Rain, rain, go away.(Rain Jackets - Test)(Buyers Guide)(Evaluation)

Time was, the only truly waterproof raincoat was the rubber or vinyl slicker that looked so cute when you were a 6-year-old boarding the school bus. But even at age 6, you probably recognized its major drawback: The slicker didn't breathe. It kept rain out, but you grew damp from perspiration that was trapped inside. In cold weather you felt chilly; in hot weather, steamy.

Today's rain gear employs all sorts of fabrics and treatments in an attempt to keep you dry. There are coatings (often polyurethane) and films (sometimes called membranes) that are applied to the inside of the shell fabric to keep water from reaching you. There are thin finishes applied to the outside of the shell fabric to help water bead up and roll off. There are laminates bonding several thin layers of different materials. Some manufacturers use a combination of methods, such as a laminate and a finish. Unlike that old slicker, much of the new breed of foul-weather gear "breathes." Most films, and some coatings, are "microporous"--they have tiny pores that let water vapor out without letting water in.

When you shop, you'll see all sorts of fabric names, many of them trademarked. For help in translating them, see "Look at the Label," on the facing page.

We tested nine widely sold jackets made with a variety of fabrics. Other jackets in the same materials and with similar construction should perform similarly (and increasingly, you'll find even dressy raincoats made of the fabrics we tested). As benchmarks, we also tested a cotton/nylon jacket with a water-repellent finish and a slickerlike jacket of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), expecting that the first would provide little rain protection and the second would create that saunalike feel.

We showered the jackets with water to simulate gentle, moderate, and torrential rainfall. Most of them did very well at staving off even a pelting rain. That was true when they were new, after laundering, and after the kind of abrasion that occurs with use. The exception was the cotton/nylon jacket we used as one benchmark.

On the other hand, don't sit on a wet surface (on a stadium seat, say) unless you're wearing a PVC slicker. Only that material blocked water completely when we weighted the fabrics and "sat" them on a wet surface. Although labels claim that Gore-Tex "prevents water entry through the fabric under any conditions you are likely to encounter," slightly more water went through Gore-Tex than through some other materials during our wet-seat test.

When tested for water-vapor transmission, almost all the jackets breathed very well. The exception here was (no surprise) our benchmark slicker.