User Review: MontBell Men's Alpine Down Jacket

Like all Montbell down products, this jacket rocks! It's 800 fill insulation makes this jacket both warm and very compact and the fleece lined pockets are a nice touch.

So why the 4 stars vs 5? Blame the zipper! For some reason, Montbell went with a zipper with plastic components as opposed to a full metal zipper found on their UL jackets. The tab (male end) is made of plastic and requires some extra care to prevent the zipper from jamming.

After a year of use, the male end of my zipper split in two - thus making it near-impossible to mount. This is partly my fault since I used some extra force to free a zipper jam but it wouldn't have happened if the zipper was completely made of metal like their UL.

03-25-2010:

Just a follow up to my previous review. MontBell was more than willing to replace the zipper at no cost, even though I didn't have a receipt. (The jacket was purchased in Japan.) They replaced the plastic zipper with a metal one so I don't expect any more problems. Great service! I'll be buying from them again.