed mid pack now I would say that outdoors I didn't
08:09really have too much water seepage even on longer rides as I said the stress
08:13testing is there really to simulate for example if your bike I say you've got a
08:18bag on for example if you're commuting and water's gonna get trapped under it
08:21might get forced through then I would expect to see some water seepage so it
08:24looks like overall then the seven mesh jacket is gonna be great for bike packers
08:28commuters people that see cycling is more of an everyday activity rather than
08:32performance road cyclists in torrential downpours next up we have the Castelli
08:36slicker pro rain jacket and Joe I think this one comes with a little bit of a
08:41caveat a caveat indeed so this one our best jacket for warmth but it has to be
08:46said truthfully it does two things well the fit is fantastic and it is really
08:53quite windproof and does keep the chill off you but that does come with some
08:56downsides so the slicker pro is made of a two-layer micro shell construction now
09:01this is a Castelli developed fabric when Gore-Tex is shake dry fabric became
09:05banned people generally went one of two ways air map or Pertex but yeah Castelli
09:12went away from the field and developed their own fabric there's also additional
09:16materials on the side panels as well which help with a little bit of flex as
09:19I say the fit is fantastic on this the only issue is though in our seams
09:24testing it didn't perform that great so we're looking sort of bottom of the pack
09:28really for this one and in the zip testing again pretty average even though
09:32it has got a YKK zipper now this suggests to me that potentially the
09:36material they've come up with isn't quite mastered yet maybe it's a little
09:39still a little bit tricky to work with and it is a little bit heavy as well 209
09:44grams for the jacket but as I said the fit is fantastic so it comes really far
09:49down down your backside when you're riding it doesn't ride up at all it's
09:53quite nice and tight but it is flexible so if you're putting it over other
09:57layers for example then it's fantastic if you've got thermal jersey under there
10:01you know your your shoulders everything's a little bit bigger than it
10:03normally would be food in the pockets whatever it's still gonna fit over there
10:07and it does keep you really warm few strange features as well it does have
10:11pockets on the back yeah I was really confused by that one I'm not too sure
10:14for an outer shell what I'd be putting in there maybe some sealed food yeah
10:18sealed food fine okay and you know and again lends itself really to nastier
10:23days colder days when you're going to be going out the door with the jacket on
10:27but I found to be honest they held a bit of water so you know you couldn't put
10:31your phone in there and I just think generally speaking a little bit
10:34unnecessary I I tend personally I tend to prefer a rain jacket to be quite
10:39simple I think it needs to you know it needs to be waterproof it needs to be
10:43lightweight and breathable and the rest can be done by your under layers if
10:47your under layers are all sufficient an interesting sort of design the other
10:51Achilles of the slicker pro is it comes at a cost of four hundred and fifty
10:55pounds Wow which is really really pricey yeah it's a lot of money now no doubt
11:00you can probably find that for a bit cheaper online so I think the way we've
11:03got to look at this slicker pro jacket is that it's great for cold days really
11:07good for layering and maybe just light rain well finally last but not least we
11:12come to our number one rated overall winner waterproof jacket and that is
11:17the map at moss rain jacket tell me why you love it so much yeah truth be told
11:22I've absolutely loved testing this thing which to be honest we've got a lot of
11:26chance to do in the UK as well it's not been the best weather this year as you
11:30may have heard many people in the UK complaining about so the map at moss
11:34jacket is made of a per text three layer shield fabric and I found this to offer
11:39excellent waterproofing and really good stretch as well so plenty of movement
11:43available it's pretty simple in its design elastic cuffs but they only go
11:47sort of halfway round so they don't sort of restrict your wrist at all and it
11:51also doesn't have an adjustable waistband however I found it to be
11:55really really secure the fit of this is fantastic I didn't have it riding up in
11:59rides also it's got a two-way YKK zipper now this is absolutely brilliant I wish
12:05more rain jackets had this what it means is you can zip the jacket open
12:10from the underside now that is really really useful if you need to get to your
12:13pockets but you don't want to totally open the rain jacket it just makes it
12:16easier to just roll the jacket up which is absolutely fantastic it's also really
12:20lightweight partly due to the fact that it doesn't really have any sort of extra
12:24features to add weight 125 grams it's also really really packable as well I
12:29think it was the second smallest on test so is there anything else you love about
12:32this jacket so there is another area which I think it really outperformed
12:36anything else on test and that was comfort but in particular comfort on
12:40bare skin now in the UK we quite often get cold rain and generally speaking for
12:44myself at least I'll often put a sort of long sleeve layer underneath a rain cape
12:48when it is wet outside but that isn't always the case I found that when this
12:52Pertex material was on like a bare arm for example it remained really
12:56comfortable it didn't feel muggy didn't feel constricted and I think that
12:59there's definitely something to be said for that particular for those in
13:02warmer climates okay so it sounds like you've got a lot of praise for this
13:06jacket so far I'm only really hearing that lack of adjustability on the waist
13:09is a bit of a downside talk to me about value though value yes a valley bit of a
13:15contentious issue on the Atmos jacket it's quite expensive there's no getting
13:20away from that but I still think it genuinely provides really good value in
13:24fact I think the only reason it didn't win our value award is because for most
13:29people the Rafa jacket does enough it's waterproof it fits well at that sort of
13:34lower cost but where the map really wins out is that combination of breathability
13:39fantastic fit comfort and incredible waterproofing so there we have it those
13:45are our top picks for the best waterproof jackets that you can go and
13:49buy today as I mentioned at the start of the video if you want to find anything
13:53that we've spoken about today then you can find them all linked down below