waterproof down is a good thing
Original post
Guy puts on his hydrophobic down jacket, and jumps into a frozen lake - twice.
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_original/onicg8egqepcadymep7s.jpg
"But, really, there are two choices now: synthetic insulation, if you’re on a budget and don’t care so much about weight; and hydrophobic down, if you want the best performance, screw the price. I absolutely would not buy anything with regular down any more. It’s just not worth it."
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_original/t5yygcyzrh6amsinfdob.jpg
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/04/we-tested-waterproof-down-by-jumping-in-a-frozen-lake/
26 comments
saw a video about sleeping bags put out by sierra designs. they said the downtek treated down was inferior at resisting water, didn't give specs but said they wouldn't use it.
they reckoned dridown was better quality and that was their preference..
it was an hour long video and just a short mention about treated down, different treatments will be using different proprietary chemicals to treat the down so the results will vary
"Immersion in a frozen lake, twice, in a down jacket is an illustration of the improvement of hydrophobic down over non-hydrophobic down."
well no, actually, [the article which you linked] is an illustration of that guys opinion. Thats all. He didn't even do it in standard down jacket, I mean come on, wtf kind of 'experiment' is that? There was no comparison at all to nothing.
Thats all I was trying to say.
The fact the down repels water is great, I'm not saying it aint, but the fact remains its yet to be proven to actually have a better R rating than any other fabrics when soaked.
oh and by comparison, I mean physical real world test of the actual R rating.
Not some gif of the down in a glass/plastic jar...
Immersion resistance would have more to do with the outer material than the down itself. Now I would find it more credible if the guy sat in the lake until the down in the jacket was saturated and then hiked for 3 hours wearing it comfortably.
I have heard anecdotally that the waterproof down is prone to clumping. This results in cold spots in the bag as there are places where there is no down to insulate you.
Why not just keep your gear dry in a plastic bag, that works as well...
1 deleted post from
Pro-active
Sometimes unexpected bad things happen. I rarely wear down and even if I could afford the waterproof stuff I would still treat it the same as regular.
Still would be good though for all those school kids that think a down jacket makes a good year round rain coat
Anything that can potentially help in event of unexpected bad things, without adding too much weight, is good in my book!
I have a waterproof phone for that reason. But, I agree with geeves, Treat waterproof down and that the same as you would the normal stuff.
To mee it seems like a potentially nice development, but no gamechanger.
Search the forums
| Forum | Gear talk |
|---|---|
| Started by | Pro-active |
| On | 5 April 2015 |
| Replies | 25 |
| Permanent link | |
Participation in the forums signifies acceptance of forum rules.
In order to manage spam, new members are limited to 1 post every 10 minutes.
Formatting your posts
The forums support MarkDown syntax. Following is a quick reference.
| Type this... | To get this... | |
|---|---|---|
| Italic | *Italic text* | *Italic text* |
| Bold | **Bold text** | **Bold text** |
| Quoted text | > Quoted text | > Quoted text |
| Emojis | :smile: :+1: :astonished: :heart: | :smile: :+1: :astonished: :heart: |
| Lists |
- item 1 - item 2 - item 3 |
- item 1 - item 2 - item 3 |
| Links | https://tramper.nz | https://tramper.nz |
| Images |  URL/of/image |
 |
| Mentions | @username | @username |