Haglöfs Essens III Down Jacket – The Fill

The Haglöfs LIM – Less Is More – ethos is all about maximum performance from minimal weight and the Essens III is no exception. It uses high-lofting, 800 fill power goose down which is certified to the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), so you know it’s been ethically produced.

In addition, the down’s treated with a fluorocarbon free DWR water repellent treatment to both reduce the impact of water on the down’s loft and speed up drying times and improve recovery if it does get wet.

Haglöfs Essens III Down Jacket – Performance

The Essens III is a classic lightweight down jacket with a few left field twists. The combination of around 86 grammes of that high-lofting 800 fill power down with soft and light Pertex Quantum fabrics and mini zips, pulls and fasteners boils down to a 280-gramme jacket that’s deceptively warm.

You can, of course, go lighter, but we reckon the balance between warmth and weight is – as with the Arc’teryx Cerium LT – about right. In other words, light when you’re carrying it, but still warm enough to make it worthwhile packing in the first place.

Staggered Baffling

Where it is a bit different is the distinctive baffling – down compartment – layout, which uses wide-ish, medium-sized baffles high up which then slim down progressively until at hem level, they’re properly narrow. It looks great, but we’re not convinced it adds anything in performance terms.

In fact, it probably reduces efficiency slightly by adding stitch-lines, which are potential cold-spots, but in practice it doesn’t seem to be a problem, no ‘warm shoulders, but a cold waist’ issues anyway.

Fleece Panels

The other oddity are the underarm Power Stretch fleece panels. These are claimed to improve mobility,  but in cold, windy conditions, you can feel the wind cut straight through them. To be fair, we’ve tended to use the jacket mainly in more sheltered situations and indoors or in a tent, where that’s not an issue, but we’re not convinced they add much functionality.

We’d look at the water-resistant down as an insurance policy rather than something that makes the jacket damp conditions friendly by the way. The double layer of windproof fabric means it’s not very breathable and quickly feels clammy if you do use it on the move.