Down vs Artificial Sleeping Baggage: Which Insulation Is Higher for You?

Should you’re new to the good debate between down vs artificial sleeping luggage, enable me to clue you in. In a single nook, we’ve got sleeping luggage stuffed with fluffy down feathers. Their defenders say they’re light-weight, space-efficient, and shockingly heat. Their detractors level out that water is down’s kryptonite. As soon as down will get moist, it’s basically nugatory. Within the different nook is artificial fill, which is championed for its affordability and reliability in all circumstances. However artificial fill is heavier and bulkier than down. 

After which there may be the environmental query. Down comes from animals (geese sometimes, generally duck). This could generally, although not all the time, lead to animal abuse. However synthetics are mainly plastic. And given the rising prevalence of microplastics and without end chemical substances in our surroundings, that doesn’t appear to be an important alternative, both. 

So which do you have to select? To higher perceive the good debate, I spoke with supplies consultants Heidi Allen at Nikwax and Tara Maurer at Primaloft. What I discovered modified my understanding of the state of sleeping bag insulation and the place it’s going sooner or later.

Desk of Contents

Learn via the entire article, or faucet on a subject beneath to leap straight to it.

Down vs Artificial Sleeping Baggage: The Case for Down

Let’s begin with what down is. Regardless of the widespread false impression, down just isn’t the feathers that you simply see once you take a look at a goose or duck. Down is the layer of feathers that develop are beneath that waterproof outer layer and sits closest to the animal’s physique. Should you take a look at a down feather (hold an eye fixed out for one poking its manner via your favourite puffer jacket), you’ll see that it’s product of innumerable wisps related to a brief shaft. 

The shortage of construction in these feathers creates a mess of tiny air pockets, which entice warmth out of your physique and insulate it from the chilly outdoors air. Down-feather high quality is measured by fill energy (fp), or how a lot down it takes to fill one cubic inch of house. As an illustration, one ounce of 550fp down will fill about 9 liters, whereas one ounce of 900fp will fill virtually 15 liters. In sleeping luggage, utilizing down with excessive fill energy may end up in vital weight financial savings — an necessary consideration for backpackers and backpack hunters.  

Down and Moisture

The Achilles heel of down feathers is moisture. When down will get moist, the pockets of air disappear, eliminating just about all its insulating properties. That is such a difficulty that Tyler Freel, Outside Life’s Alaska-based workers author, received’t contact it.

“I don’t take down sleeping luggage sheep searching,” Freel stated on a current Outside Life podcast. “I’ve needed to crawl in my sleeping bag with all my garments on moist too many instances. And my artificial bag will dry them out in a single day.” Freel’s use-case (weeks spent tenting and searching within the unforgiving circumstances of backcountry Alaska) could be excessive. Nonetheless, there are many individuals who received’t contact down for precisely these causes.

Hydrophobic Remedies

In newer years, sleeping-bag producers have began making use of hydrophobic remedies to down feathers to handle this difficulty. I spoke to Heidi Allen at Nikwax to be taught extra about how this works.

“All hydrophobic down remedies are a water repellent remedy that’s been utilized to the precise down feathers,” she tells me. These stop the down puffs from absorbing water. Nikwax sends its proprietary hydrophobic down remedy (what Allen known as “goo”) straight to the corporate that sources and grades the down. This provides a reasonably negligible price to the ultimate product. Particularly when in comparison with the various price of excessive vs low fill energy down. 

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Nikwax even put its hydrophobic down remedy to the last word take a look at. The corporate floated an individual in a sleeping bag on a frigid glacial lake. (The take a look at topic stayed fully dry.) However Allen nonetheless isn’t positive she’d advocate Freel take a second take a look at down sleeping luggage given his use-case. “Should you’re climbing into your sleeping bag soaking moist, and also you’re mendacity immediately on the down, then the burden of your physique might trigger issues by smashing water into the fill.” 

Down Upkeep

One level that Allen stresses is the significance of sustaining your gear to maximise its efficiency over time. “In case your sleeping bag will get tremendous soiled, even when it’s a hydrophobic down, it’s not going to work in addition to it ought to.” She recommends utilizing a sleeping bag liner. Liners assist your sleeping bag’s down preserve its efficiency. So does common cleansing. “After which you possibly can truly add a water repellent remedy at house as properly,” Allen says. “Nikwax makes a waterproofing remedy for each the outer materials and the feathers.”

No matter you do, simply don’t wash your down with a family detergent (extra on this beneath). It’s additionally necessary to retailer down sleeping luggage correctly. No matter you do, don’t retailer your sleeping bag in its stuff sack. Crushing the loft of your down will scale back its insulating properties over time. Sure, it’s normally essential to pack your sleeping bag within the stuff sack for tenting and backcountry journey. If you return out of your journey, nevertheless, you must air out your bag. Then, retailer your down bag in a big, free sack. (Many sleeping luggage are offered with these bigger storage luggage.) Even higher, fastidiously grasp your sleeping bag from a hook or hanger for lengthy intervals of time.

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Down Sustainability

One difficulty with water-repellent down remedies is that lots of them (though not Nikwax’s) use PFAS. PFAS stands for polyfluoroalkyl substances. There’s been rising analysis that reveals these cancer-causing chemical substances are a detriment to human well being and security. Attributable to elevated consciousness and trade strain (plus new laws in California), PFAS will doubtless be phased out of hydrophobic down remedies. Nevertheless, there could also be a drop-off in high quality and effectiveness because of this. 

A standard false impression about down is that these light-weight, barely-there plumes have to be exceedingly fragile. As an illustration: What number of instances are you able to clear them earlier than they crumble completely? “Cleansing and re-waterproofing doesn’t truly damage [down] except you’re cleansing with a family detergent,” says Allen. “Family detergents are fairly harsh on down feathers and may trigger them to get form of brittle. You get extra breakage from these little tiny feathers. In order that’s why utilizing a mild down-specific cleaner is de facto necessary for caring for down gadgets.”

In actual fact, it’s so sturdy that a few of Nikwax’s hydrophobic down is definitely made with recycled down from gadgets like mattress comforters and pillows.

That’s one difficulty with down. One other is with how the birds themselves are handled. Nikwax, like many different producers of hydrophobic down, makes use of solely RDS-certified down. RDS stands for “Accountable Down Normal” and it’s centered on animal welfare. The usual ensures that down-producing birds are handled humanely all through their lifecycle. There isn’t any stay plucking of geese in RDS-certified down. (At the moment, most down is produced as a byproduct of the meals trade.) When looking for down sleeping luggage, search for the RDS certification.

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Our High Picks for Down Sleeping Baggage

Should you’re seeking to make the swap to down, listed here are our high suggestions to get you began:

Down vs Artificial Sleeping Baggage: The Case for Artificial

Down is such an important insulator for sleeping luggage that the unique artificial fills had been truly designed to imitate it. Primaloft is a type of corporations. They had been first tasked by the U.S. Military to create an artificial fill that mimicked the properties of down however didn’t collapse when moist. (Primaloft nonetheless provides the U.S. navy with artificial fill to this present day.) Tara Maurer, senior vice chairman of product technique, defined that Primaloft’s artificial insulation excelled at that. Primaloft is product of polyester, which is hydrophobic. The dimensions of the fibers are very small, which implies they create floor stress when meshed collectively. That retains water at bay.

So, not like handled down, you by no means have to fret in regards to the water resistance sporting off. That may be a significant assist if one thing goes incorrect along with your sleep system. “Think about a state of affairs the place you’ve gotten an artificial sleeping bag, and it’s downpouring and it will get moist,” Maurer says. “Should you shake it out or wring it out, it’ll regain its loft and thermal properties sooner than down sleeping luggage. Significantly untreated down.” And when it does, it’ll are likely to retain that homogenous protection, quite than clumping collectively. 

Artificial Thermal Efficiency

Talking with Maurer, it’s clear that that genesis (and intuition for comparability) nonetheless looms massive over the artificial market right now. As an illustration, Maurer defined that Primaloft dislikes utilizing fill energy as a measurement of artificial fill, as a result of it’s extra of a measurement of quantity than it’s of thermal efficiency. The corporate prefers as a substitute to make use of a take a look at known as the Gustin-Bacon. On this take a look at, a weighted plate is positioned on high of 30 grams of fill to see how properly the fill resists compression.

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Fluff Doesn’t Essentially Imply Heat

However it’s not simply the fill energy measurement that buyers have come to anticipate from each down and their artificial counterparts: it’s additionally the look. Individuals see a marshmallowy puffer jacket, full with sewn-in baffling, they suppose heat. So some artificial fill is designed explicitly to imitate that look. And that’s true for sleeping luggage as properly. “We’re continuously making an attempt to attain a steadiness,” says Maurer. “We wish to make our merchandise as thermally environment friendly as attainable, to make use of the least quantity of fabric to get the very best web profit.” 

What which means for shoppers is you could’t eyeball the loft of an artificial sleeping bag and assume the identical guidelines apply as for a down sleeping bag. As a substitute, search for established ISO rankings. These rankings are achieved utilizing a dummy and thermometers in a temperature-controlled room. Over time, synthetics could even do a greater job at sticking to their ISO temperature rankings than down, since they received’t be as affected by errant moisture. With sleeping luggage that use batting (think about a sheet of artificial insulation) quite than free fill, you’re additional protected against points with chilly spots. You would possibly anticipate to have chilly spots when free fill settles to at least one spot or one other within the baffling. 

Artificial Sustainability

One attention-grabbing factor I discovered from Maurer is how synthetic-insulation corporations can decrease their environmental footprint. Nearly all of Primalofts merchandise are made with 80 % or extra recycled fibers. “The sweetness about utilizing polyester is that it may be repurposed and reused many times,” says Maurer. “We’re taking plastic from recycled bottles. And there’s the potential to take our garment utilizing our insulation and repurpose it into one thing else when it reaches its finish of life.”

Nemo’s new Forte sleeping bag, the primary in its new Infinite Promise sequence, is one current instance of this. This sleeping bag will be absolutely recycled at finish of life by following connected instructions. 

And when that polyester is lastly headed to the landfill, that doesn’t imply it’ll keep there without end and ever, like we anticipate to occur with artificial or plastic-based merchandise.

“A few of our merchandise even have an additive to them that assist them biodegrade at an accelerated charge,” Maurer says. In assessments, within the period of time it took for untreated polyester to degrade by 1 %, the polyester handled with the biodegradable additive had degraded by 94 %.

Our High Picks for Artificial Sleeping Baggage

Offered on the reliability and affordability of artificial sleeping luggage? Listed below are two of our favorites:

FAQs

Last Ideas

If, like me, it’s been a minute because you thought-about the state of down versus artificial sleeping luggage, there’s excellent news and dangerous information. The primary is that most of the seemingly intractable points with each are being tackled head-on by the trade. Down can be water-resistant. Artificial fill can be much less environmentally dangerous (and it doesn’t should be so dang thick). However there are additionally some items of the equation that stay the identical. Excessive fill energy down continues to be unmatched by artificial fill for its heat to weight ratio. Artificial fill requires much less care to get the identical degree of efficiency. It additionally tends to be fairly a bit cheaper. Which of those elements is an important to you’ll have an effect on your choice. However each are glorious choices that can see you thru many nights within the backcountry.