REASONS TO BUY
Excellent price for a lightweight puffy
Packs down small
Top-tier comfort
REASONS TO AVOID
Less heat retention
Lacks abrasion resistance
Hard to adjust
Eddie Bauer CirrusLite Hooded Review
If you’re hunting for an ultralight puffy but can’t handle the price tag, this budget option offers a great solution
Credit: Japhy Dhungana
By Zach Lovell ⋅ Review Editor ⋅ October 17, 2025
RELATED: The Best Down Jackets for Men
Our Verdict
Ultralight puffy jackets are a sub-class of down garments that our team loves to obsess over, but we often get hung up on the price tag. The Eddie Bauer CirrusLite Hooded is a minimalist down jacket that won't burn through your entire paycheck. The recycled nylon shell is particularly supple and feels great next to skin, though its thinner construction makes it less durable. The 650 fill power down was effective at keeping us warm in mildly chilly temperatures, and you can layer a toasty base layer underneath for colder weather. Overall, we think the CirrusLite is a great way to get into an ultralight model for less, and might even become your most comfy insulation garment.
Our Analysis and Test Results
Whether you're headed out to dinner on a fall day or are going camping at an alpine lake in the summer, a lightweight jacket like the CirrusLite might just be perfect. But the best part? You won't have to drain your checking account to buy one.
We loved this jacket for its comfort, weight, and accessible price point.
Credit: Japhy Dhungana
Warmth
Context is crucial when considering the role that warmth plays in a down jacket. Naturally, you'll want some insulation, but how much do you really want if using it for the spring and fall in milder climates? The CirrusLite finds a lovely balance between weight and warmth, but it isn't the best jacket out there for heat retention if heading to colder environments.
With a modest 650 fill power, this isn't going to win any awards for warmth. The is, ultimately, a lightweight down jacket. It can serve as a great midlayer, depending on your layering system, and it became a go-to for a couple of our testers as a coat that was generally worn one to two layers away from the body.
650 fill power doesn't offer the greatest loft, but we were able to stay warm in this jacket in friendlier temperatures.
Comfort
This is where the CirrusLite first stood out to our review team. Its 100% recycled nylon shell was far softer than much of the competition, and the relaxed fit worked well for a variety of body shapes and sizes.
With a fairly universal cut that was great for mobility, this is an ideal jacket for many people and many intended uses. While we wished for slightly more adjustability, the elastic hood, hem, and sleeves were good enough for the jacket to fit well. We enjoyed the next-to-skin feel of the fabric, which made us forget we were even wearing it.
This is a jacket that you won't want to take off, with great mobility and next-to-skin comfort.
Credit: Zach Lovell
Portability
At 9.9 ounces, the CirrusLite is one of the lighter jackets we tested, and when considering its price point, this is truly a homerun jacket from Eddie Bauer.
We were able to compress the CirrusLite into a softball size easily, and could pack it into the gaps of a pack without much wrestling. With such a low weight, it was a no-brainer to always throw it in the bag as that just-in-case layer, and we hardly even noticed it on our backs. If you want to keep it clipped to a hip belt or on your harness, it fits into a very small stuff sack.
The CirrusLite is featherlight and easily packable.
Credit: Zach Lovell
Weather Resistance
The CirrusLite's shell fabric can only repel short periods of drizzle, so we recommend a waterproof layer if the forecast calls for precip, but for this class of jacket, we weren't too disappointed with its water resistance.
The CirrusLite comes with a StormRepe DWR treatment that offered some defense from rain, but it really helped more noticeably with snow. As with our most resilient down layers, wetter snowstorms in maritime areas like Washington or California posed a real challenge to the DWR. It's worth keeping that waterproof layer on hand if the weather forecast calls for moisture.
In brief rain or snow storms like this, the CirrusLite held up well, but for more severe weather, we recommend throwing a shell jacket over it.
Credit: Japhy Dhungana
Breathability
The CirrusLite offered decent breathability, with the lower fill weight allowing excess body heat to escape much more easily than the majority of the lineup. Of course, with more breathability, the tradeoff is less warmth, which was the case with this jacket.
As a less insulated jacket, we were able to keep this jacket on even with higher output hiking, though with warmer temperatures, we still had to take it off. Around town, this was a jacket that we were able to keep on for much longer, making for a particularly versatile layer that we were simply able to wear for more days each season.
As a jacket that's on the lighter side, this was very breathable throughout testing and became a stand-out model in this metric.
Credit: Japhy Dhungana
Should You Buy the Eddie Bauer CirrusLite?
If you want a lightweight jacket, this will save you a pretty penny, and we think you'll love the number of days a year you'll be able to wear the CirrusLite. It's a great spring and fall jacket, but in winter, you might need some additional layers. In the summer backpacking season, where you just want some insulation, this is a great option to keep the weight down. If you need a jacket that's really going to retain heat, this might not be the right choice, and we'd also steer you elsewhere if needing something that can battle precipitation more easily.
This jacket boasts excellent value for those wanting to keep their insulation light, but still has some decent heat retention.
What Other Down Jackets Should You Consider?
If you need to go even lighter than the CirrusLite, consider the Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer, which actually offers more lofted down. The only drawback? It's over twice as pricey as the Cirruslite. If you're hunting for another budget model, the Columbia Delta Ridge II Hooded is much warmer and more durable than the CirrusLite, but is quite a bit heavier.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Compare Eddie Bauer CirrusLite Hooded versus top competing products:
—Zach Lovell
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