I'm on the fence about an item. It's made of 100% Ventile. And I need advice:

I know next to nothing about Ventile's durability, waterproofness, and drying ability.

Has anyone spent time in anything Ventile? Is it worth the price? Or glorified Cotton?

Thanks,

Brian

Ventile is a very lightwieght,tightly woven ( windproof) cotton cloth from Britain. The fibers swell to extreme water repellency when wet. There are several different wieghts for different applications. There is another way to view ventile cloth. Look at the performance from inside. Body perspiration will vent around and through cotton and wool fibers.This is what Goretex is supposed to do, and does not. Just remember this is a shell material and must be part of a proper layered outfit.

Reading through some Google forums, it doesn't seem to be getting outstanding praise.

The problem with Gore-Tex is humidty outside the jacket, and condensation inside. Too often people fit their Gore-Tex clothing too tightly or fashionably instead of a loose fit allowing more room for moisture to escape at the bottom and into the air inside the parka. A tight fit rubs on under layers and makes them wet from condesation inside the Gore-Tex. Always fit Gore-Tex coats on the larger side. Gore-Tex footwear?? A waste of money!

i seem to recall that ventile was desigend for downed airmen, especially in the north sea. supposedly the cloth is 'so' tightly woven that once it's adsorbed a little water the fibers swell to the extent where its waterproof. a mate had one and he swore by it.

IMHO ventile clothing is always much better than gore-tex, triple point etc. ventile feels better, looks better, sounds better, and most importantly of all it works better. other people's comments about how ventile works are right, one thing i'd add though is that ventile has much better extreme cold weather performance. anywhere in the far north where the temperatures really start to drop synthetic fabrics can start to fail, as the fabric freezes it becomes brittle and can crack, that's never going to happen with a pure cotton fabric, i learnt that one from bitter experiance. ventile will also work just as well as, if not beter than, synthetics at the opposite end of the temperature scale. so for versatility i'd say ventile wins hands down. i'm pretty sure that the only reason that ventile fell out of favour is that when gore-tex was released it was hailed as being the solution to all our problems, people thought it was going to be the ultimate shell material, we now know better, gore-tex has it's limitations but it's still the most fasionable choice. this is a goodthing though i think, it means that ventile is affordable for the ones amongst us who want to buy it.
just my thoughts.

take it easy,
stuart.

Ventile was indeed designed to save downed airmen in the Channel and North Sea. It was swept aside by Goretex with all its 'Spacesuit' hype, but its still used by the British Antarctic Survey for their clothes.

I got a great Ventile smock from Snowsled in the UK. They make ventile clothing for HRH Prince of Wales, British Special Forces and the British Antarctic Survey.

The quality of the smock is exceptional...

Recently I bought a single layer ventile jacket from Snowsled. It was about £195 but the quality is excellent and the customer service was good.

I find that ventile fabric changes when wet. It is pretty amazing. It is incredibly windproof and provides a feeling of security in cold, wet storms above 3000 ft in Scotland. I need to test it in a really heavy shower first but think it will be excellent. No condensation at all so far.

A word of warning about another company that has a web site selling ventile garments. I ordered an item in March and they cashed my cheque but I have still received no garment and no refund despite several enquiries. I would not buy from this company.
Snowsled are expensive but seem to come up with the goods.

A good friend, known as edgewise on various forums, has created a transformable shelter and bag cover made from home sewn ventile. The shelter has been tested in MI winter conditions to NC spring/summer conditions and has not failed to provide ample shelter from the varying environments and/or conditions ...



Edge swears by the stuff and I must say, it certainly looks more than promising as a clothing topper or shelter material ...

M