The Cotopaxi Fuego hooded jacket is a warm, comfortable, down puffer jacket that can be used as an insulating layer in the colder seasons. It packs down into its own pocket, to the size of a small backpacking pillow, and has no problem serving as one. And its water resistant down, and DWR finish buys you enough time to find your shell, as it starts to sprinkle.
I’ve been testing mine out as part of a layering system on the frigid Appalachian mountains, in the midst of January, with good results. But it’s also been comfortable on leisurely walks with the dogs, in the more milder, Southern California winter weather. With these instances in mind, let’s start this Cotopaxi Fuego hooded jacket review.
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Cotopaxi Fuego Hooded Jacket – M’s
Cotopaxi Fuego Hooded Jacket – W’s
Pros and Cons
Pros: Warm at leisure, when part of a layering system, between the upper 20F° to lower 50F° temperature range. Heavier weight than other jackets in the same price, and down fill-power rating range. Durable water repellent coating, and water resistant goose down, gives you wiggle room to find and don your rain shell, when conditions change. Zipper is notably easy to initiate when zipping up, and can be done without the benefit of eyesight.
Cons: No draw strings to pull the hood down tightly on your face and neck during extreme wind. 20D nylon material has a lower denier rating than some cheaper puffer jackets, like the Sierra Designs Whitney Hoodie, owning a 30D shadow ripstop polyester.
Features
- 20 denier ripstop nylon throughout, with durable water repellent (DWR) coating
- Ethically sourced goose feathers/down that is naturally water resistant
- 800 fill power rating, with 14 ounces of total weight
- well constructed, sewn through baffles
- Scuba shaped hood that rides above the chin, keeping your face warmer
- Packs into its own pocket to the size of a small backpacking pillow
- Separate makes for both men and women
- Front zipper that is easy to initiate and operate
- Zippers on hand pockets and on one inner pocket; zippers have tied cordage with rubber ends to make for easier operation with gloves
- Two inner pockets for keeping phones and other small battery gear from experiencing diminished performance due to the cold
- Two draw strings on the left and right sides of the bottom of the jacket, to stop convection related warmth loss at your waist
- Small diameter stretchy wrist cuffs to stop convection related warmth loss at the wrists
- Stretchy material around hood opening to keep hood on during windy conditions
- Plenty of color options, including a bright orange color for backcountry safety
- Updated women’s jacket includes larger circumferences on the waist, hips and bust
Comfort
At 14oz., the Fuego is fairly heavier than other puffers in its price range, but compared to my snowboarding jacket, or even my canvas field coats, it’s still so light, that you don’t feel like you’re even wearing a jacket.
Also, unlike my field coats, the jacket allows for a full range of motion of my arms, with no resistance.
The hood is large enough to accommodate my beanie hat, and there is comfortable room allowance for my mid layer’s collar, when the jacket is fully zipped to my chin. I’m wearing a medium sized for both the jacket and Columbia fleece mid layer.
The elastic, at the cuffs of the sleeves, is not restrictive, while at the same time not so loose as to let out the warm, inner air in the sleeve.
The Fuego also works under my Gregory Zulu 30 day pack comfortably. I can’t imagine doing a real hike in the jacket as it would get too hot, but for a casual walk with my pack, it’s good.
It should also be noted that this year’s women’s Fuegos have increased circumferences at the waist, bust and hips, based on user feedback. So if this jacket didn’t work for you in the past, try out this year’s version.
Zippers
The main zipper up the front of the jacket is very easy to set and zip. It’s the nicest performing zipper I’ve had on any winter jacket. I can even set it without having to focus my eyes on it, for zipping on the go.
And all the zippers have attached cordage with rubber ends to make it easy to utilize them with gloves on. Nice touch.
Each outer pocket has a zipper, and one out of two inner pockets do.
Warmth
Walking at leisure in the woods during a light snow, at 28°F, with no direct solar gain happening, the Cotopaxi Fuego keeps your body neither hot nor cold, when paired with a long sleeved merino wool base layer, and a light fleece mid layer. And when the cold starts to affect the dexterity of your fingers, during times when not wearing gloves, the outer pockets do provide enough thermal refuge for your to regain the feeling back into your hands.
The jacket however can overheat your body, even in the mid 20°F degree ambient temperature range, when you start to exert yourself, hiking up hills, under the same layering conditions previously explained. During one winter hike, when the sun came out, and I was working moderately hard going uphill, I could feel I was starting to sweat, so had to strip off my Fuego and fleece layers.
The stretchy material at the cuffs of the sleeves does a good job at keeping heat from my arms from being lost. And the two elastic drawstrings, on the left and right sides of the bottom of the jacket, cinch up tight enough keep the warmth from the trunk of my body from being lost to convection.
Weight and Pack Size
The Cotopaxi Fuego hooded jacket weighs in around 14 ounces, or a little under a pound. I consider that a plus relative to similarly priced puffers, which own the same fill-power of 800, but have only been stuffed with a little over half the amount of down (Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer, Montbell Superior Down, etcetera). More down equals more warmth, for a given fill power.
Incidentally, I’m not exactly sure why the 8.5oz. Ghost Whisperer is rated higher on warmth on Outdoor Gear Lab’s puffer throw down, unless they are factoring in the warmth to weight ratio into their rating. I’m sure it’s warm for only having half the down, but basic physics tells us it can’t be as warm as the Fuego.
And perhaps it’s a little less compressible than these other down jackets in the same price range, but that could be a plus if you’re using it as a pillow, or trying to fill the extra space in the foot area of your sleeping bag, to keep your feet warm.
When you pack the Cotopaxi Fuego into its own pocket, it can pack down to roughly a foot long, by three quarters of a foot wide, and half a foot thick. It resembles a small backpacking pillow when packed in its pocket. I could see how this could be safer for its outer shell, packed that way for transport, but personally, I just stuff it in the top of my pack, ready to put on as needed.
Quality and Durability
The outer shell of the coat, as well as its inner lining, is 20D nylon ripstop with a DWR (durable water repellent) coating. 20D doesn’t sound like much, but my Featherstone backpacking tent’s rainfly, which has taken some pretty good rain and wind beatings, on my 2022 excursions, is also made of 20D sil-nylon ripstop.
The stitching seems well done and the baffles are sewn through. I don’t notice any fraying of stitching anywhere on the jacket. There is a very mild shedding of the down, where I see the occasional feather poke its way through its nylon baffle. But it seems its within normal range of a down jacket’s shedding.
Between pushing through some light branches in the woods, during my winter walks with the jacket, randomly stuffing it into my pack, while day hiking the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains, and my girlfriend’s poodle roughly pawing me near the bottom of the jacket, with her big paws and thick claws, I’ve yet to see any wear an tear on the jacket.
Let me take it backpacking though, and on another 6 months of hiking and camping, before I reach a conclusion as to its durability. Puffers in general are the divas of backpacking gear. All it takes is a stray floating ember from a campfire to put a hole in a baffle.
Removing Stains from the Cotopaxi Fuego Hooded Jacket
On my way to the east coast my Fuego did pick up a small stain from rubbing against something on the plane. It looked like a dark brown, food or grease stain of some sort.
To remedy this, I dipped a large Q-tip into some Woolite laundry detergent, and added a few drops of water to it too. Then I simply spot treated the stain with some well intentioned rubbing for a few minutes. Afterwards, I let the stain sit for 15 minutes.
Finally I rubbed the area again with a wet paper towel, and then a dry paper towel. I then blew on it to dry it. When I was done the stain was either completely gone, or gone past the point of me being able to notice it.
Water Resistance
My Cotopaxi Fuego has done okay during a very light sprinkle in So Cal when walking the dogs, and some light snow in Appalachia, but I haven’t tested it to its limit, nor do I plan to. It does have the DWR coating on its nylon shell, which buys you enough time to pull out your rain shell from your pack and put it over the puffer. But like most down puffers, it’s not going to perform when soaked, and the down clumps up.
The jacket however does not have treated down to make it hydrophobic. Down is naturally hydrophobic on its own, so I’m not sure how much extra time the chemically treated down buys you, to put on your rain shell. But really, treated or untreated down jackets equally need to have a rain shell close by to keep them from getting soaked to the point of failure.
Wind Resistance
Also I had noted in the cons section of this article, the hood has no draw strings to prevent it from being blown off in extreme wind. The caveat here is that if the wind is picking up, it might be time to put on your rain shell. Your shell should both cover your jacket completely, including the hood, and have the draw strings in question to keep both your hoods in place. My $50 Columbia rain shell does the job in this respect.
Further Reading
Thanks for reading my review on the Cotopaxi Fuego hooded down jacket! For more hiking gear articles and camping gear articles use the links provided. For other winter hiking/camping, and backpacking topics, check out my winter page dedicated to that. And for more camping and hiking clothes click here to get to my hiking/camping clothes page. See ya out there…